Possibilities Abound--

4 years now--

2012-01-17T06:00:00.001-05:00

Remembering the cold of that night, and the warmth of family love--

Winter, spring, summer, fall and winter again--

Little things spark memories--

Bringing a smile --

An emptiness that has not yet gone-

Often coming back to --

Words to hold close--

2012-01-15T18:07:00.002-05:00

"We must work unceasingly to uplift this nation that we love to a higher destiny,

to a higher plateau of compassion,

to a more noble expression of humanness"
-Dr Martin Luther King

Photo Credit

From Silence to Jumping In--

2012-01-10T12:20:00.002-05:00

Cross Posted

Had we been together face to face, you would have heard a pin drop. But we weren’t. The setting– a Blackboard Collaborate room- and yet the stunned silence, think lack of chat– of more than 50 excited year 2 PLPeeps was deafening. These passionate educators had returned to Powerful Learning Practice for a year long journey into PBL. Their local teams had collaborated on action research projects the previous year and they were pumped about working together again. Sheryl had just pushed them totally out of their comfort zone when she announced that they would be sharing their passions, and self selecting their teams around those passions to collaborate on their PBL units. Gone the now comfortable face to face collaboration to learn and create. This collaboration, often across long distances (Texas, Saskatchewan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania), would necessitate leveraging the affordances of collaborative tools minus the cues of body language and eyes that often tell so much.

Deep breaths. Some questions. Uncertainty. More quiet. And then they jumped in.

In their new private team spaces in the PLP community hub, they chose team leaders. They introduced themselves and shared Twitter handles. They created team blogs on which they will transparently share their journey. Given a simple activity to get to know each other, to co create content together, each team approached it in a different way bringing their unique talents and gifts to the task. (The Diamonds of Inquiry task: Given a graphic, as a team select 9 words that best describe inquiry in the classroom. Put the words on the image, prioritizing from most to least importance.) Two teams took this activity to an additional level as it became part of the foundation for their moving forward.

Each member of the Arts and Crafts team listed their choices in their private space on the PLP Community Hub; one their members manually prioritized their selections by number of times each word was mentioned. Another member used Picnik to add the words to the image. Subsequently in a webinar, Sister Geralyn, team leader, posted their completed image on the white board stimulating their first deep and meaningful conversation around their project.

The team with the Instructional or Discipline Focus began the task with a shared Google drawing created by one of its members. The image below illustrates their “diamond building” in progress.

In their team space days later, Sheamus Burns posted an idea:

“I thought we could rate the words we came up with on a scale of importance. Our project will have particular outcomes and the words we chose have to do with the nature of those outcomes. The words that we rank the highest can become categories in which we start determining what our intended outcomes for the project might be. I imagine we could have a set of shared intended outcomes and then our own personal intended outcomes.”

A link followed to a Google form he created to collect everyone’s input.

Undaunted by time zones and geographical distance, year 2 PLPeeps rise to the challenge. Their passions fuel their journey; the technology enables it; the collaboration exponentially enhances it. Their taking a simple activity and leveraging it as a foundation for their journey is telling. With their diverse talents and perspectives, they are on their way to extraordinary PBL units.

Stay tuned. They are just getting started! And I get to tag along, to marvel, to learn, to celebrate — what could be better?

for the New Year--

2012-01-02T09:37:00.003-05:00

For this and upcoming years--
To remember--

You get to make a choice. You can remake that choice every day, in fact. It's never too late to choose optimism, to choose action, to choose excellence. The best thing is that it only takes a moment -- just one second -- to decide. --Seth Godin

Photo Credit

Moving from private practice to talking with "strangers"

2011-12-28T10:44:00.005-05:00

Don't talk to strangers--

Strangers are people whom you don't know
if they come too close just get up and go.

Deeply ingrained in us as children--

A habit generalized for many teachers to professional lives as well-
Private practice--

Maintaining a private practice, uncomfortable talking to strangers--

Despite research that points to changes in practice when teachers engage in conversations with strangers--

Practices differed between Professionally Engaged teachers and Private Practice (or professionally isolated) teachers of the same subject. Examples of these different practices are:

"Professionally Engaged English teachers were more than twice as likely as Private Practice English Teachers to have students work in teams to complete assignments" (p. 13) and they were more likely to have students write in a journal at least once per week.

Professionally Engaged Social Studies teachers were much more likely than Private Practice Social Studies teachers to have students work on long projects and assess their own work. Professionally Engaged teachers were less likely to lead their students in whole-class recitation or to ask questions to test if their students knew the correct answer.

"Professionally Engaged science teachers were almost twice as likely as Private Practice science teachers to ask students questions in order to get students to relate their school work to their own personal experiences, and they were more than twice as likely to have students work in small groups on a weekly basis to collectively solve a problem" (p. 14).

Secondary math teachers among the Professionally Engaged groups were more likely to have their students work on problems with no obvious answer and were less likely to ask questions to see if the students had done their homework.
--http://caret.iste.org/index.cfm?StudyID=433&fuseaction=studySummary

Private practice teachers, challenged with breaking life long habits--

With others wishing they would join in, see the potential, what they are missing--

TEDxLondon is going on today–I caught the info about it on Twitter–and I know I am the only person on my staff listening to any pieces or parts of it. I wonder why, though, as I know many of my teachers are on Facebook and use social media in many different ways for personal reasons. How can I help them see the value of setting up a worldwide professional learning network and help them find the time to use it?

As I reread this in November, I can’t help but think how isolated many teachers are, for the most part. I can’t help but think how powerful conversations are for helping teachers see outside of their own little world of the classroom. --Paula White, http://coopcatalyst.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/making-private-practice-private-no-more/

What if in our reaching out, inviting in--

We more fully acknowledged and celebrated their dedication to children
We worked even harder to get to know them and to appreciate their gifts and talents
We were more intentional in highlighting similarities
We took more time in sharing how important we believe relationships are to growing our practice
We suggested more clearly baby steps for abandoning private practice--

My part today-- my open invitation--

Dear private practice teachers,
We share in common our passion for learning, for helping students reach their greatest potential, for wanting to play some small role in making the world a better place--

Those of us who are connected educators invite you, I invite you, to find as we have the incredible potential for improving practice through talking with "strangers"-- I can honestly say that some of those "strangers" have become true friends (not "facebook" friends)-- we share our family's successes and tribulations, we rejoice together and we cry together, we learn together--

To those of you for whom the "private practice" habit so difficult to discard, what if you--

Make it a 30 day challenge?
In your social network, you take the time to get to know 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 people well-- comment on their photos, comment on their videos, ask a question about something they posted, asked about what they do in their classroom through a comment on their wall?
Make it a point to connect with 2 people that are located geographically in another area in the same way- comment on their photos, comment on their videos, ask a question about something they posted?
Get together with someone from your school and did this as a group/team?

It's about getting to know each other, just as it is face to face; it is about building relationships; it is about those relationships enabling your professional learning and opportunities for learning in your classroom previously not imagined.

It's about talking with strangers, talking with new friends--
Take my hand?
Let's make a difference together,
Lani

Photo Credit

Fruitcake and learning in community--

2011-12-19T15:27:00.004-05:00

Fruitcake, anathema to many—

Now becoming a new tradition in our home—homemade of course

As I mixed the fruit pieces, the walnuts and the raisins with a generous amount of an old liqueur that Gus has kept over many years, I got to thinking about learning in community. Later as we worked through the process of mixing the batter, of stirring in the marinated fruit mixture, of spooning the rich goodness into the fluted iron bundt pan, of the shared process of putting the heavy pan into the oven, removing it when it was done, and releasing the fruitcake from the pan—that analogy to learning in community stuck with me.

The fruits, the walnuts, the raisins, missing together ——like the diverse, unique members of a community sharing ideas in a common space—

The liqueur, the batter once laden with 5 eggs, white flour, brown sugar—bringing the best of what is forward- the liqueur, the brown sugar and imagining what might be by exchanging the eggs for egg beaters and the white flour for wheat.
In community, bringing what works for us now in schools, for example, PLCs (professional learning communities) and moving them into the current century with CLCs (connected learning communities).

The shared, true collaborative process of putting the heavy cake into the oven, removing it, and then extracting it from the pan—you see I’ve a shoulder that doesn’t work right and can’t lift heavy and Gus’ balance is more than tippy thanks to his MS—so we play to our strengths— his strong arms and upper body and my good balance- I hold him steady while he moves the pan to the oven and out, and as he turns the pan upside down to release the cake— each of us appreciating what the other can do. In community, playing to the gifts and talents of each member, building on those strengths, accomplishing a task, learning something together, doing more together than we could as individuals.

And finally the fruitcake, in all it’s glory, flavors nuanced by each fruit piece, each walnut, each raisin—admittedly not perfect— bearing reflection and considerations on bringing forward what worked and trying new strategies. As in community, a more accomplished global practice that necessitates reflection and ongoing development of expertise, persevering toward deep thought by exploring ideas and concepts, rethinking, revising, and continual repacking and unpacking, resisting urges to finish prematurely.

The huge disconnect here, of course, is that our wonderfully collaborative process of making fruitcake is an annual event—so unlike the ongoing, continuous exploring, experimentation, and deep learning in community.

Yet there is a lot to be said for both! I’m on my way to learning in community and to enjoying our fruitcake while dreaming of next year!

Photo credit fruitcake
Photo credit community

Dear Emma (@emmakate988)

2011-11-28T19:41:00.004-05:00

Dear Emma (@emmakate988),

How I wish we could get together in a quiet place and talk—deeply and sincerely about your tweet that created such a firestorm and the possibilities for learning for so many that could come of it.

That we could explore how your tweet is not as “harmless” as you might think—that every step you take online becomes a permanent part of your digital footprint -- forever. A footprint that can influence your admission into college, your opportunities to get a job.

That we might examine the power of social media for learning, for effecting change.

That we might think about some “what ifs” –

What if you had tweeted during the governor’s address—what if you had factually summed up his viewpoints and respectfully added your perspective?

What if you had arranged with other students and government teachers back at your high school to tweet using #SMEYIG so they could virtually learn with you?

What if you had encouraged the Youth in Government program to arrange for students to tweet during the program as a public service to those not fortunate enough to attend?

What if you now decided to turn what has happened into learning for so many people?

You see, I’m a passionate advocate for students raising their voices, for students influencing the change they want to see. And I think that responsible use of social media plays a huge part in that story, as we’ve seen successful revolutions enabled through exactly that use.

And I’m one who is concerned that schools around the country are not doing their part, in helping students become good digital citizens --how to navigate these open spaces safely, responsibly and ethically.

I’m wondering if your teachers have taken time for you to learn about digital citizenship, responsible communication, and the permanency of a digital footprint? If they shared with you videos such as these?

Stop, Think, Connect-- Stay safe online!

Digital Dossier

And if they’ve not, what if you began and your friends in Youth in Government petitioned to make that happen—that included in your learning were opportunities to explore deeply the nuances and responsibility of being a digital citizen? Petitioned your principal? Petitioned your school board?

What if you worked with the state Youth in Government program to learn ways that responsible use of social media enables and influences the work of government? What if, at your initiative, your state Youth in Government program began to use social media responsibly to influence what was occurring in your Kansas state legislature?

What if you began to use your now expanded twitter following for social justice? for a cause? to make a difference?

I sincerely hope you might consider what I’ve suggested—so much could come of it and be of value to so many—

I’m @lanihall on Twitter—want to chat?

Sharing, trust, relationships and learning--

2011-11-22T19:29:00.011-05:00

A Wednesday evening, the first free Wednesday evening in 8 weeks--

And this popped up in my Twitter feed--

That followed this from the week before:

—a true testament to the power of relationships online –relationships built on trust, for:

"...trust is the glue that binds the members of a community to act in sharing and adapting manner. Without trust, members would hoard their knowledge and experience and would not go through the trouble of sharing with or learning from others.” (Nichani & Hung, 2002, p. 51)Nichani, M., & Hung, D. (2002). Can a community of practice exist online? Educational Technology, 42(4), 49-54.

Why those tweets?

For just 8 weeks, at 7 pm EST, a group of passioned educators met in Elluminate to share and dig deeper into concepts of Connected Coaching following a week of conversations in the online course space. During both the week 7 and week 8 webinars, comments in both audio and chat bemoaned the fact the scheduled learning of the group was coming to an end. The final affirmations – personal and heartfelt-- validated more clearly that indeed, a learning community had been developed.

The importance of trust in online learning communities can’t be understated!

In the communities of practice I’ve had the privilege to lead for the last few years, I’ve seen that trust and those relationships develop and grow over a period of 8 months. Teams and communities have come to engage in deep collegial conversations that have led to significant shifts in thinking and practice, many of which are documented here and here. And more recently, in the six month pilot of the Connected Coaches program, an extraordinary learning community developed in which each offered support to others, pushed back, asked difficult questions and consequently adopted new dispositions around coaching.

In those communities and in particular with the Connected Coaching pilot, taking time to build trust was purposeful and with intent. During the pilot, Dean Shareski led us in experimenting, playing --leveraging the affordances of technology to do just that—to develop collegial relationships that would support deep learning. We played with images of meaning to us, shared why, honored each other’s ideas; we used audio files to introduce ideas, more fully bringing understanding to our passions and our thoughts. Video files, faces paired with voices, sometimes fresh from working in the garden, other times while traveling on a train brought us closer together. Sharing family moments, sharing passions, sharing aspirations.

In the recent 8 week course, we did the same—and what I knew could develop for colleagues who worked together face to face, for colleagues who virtually collaborated over a number of months – the building of trust and subsequent collegial relationships—developed truly over the short course of just 2 months!

Coincidentally, Jane, wondered as she reflected on leading a “virtual” team”

“So, is this therefore a 21st C skill and ability to be considered? If we are to begin to increasingly work with others online in collaborative forums, the ability to use online technologies to ‘virtually’ build relationships – the development of ‘online human leadership’ skills – must become an incredibly important one to consider.”

After she noted:

“You don’t really ‘know’ the people, their lifestyles and passions, out of work commitments; nor, do you have the regular everyday opportunity to build the relationships essential to leading those involved.”

Growing virtual relationships, building trust online— I’d suggest, yes it is a new leadership skill and one, that when practiced, enables deeper thinking, deeper learning, and opportunities for systemic change in education.

In chapter 4 of our book, The Connected Educator, we share:

"Connected learners have to work harder to establish trust. In our face to face interactions, we get to know people over time through causal interactions. We see them come in, take off their coats, complain about traffic. We get to know their families through pictures in frames on their desks and through conversations about the baby having a fever and children’s sports events. The steps are all there but shared in covert business as usual ways. We do not have to create intentional acts to share this information. It just happens naturally. In online spaces, we have the same casual interaction if we think through how to make them happen. And these intentional acts have the same trust building effect as those that occur naturally. We upload pictures, type stories about our children, create and share videos of sports events and tweet about traffic jams."

Yes, Jane, nurturing those human relationships in online spaces— building trust is essential to knowledge construction and sharing from which change is birthed –

Intentional acts of casual sharing in online spaces can lead to incredible trust building and the development of meaningful relationships and learning not even imagined—even in 8 short weeks!

Something's happening here--

2011-10-20T19:43:00.002-04:00

Something's happening here--
And it's perfectly clear--
3 have something special over there
It's telling me I need to share--

I've been following the transparent journeys of 3 accomplished educators who generously share all they are learning as they and their students travel a path into PBL. It's been a joy to read their posts because clearly something very special is happening there.

And they each are so articulate, and thoughtful and honest-- so much to learn from them--

Shelley Wright, a high school teacher in Canada, blogs at Wrights Room where her reflections on learning and teaching are deep, and rich, and thoughtful -- full of joy and tears.

Marsha Ratzel, a middle school teacher in Kansas, blogs at Reflections of a Techie where her posts are filled with energy and enthusiasm, humility and humanity.

Kathy Cassidy, a primary teacher in Canada, blogs at Primary Preoccupation where her posts are filled with the amazing learning experiences in which her grade 1's are immersed and thriving

Shelley, and Marsha and Kathy are all about learning and learning more and sharing. They provide extraordinary windows onto their evolving pedagogical approaches.

And grand pieces of their journeys can also be found on the Voices from the Learning Revolution blog. Marsha's recent Teaching by Getting Out of the Way resonated with me as did Kathy's Global Learning: The Primary Way. And Shelley's Inquiry Learning: This Isn't Scary at Al l that ended with her wondering "what it will take to put us back on the path to real learning." called to me.

I'm convinced one of the things that "it will take to put us back on the path to real learning" is the authentic modeling and sharing found in the posts of these 3 extraordinary educators. Don't you think?

Occupy Education

2011-10-10T10:01:00.002-04:00

Likely you've heard about or may even be following the "occupy" movements across the country. Did you know there is an "occupy education"?

From their website (http://occupyedu.tumblr.com/):

If you would occupy your statehouse to keep your job, pay, and benefits, please also consider occupying your classroom.

Give your students at least a day a week to follow their passions.
Get rid of your furniture. Help kids borrow, bring, or build their own.
Get rid of your textbooks. Or redact them.
Ask kids to make sense of the world as it happens across media and technologies.
Build communities instead of reinforcing expectations.

It will be very scary, but not as scary as what others face. It will be very uncomfortable, but not as uncomfortable as remaining silent. It will cost us some, but without making some sacrifice we shouldn’t expect or ask our students to save us or our world.

We are inspired by the “We are the 99%” messages spreading across tumblr and social media sites.

We will collect stories about your classrooms, what you are fighting against and what are you doing to change it.

What do you want for your classroom and your students? What kind of education do you believe in?

Join us here and start transforming education! Reclaiming our Voice in Education!

So I'm wondering, what if you did just that? and what if you shared your stories there with other occupyed educators from around the country?

Really think on these questions; remember why we entered our profession-- to make a difference, to change the world--
What do you want for your classroom and your students? What kind of education do you believe in?

A serendipitous connection

2011-09-12T19:05:00.005-04:00

That I have had an opportunity to co author with Sheryl is remarkable. A serendipitous connection has led to sincere friendship, continued collaboration and always learning—despite our diverse geographical locations in Ohio and Virginia. Where and how did it begin-- Fueled by my life-long passion for learning about learning and my desire to continue making some contribution to public education after retiring, I have benefited from a number of unlikely, unique connections that map my journey to The Connected Educator. Since life circumstances dictated I work from home in 2004 after 35 years in the classroom, I searched the web for educators with similar interests and an enthusiasm for innovation.

One blog linked to another, then another, until I found myself at Anne Davis’ "Edublog Insights" and her post describing a group of teacher cadets with whom she was blogging. I had just completed three years in a similar program for high school students who wanted to be teachers and was delighted to find a like-minded group. I contacted Anne through the comment feature on her blog, seeking her reaction to my mentoring her students through comments on their own posts. Many comments to students, emails and Skype calls with Anne later, I began reading Darren Kuropatwa’s blog, "A Difference" at her insistence.

Darren often pointed to his class blogs as he transparently shared his evolving pedagogy and one day put out a call for e-mentors for his students. I immediately submitted an email asking if he might consider my acting in that role, elated at the possibility of developing additional virtual relationships with young people. Consider the irony here, Darren is a master mathematics teacher in Manitoba who taught pre-calculus and AP calculus, whereas I completed Algebra 2 and Geometry some 40 years back, with Logic meeting my mathematics requirement in college. Thrilled that Darren invited me to participate and being one to always jump right in, I was immediately commenting and posting with many and varied questions pushing high school mathematics students to reflect upon their learning. Often Darren generously posted excerpts from our conversations on his blog as he, his students and I learned from each other that year and the next.

One day in 2006, a post on Darren’s blog really caught my attention--- he, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, and Wesley Fryer would be co founding a cutting edge, totally online, free annual conference for teachers by teachers, "K12 Online". In response to their call for assistance and for presenters, fascinated and excited by what I saw as enormous possibilities for teacher learning, I immediately volunteered any assistance they felt that I could provide. I was speechless sometime later to be invited to serve as continuity editor for the initial conference. Through collaborative work on the conference wiki, and Skype planning calls, Sheryl and I came to know each other. The following year, I was honored and humbled to receive an email from Darren, asking if I would serve as one of the four co-conveners. In September of 2007, Sheryl and I were on Skype for weeks as she uploaded files to a server and sent me links that I used in the blog posts I created on the conference presentation blog. For two weeks in October of that year, Sheryl and I were up together in the early morning on Skype rolling out presentations on the blog and tweeting the presentations.

As different in some ways as night and day, yet playing to each other's strengths, working well together and sharing common passions for learning, for making the world a better place-- the collaborations have continued to this place as has my learning. An opportunity to compile research on online communities with Sheryl led to my deepened understandings of the power of connected learning and communities. A subsequent connection led to my role as community leader in Powerful Learning Practice's virtual learning communities in which I constantly learn from community members. This story is just one illustration of many of the potential in the digital age for networked, connected educators to collaborate with and learn from each other as they aspire to a more accomplished global practice.

Thank you, Sheryl

The Connected Educator

2011-09-12T18:58:00.007-04:00

The cover to our book: The Connected Educator: Learning and leading in a Digital Age which comes out early Oct. Sheryl and I hope you will consider reading it and getting a copy for your faculty as well.

Who should read this book?
To all learners—educators, teachers, administrators, curriculum developers, parents, and students—who have not yet considered the benefits of network and community participation, who have just dipped a toe into the torrent of opportunity, or who already are immersed in digital tools, we ask you to explore with us the power of connected, self-directed professional learning.
Help us remix the concepts of professional learning communities, personal learning networks, and communities of practice to support lifelong learning. Make use of and extend our suggested applications. Commit with us to develop a shared wisdom that supports teachers and leaders as learners first. As we offer our expertise to each other and work to solve problems collaboratively, we will build collective intelligence. This new way of learning will set our children on the road to a life of passion-driven, connected learning.

What Is Different About This Book?
This book is a journey into what it means to be a learner first and an educator second. It is a book about you, about your professional learning. It’s also about us—the collective us in education—and how our own learning can transform student learning through a systemic vision of professional development.

We decided books about being connected need to model what they promote and not be just a linear experience. So we ask you to Get Connected in each section by participating in an authentic application that completes each chapter. This is a crowdsourcing activity, that is, an activity in which readers come together in a virtual space and add to the collective knowledge of what is being discussed. You will learn to be a connected learner not only by reading about connected learning but by doing what connected learners do—co-constructing meaning and knowledge.

How in the world did I come to be able to compose this post-- read the story here.

Spaghetti sauce and Connected Coaching

2011-09-09T10:36:00.004-04:00

The homemade spaghetti sauce last week was rich, flavorful-- just downright extraordinary.

I attribute most of that to the quality of the ingredients-- something about organic farm fresh tomatoes, new onions, fresh organo, real garlic, and a touch of hot sauce to add a bit of a zing. Yet I've used those same ingredients before and the sauce never had the unique flavor of this batch. There must be something to the love, to the passion that becomes part of the process. No longer a strict recipe follower when I'm putting together a dish I've made before, there is the possibility of an extra large clove of garlic, maybe dried oregano-- always evolving, responding to conditions at hand.

While I was washing the dishes and the pot in which the sauce simmered to take on all its goodness, similarities to our Powerful Learning Practice Connected Coaching pilot struck me. That experience was downright extraordinary too. The ingredients were topnotch. Our 6 coaches, all accomplished educators-- Brenda Sherry, Marsha Ratzel, Zoe Branigan-Pipe, John Pearce, Mark Carbone, and Chad Evans-- brought their own gits and talents to deep discussions around coaching and entered communities with enthusiasm and passion. Our unique model was well flavored by dashes of Tschannen-Morans' Evocative Coaching, Costa/Garmston's Cognitive Coaching, Knight's Instructional Coaching and Dana/Yendel-Hoppey's Coaching Inquiry Oriented Communities. The zing emanated from Dean Shareski's exceptional vision and expertise for leveraging images and video, moving beyond text, in online spaces, and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach's brilliant insights around developing community.

The coaching process, unlike the sauce, lacked any prescriptive recipe and was not one we'd tried before; we let it simmer a bit, added a bit more of Tschannen-Moran and Knight, turned down the heat for a while, then back to a simmer, not unlike our description of the model as one of wayfinding with looping back, checking pathmarkers (building trust, questioning, and facilitating design thinking). I'm guessing the inquiry based appreciative elements (think more than dashes of Tshannen-Morans) increased the likelihood of such an exemplary experience. And unlike the sauce, our coaching was a collaborative process. The joy, the rush that comes from engagement in collegial conversations around difficult topics can not be overstated.

In focus sessions, we attempted to distinguish the specific ingredients or parts of the process that led to such a remarkable experience; we were unable. We were in total agreement that the ingredients and the process intertwined into a model for coaching in online spaces that should be replicated --- again.

Like the spaghetti sauce, the grand aftertaste leads to a longing for more.
Additional opportunities for connected coaches are simmering; I can't wait. They will have Dean, Sheryl, Marsha, Brenda, Zoe, John, Chad and Mark to thank for their creativity and imagination, for their passion and perseverance in concocting Connected Coaching in 2011.

And I am anticipating too the next batch of farm fresh tomatoes and the potential to replicate that unique sauce once again.

Photo Credit

A request--

2011-09-05T16:03:00.003-04:00

I have been spending time with a fine young man-- he's just entered 8th grade and is interested in so many things. He's taught me lots about cows (his have a pedigree and he shows them at the county fair), told me about his scouting badges and camping, and the basketball and baseball teams that he follows.

And he finds math pretty challenging. As he told me very quietly and earnestly as we were working on a math problem sometime back --"I really want to do better." My quick equally quiet reply-- "I never thought you didn't." --and my heart sank a bit because that comment seemed to indicate a number of folks had indicated to him they didn't.

As school has begun again, he's excited and more organized. He wants to have a good year.

I really hope his teachers and the teachers of so many other youngsters for whom school can be a challenge in so many ways have had an opportunity to read Bud Hunt's letter to teachers that has popped up every year since its orginal posting in 2008. I hope they'll consider his request:

"I ask you to be brave and humble and kind and tenacious and wise and caring and gentle and fierce. We so need you to do well."

And I hope his teachers and all teachers will consider Zoe Weill's call for a humane and relevant education :

"...our children will no longer be bored when the eagerness to learn is fed by an education that is meaningful and relevant to their own lives and to the gorgeous, incredible world they will one day inherit. Their enthusiasm, nourished and nurtured by schooling that matters and excites, will lead inexorably to knowledge and skills that will help solve the global challenges we face and create a world where we can all survive and thrive."

When Bud's hopes for teachers and Zoe's call for relevant learning are heeded, a fine young man--all our students-- will realize their worth and find their place in our everchanging global world. They deserve no less. Don't you think?

Filling holes--

2011-08-21T13:17:00.008-04:00

There are huge holes in my learning-- big hunks, so big that I am so ignorant of them I have no idea what they are until I run into them head on. (I think they are a result of my "just in time" learning and my total immersion in my classrooms over a number of years, but at this point the why is unimportant.) What is important is that knowledge building ran into me head on in the PLP ecourse teaching online. I am embarrassed; for a bit I thought I won't admit that I didn't have a deep understanding but decided learning and this rush was too good not to share.

I have used the term knowledge building and had a sense of what I believed it meant for learning. Yet when I searched the web prior to the posting of the week's discussions, I discovered terms and concepts with which I was unfamiliar, traveling from page to page skimming, then off to check another term-- some serious wayfinding. And when I started to explore the topic with some of the breadcrumbs Sheryl left for us to follow, I couldn't stop, I was even more hungry. (So these analogies to breadcrumbs and wayfinding are muddled here a bit but they fit where I am right now.)

Why did I not know this? Why don't I have a clear understanding of cognitive presence? What are the phases? What is the knowledge forum? What are rise above notes? Is all of this new; where have I been? And I went looking-- and my to do list, well it's still there waiting for me-- there are about 30 tabs open in my browser around what I have been exploring.

And then as I read, first I lamented not having this base from which to refine my practice prior to this; then I began making connections--

Rise above notes intrigued me--- what a wonderful use of technology! I wonder if it is clunky technically in the Knowledge Forum? It's similar to the interventions we learned to create in MOOM, an inquiry online course into facilitating online in an inquiry environment where initially the moderator would take snippets of discussion to highlight concepts folks had contributed and end with a question. As the course progressed the learners in the course followed the model. What has struck me, that I didn't fully recognize before, is this takes learning to a completely new level.

How to create the environment enabling this happening in the e course I am planning? How can I help all learners make connections so they can begin new discussions? Would it make a difference if we included in the title or tag high rise? I'm thinking on this and other ideas-- just beginnings. I continue reading, seeking deeper answers to my questions. What a rush!

I love when stuff begins to come together-- from one of Sheryl's tweets later in the day:

"1. Start with a question.

2. Zero in on unfamiliar words, phrases, symbols or expressions. “Bayesian analysis,” “Fourier transform”—Wikipedia, Scholarpedia or Wikiversity might be good places to start, but you’ll want to follow the links from there to source materials, papers, textbooks, book excerpts on Google, and others.

3. Do some serious reading. You may have several tabs open at this point. This phase can last hours or days. You may also want to try sample problems or exercises.

4. Ask someone a question. You may want to locate some experts on the topic, through Slideshare, Youtube, blogs, Twitter, or more. Or you can search forums or other online learning communities for help.

5. Test and demonstrate your knowledge. MIT Open Courseware, Khan Academy, and other sites may have sample problems. Or you can go onto a forum and answer someone else’s question. Or blog about your discoveries!" http://www.shareable.net/blog/how-to-learn-from-open-resources-online

That's just what I was doing. Open, inquiry learning yet there's still a big piece missing and that is my participation in my community to share, be questioned, make connections, find patterns and build knowledge with my colleagues.

If I can get this excited at this age, just imagine classrooms full of youngsters, schools full of teachers engaging in knowledge building and inquiring into topics for which they have an interest -- the synergy-- the learning--

Photo credit

We may never pass this way again--

2011-08-14T19:09:00.005-04:00

Not always the biggest of music lovers, Seals & Crofts touch my soul in so many ways.

This melody and these lyrics. have been playing and replaying in my head following a conversation with one of my favorite co learners, Marsha in the Powerful Learning Practice e course Teaching Online where I lamented my lack of participation and what that might mean for my learning and that of others.

As I've been humming to myself all day,

Like Columbus in the olden days, we must gather all our courage.
Sail our ships out on the open sea. Cast away our fears
And all the years will come and go, and take us up, always up.
We may never pass this way again.

It's struck me even more that in our times, this has such a universal call--

To our politicians--
To those who treasure our planet --
To those of us who seek a transformation in education--
To those of us who envision the potential of learning in community--
To those of us learning--

At this moment, we are in unique places--
We can't afford to let any opportunity pass us by--

We may never pass this way again

Of course, this is nothing new--
But there is an urgency in every area--
We are on so many precipices--

Like Columbus in the olden days, we must gather all our courage.
Sail our ships out on the open sea. Cast away our fears
And all the years will come and go, and take us up, always up.
We may never pass this way again.

Animals/Habitats team is on their way!

2011-08-07T13:55:00.003-04:00

I just posted this in the group room of the Animals/Habitats team of the PLP ConnectU walled garden community.

The members of this team are really on their way to planning an exciting PBL experience for their students.

In their second Elluminate team meeting, every member of the team attended; every member's voice was heard. Under the extraordinary leadership of Jane, the team leader, this team has developed driving and supporting questions, selected VELs that will be addressed in the unit, looked at possibilities for assessment, thought through a WOW beginning activity, created a project timeline, and begun to blog about their journey and is sharing all of this transparently.

I am anxiously waiting to hear about the initial walkarounds they and their students will be taking as they explore animals/environments in their local areas and asking questions of them as they respond to Jane's latest Ning posting around Scaffolding the Personal Learning - Helping the Learner to Learn how to Learn!! Really exciting!!!

Saving our schools---

2011-07-28T18:19:00.006-04:00

Schools must be empowering for all its members if we want our children — and therefore our society — to thrive. And for that reason, we must Save Our Schools.
--Chris Lehman

On Saturday, July 30 at noon, I'll be here in Chardon, OH but my mind and spirit will be with the thousands who gather in Washington to Save our Schools.

Their guiding principles can serve us and the children we serve well.

For the future of our children, we demand:

Equitable funding for all public school communities

Equitable funding across all public schools and school systems
Full public funding of family and community support services
Full funding for 21^st century school and neighborhood libraries
An end to economically and racially re-segregated schools

An end to high stakes testing used for the purpose of student, teacher, and school evaluation

The use of multiple and varied assessments to evaluate students, teachers, and schools
An end to pay per test performance for teachers and administrators
An end to public school closures based upon test performance

Teacher, family and community leadership in forming public education policies

Educator and civic community leadership in drafting new ESEA legislation
Federal support for local school programs free of punitive and competitive funding
An end to political and corporate control of curriculum, instruction and assessment decisions for teachers and administrators

Curriculum developed for and by local school communities

Support for teacher and student access to a wide-range of instructional programs and technologies
Well-rounded education that develops every student’s intellectual, creative, and physical potential
Opportunities for multicultural/multilingual curriculum for all students
Small class sizes that foster caring, democratic learning communities

If you, like I, will not be physically present to support this effort, join them in mind and spirit and raise your voice so that collectively our voices will make a difference and those guiding principles will be adopted- for our children.

Coaching across time zones--

2011-07-24T20:02:00.004-04:00

It was Tuesday-- 4 PM in Melbourne, Australia
and 2 AM in Chardon, OH.

Yet with the affordances of technology, time and space became totally irrelevant (although my brain rebelled a bit at that hour) as the PLP ConnectU Animals and Habitats team from Melbourne met in Elluminate and I joined in as their connected coach.

Committed, passioned educators-- keen to become more accomplished in developing PBL experiences for their students-- Jane, Lisa, and Tim (Ben's Internet was down) connected, collaborated and set out immediate next steps as they continued discussions begun in their team room in the PLP Ning online community.

Jane Brayshaw, the team's leader had summarized the discussions from Ning for the meeting and she and Lisa had developed a list of learning standards from the VELs that their soon to be unit might well address.

From the conversations came agreement on a driving question appropriate for the PBL unit they are designing for their students-- "How do we provide for the health of animals in our local communities?"

Their discussion around assessment -- as, of, and for -- was refreshing

As a coach, I answered questions they had for me and asked questions in chat of them as they thought through their process. My goal --they would recognize and call on their individual and collective strengths to carry on (they did and very likely could have done it well without me).

Similar to my recent role as community leader for PLP and as expert learner in a constructivist classroom, the complex dance of coaching- of nudging and suggesting and then stepping back, sitting on my hands - continued. Sometimes that dance is far more complex and difficult than others - this was not one of those times. That dance is an art it seems to me -- one I've been practicing in an ongoing quest to develop expertise. With this team, the dance is exhilarating and exciting.

The team is on their way; their focus is on their students' learning; a grand inquiry PBL unit into animals in their local communities is the making.

Connected Coaching-- our path

2011-07-13T18:00:00.001-04:00

Cross Posted

“The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths to it are not found but made, and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination.” --John Schaar

So it is with Connected Coaching. Our grand destination, so to speak, a transformation of professional learning, increasing confidence and self-efficacy of educators worldwide. Our path-- coaching in online spaces through an appreciative inquiry lens.

From the outset, Dean and I have viewed coaching in online spaces as a wayfinding process-- a process lacking linearity, and often requiring the need to loopback, to detour, to revisit. As we developed the model, we identified pathmarkers we believed could guide the way of coaches -- a process clearly characterized by lack of prescription. From exploring the model with Marsha, Brenda, John, Mark, Zoe and Chad -- the 6 bright, passionate, accomplished educators who joined our pilot-- to coaching in communities, I've come to understand and appreciate more fully both the great potential of and complex nuances inherent in such a model. Realizing, recognizing, inferring online when to step back, when to revisit, finding the right moment to interject the right question requires countless decisions by those coaching. Through our own collaborative appreciative inquiry into coaching, our own wayfinding, our pilot team of coaches (Dean and I included) have been engaged in an exciting ongoing development of expertise. Our challenges continue to be leveraging the uniqueness of online spaces-- lacking eye contact, visual body language cues, unable to adopt many face to face strategies for active listening-- we experiment with remixing current face to face protocols, with images, with audio, and with video to build trust, to develop rapport, to speak into the hearts of the team members we serve.

As important to our model has been the appreciative inquiry approach that underlies all our actions as connected coaches. We see our coaching with our community members as mediating their thinking-- helping them realize and clarify for themselves their own potential--not through telling but through questions and affirmations that help those we coach discover and uncover their own strengths, helping members to realize the potential of those strengths to effect change-- much as Zander notes here:

We have embraced what I view as a refreshing and powerful shift in paradigms-- from the current deficit, "fix it" which seems to permeate all we see and do to one of appreciation for the unique strengths of each person. I join others who believe that from this approach momentum for change builds and can flourish. Even now at this stage of our pilot, we see evidence of excitement and camaraderie with a number of teams we are coaching and sense momentum for change building as the positive principle of appreciate inquiry suggests--

“Momentum for change requires large amounts of positive affect and social bonding – things like hope, excitement, inspiration, caring, camaraderie, sense of urgent purpose, and sheer joy in creating something meaningful together. What we have found is that the more positive the question we ask in our work the more long lasting and successful the change effort. It does not help, we have found, to begin our inquiries from the standpoint of the world as a problem to be solved. We are more effective the longer we can retain the spirit of inquiry of the everlasting beginner. The major thing we do that makes the difference is to craft and seed, in better and more catalytic ways, the unconditional positive question.” --Positive Principle, AI

Have we changed as we've forged paths of connected coaching?

I-- usually but not always an optimist, I've become totally convinced that an appreciative inquiry approach is far more powerful and has greater potential to build momentum for change than others. I've reached deep inside as I've responded to discussions in our online space to find that my lifelong passion for learning about learning has been exceeded now by my passion for learning about coaching.

And our team-- as we've grown to know each other personally and professionally through our work, has become a community of practice. The conversations around coaching practice have grown deeper. We've had some difficult discussions and grown from them. Given other learning opportunities, many of us have chosen to join in because "if some of you are there, I'm in". We've committed to a path of continually developing our expertise. And our lives are the richer for our collaborations together.

Our path may alter a bit; that there will be loopbacks and revisits as we reflect upon and refine our practice is a given. This path to connected coaching holds more than great promise and will benefit from repeated traversing. We are not finished--

Photo Credit

Enable or hinder--

2011-07-05T12:36:00.001-04:00

Thanks so much to Nancy White for this find where she noted:

"When I think of group dynamics both face to face and online, there is this dynamic of conformity. It is stronger in some cultural contexts and in my experience, stronger F2F. But it also exists online —"

Hmmm, wondering-- can we leverage this phenomena as we encourage more educators to shift their practice
or
rather than an enabling, does this hinder shifting?

Community-- dreams deferred?

2011-07-02T09:48:00.005-04:00

Dreaming and smiling as I dreamed--
about learning
about teaching
about self directed novice and expert learners collaborating
continually practicing their practice (full attribution SLA Poetry Jam, final keynote on ISTE11)
engaging in difficult conversations
challenged by cognitive dissonance
making the time to grow and nurture a more accomplished global practice
fulfilling a commitment I'd like to think we make to children, to each other to be the best we can
in vibrant, synergistic online communities

For I also believe, as does Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach who so eloquently has put it:

"the secret to change lies in developing the social fabric, capacity and connectedness found in communities of practice and learning networks. I believe that by focusing on a strengths-based model of education, looking at possibilities rather than problems, by using inquiry to ask the kinds of questions that reveal the gifts each of us bring to the table, by realizing that “none of us is as good as all of us” and somehow leveraging all of that to shift the conversations toward building a new future- one that focuses on the gifts each teacher, student, parent and leader has, that we have all we need to create an alternative future for schools. One that focuses on the well-being of the whole and uses diversity as a means to innovation."

Waking up suddenly,
jolted by a fear
that incredible opportunities whooshed right on by

Wondering if or how we haven't articulated what we've experienced and discovered in a way that others might also feel compelled embrace this path to transformation---

Striving continually to be better educators in online communities does not consist of quick, surface reading and many times 140 characters shorter replies. There's value there yet-- it is in communities where members commit to deep reflection, to sharing personal practice, to add value to the community, to exploring and trying new ideas that true potential for systemic change lies.

Learning in community, becoming better in community takes time-- we need to make the time to take time. The value we derive from participation can not be understated.

Being transparent and open to new ideas, acknowledging and dealing with cognitive dissonance is alien to some in our profession. Yet, as Joe Bower suggests:

"However, rather than seeing cognitive dissonance as a crisis to be avoided, the most successful people in the world embrace cognitive dissonance as a remarkable opportunity. They see it as a fork in the road where they can choose to continue down the comfortable status quo, or they can take a turn down a new, unfamiliar road. This is exactly how trailblazing starts. There may be no other way to engage in real improvement and authentic innovation."

Learning in community takes courage; if we are to work to provide the schools our children deserve, we need to make a choice-- acquiescence or courage. Joe Bower speaks to courage in his post when he quotes Mara Sapon Shevin (one of my former professors)

"Courage is what it takes when we leave behind something we know well and embrace (even tentatively) something unknown or frightening. Courage is what we need when we decide to do things differently... Courage is recognizing that things familiar are not necessarily right or inevitable. We mustn't mistake what is comfortable with what is good."

Wondering too what happens to a dream deferred?

Langston Hughes

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/40645538@N00/3663468617/

Sophia

2011-07-01T12:08:00.001-04:00

Sophia crossed my path twice in the last week--
once at The Innovative Educator where she asked Is this the future of learning?
and again in Stephen Downe's OLDaily.

As Downes quoted from the Sophia about page:

"Sophia is a social teaching and learning platform that taps the teacher in all of us and enhances the learning process by providing access to a wealth of knowledge, help, instruction, standards-aligned content, and expertise available to learners everywhere."

Sophia Overview from Sophia on Vimeo.

In response to the question, Is Sophia the future of learning?

I hope not. Perhaps a part of, a resource for some content.

I guess I'm questioning their use of the word community in describing Sophia. Community to me suggests collaborating to create meaning and deeper understanding together and the co creation of artifacts that illustrate that understanding. I'm not seeing that with Sophia--

I'm thinking/hoping the future of learning will be far more than one web portal in a sea of many, and will leverage the extraordinary power of the human network in collaborations, investigations and explorations; will encourage the development of deep, meaningful collegial relationships which will in turn become the foundation for change in education; and will compel learners to take collective action to make this world a better place.

What about you?

it is not simple--

2011-06-20T10:54:00.002-04:00

“The main feature that characterizes complex systems is the dynamic interaction of various elements of the system over time such that the results of these interactions are not entirely predictable or proportional. A complex system, due to its dynamic and sometimes chaotic and random self-interaction, cannot be reduced to simple parts which relate to each other in very predictable ways.” Chaos Complexity and Language

These words from 3 years past--

The body of my soulmate -- fighting poison of cytoxan as it attempts to restore some balance to his system, to strengthen and repair some neural pathways so we can walk again together in the park, to halt or hinder the progression of MS -- his strong will and mind that rise and greet each day ready to deal with all challenges, to adapt to new refusals by his leg or foot to listen to his brain and move, to go beyond himself and always think of us. A complex system—

And now today as the cytoxan infusions continue--

The steps-- more measured, more hesitant, far slower, yet more determined

The balance-- more obtuse, unstable, unsteady

The walks-- shorter, taking longer, sending me on ahead and pushing himself to the limit

Our lives, our love, our bond-- far deeper, tighter, far more full of meaning despite the chaos of his immune system--

A complex system -- with some components far more than broken than others--

With a continued appreciation for the intricate, dynamic relationships and nuances in complex systems, there's so much I don't know but this I do --

it is not simple
determination and resolve mean everything
collaboration is priceless
appreciation, positivity yield far more than their opposites
celebration of small things is essential

I'm thinking that other complex systems are no different-- education for example. Our system is broken in so many ways. And often, to many, the the challenges are insurmountable. Yet I do know

it is not simple
determination and resolve mean everything
collaboration is priceless
positive, appreciate approaches yield far more than their opposites

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/67968452@N00/2668649059/

Father's Day

2011-06-19T10:38:00.003-04:00

Miss you Daddy--

Breaking down walls, inviting in, and supporting

2011-06-12T15:17:00.004-04:00

Dean began our last PLP Connected Coaches' Elluminate session with this video. It stuck with me. The joy, the wonderment, the uncertainty, the appreciation for something new, the really wanting to test something out is transparent with little ones.

People get bigger and I'm willing to bet that all of that is still there yet--- somewhere along the way for some reason, invisible walls were built to hide these feelings. Think middle school and high school students -- we label them "reluctant", "unmotivated", and "lazy". A few, (well likely many) conversations, some encouragement, a safe place to risk and share, and some strategies for "fall(ing) down thoughtfully and how to hop" back up", as Bud the Teacher so eloquently shares:

"If you’re going to do pretty much anything worth doing, you’d darn well better be prepared to fall flat on your face. There’s risk in the places worth working for. And it’s worthwhile to know how to fall, how to land in a way that will minimize the long term harm to yourself.

Just as important, you’ve got to fall with a thought for how you’re going to get back up.

I hope you’re thinking about how to help people fall down thoughtfully. I hope that someone taught you about how to take a fall, and how to hop back up, raring to go. Are you preparing the folks you know and work and learn with to go down hard in ways that’ll lead towards more chances to, well, take chances?

and there's a shift-- little bits at a time-- first maybe some wonderment, then perhaps some transparent uncertainty and sharing of testing new waters. It's there, I know it-- we need to dig deep enough to break down those invisible walls, to uncover it. We need to shift from disparaging conversations about students to those in which we share the strategies that will help us help them rediscover the joys, the wonderment that are so compelling in this video.

People become professionals; think educators who have adopted the persona of expert, who fear for their futures, who don't infuse technology into learning, who also build great invisible walls to protect what they view as vulnerability. We label them "reluctant", "out-dated" or worse. We adopt a us vs them mentality. A few, (well likely many) conversations, some encouragement, a safe place to risk and share, and some strategies for "fall(ing) down thoughtfully and how to hop" back up", and there's a shift-- little bits at a time-- first maybe some wonderment, then perhaps some transparent uncertainty and sharing of testing new waters. It's there, I know it-- we need to dig deep enough to break down those invisible walls, to uncover it. We need to shift from disaparaging conversations about failure to adopt and infuse technology into learning. We need to remember the uncertainty, the tentativeness of when we started (my first introduction to computers in a workshop in the early 80's-- they told me to key in a basic program and click run and the computer began counting to one million. I jumped back sure that I had broken it) and then we need to help them rediscover the joy, the wonderment in this video.

And as we are sharing strategies that work we need to step back and take time to consider as Paul R. Wood has done and ask ourselves:

"are we taking care to make sure that we are reaching out to those who are just starting to dip their toes in the water or maybe those who are eyeing the kool-aid stand but not sure they really want to buy the drink itself?

We talk about how students learn in different ways and at different times but are we taking the time to make sure those adults who have come to learn are getting the same attention?"

I'd take that one step farther -- are we taking the time to make sure that we are inviting in, providing safe spaces and strategies for "fall(ing) down thoughtfully and how to hop" back up" for those may not yet have come to learn, just as we do for our students?

Imagine the possibilities in our classrooms, imagine the possibilities in the professional learning of all educators-- Can we touch it?

Improving education in Ohio?

2011-06-08T20:18:00.007-04:00

From THE Journal today:

"Effective teachers know and communicate subject matter and design curriculum, instruction, and multiple assessments. They know about diverse student populations, use data and technology effectively for all, communicate effectively with parents and other staff, conduct action research to improve their practice, and implement existing research containing significant findings. They are ethical and learner-centered in their approach setting high expectations and contributing to the academic, social, and emotional growth of their learners."

And then this from Cleveland:

"The teacher-recruitment group recently singled out by the governor and state legislature as a way to improve education in Ohio has started planning to put recruits in the state - possibly in the Cleveland schools - by the fall of 2012. ... Until this spring, Ohio law blocked Teach for America recruits from Ohio schools because they do not follow normal teacher training and certification programs. Gov. John Kasich and the state legislature waived the certification requirement specifically for Teach for America in April."

"TFA participants get "five weeks of intensive training .. before taking over a classroom". --source

So in Ohio we are improving education by placing teachers with 5 weeks of training and a 2 year commitment into classrooms; although I've no doubt TFA folks are temporarily passionate (read 2 year commitment) about serving the children and they are bright, it escapes me how they, with that training can be termed effective teachers. My guess is they'll become employed primarily by charters and our large urban districts. Our children there, born into circumstances beyond their control, deserve far better. I'm wondering, if your child was a student in a classroom whose teacher had 5 weeks training, how comfortable would you be?

Photo credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8107002@N03/3121815917/

A new journey into Connected Coaching

2011-05-21T10:58:00.008-04:00

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead

What happens when 8 passionate educators distanced geographically (U.S., Canada, and Australia) meet in an Elluminate room or in threaded discussions in Ning to engage in conversations around coaching in online communities?

They grow and develop expertise to transform online professional learning.

Through text, images, encouragement, support, videos, sharing ideas and experiencing a collective joy that comes from participation in a group whose sole goal is to improve learning for teachers and students, we grow. Through an appreciative approach which leads to deep and sometimes difficult collegial conversations this new and unique model evolves as each coach brings their talents and gifts to the table.

A vision, initially only on paper, becomes reality and Powerful Learning Practice Connected Coaches--
Brenda Sherry
Marsha Ratzel
Chad Evans
Mark Carbone
Zoe Branigan-Pipe
John Pearce

join Dean Shareski and I on an incredibly exciting journey into wayfinding as coaches.

Our connected model draws heavily from Cooperrider's appreciative inquiry, Costa and Garmston's cognitive model and Tschannen-Moran's evocative coaching while infusing much of Sheryl's wisdom on learning in online communities.

Currently engaging with members in the El Paso and ConnectU Powerful Learning Practice communities, we really are about changing the world of online professional learning. And with this accomplished group, with whom I am privileged and honored to learn, I see it happening.

Remembering and Missing--

2011-05-18T20:12:00.002-04:00

5^th graders in Georgia, affectionately called the Blogicians--

Anne Davis, an accomplished elementary Georgia educator--

Modeling, demonstrating; using podcasts for editing/proofing; holding writing conferences; developing a community of learners--

WordPress blogs--

And an unlikely connection with a Sheppard blogger from Ohio--

Together, connecting, collaborating---

Students and a master educator with content knowledge about writing who developed a 21^st century pedagogy enhanced by technology, and connections--

Coming together in a sweet spot that enabled authentic, exciting, sticky learning—

Essential ingredients in teaching for learning--

Just imagine a 21^st century pedagogy and knowledge of technology; without it the Blogicians likely never would have made the same gains in writing and reading—hear it from Eddie in his own words.

Just imagine teachers competent in designing ways that content was comprehensible for groups of diverse students as Anne so masterfully accomplished.

Just imagine complex, unique blends of technology, pedagogy and content that transform learning much as it did with Anne and her students.

Don’t we need to continue to join in, engage in conversations, nudging, pushing, and if need be, more assertively agitating for these kinds of opportunities for all student learning? Don’t we need to pull in, nudge, and encourage those more reticent, to aspire to and strive for this type of accomplished practice? For Eddie, for all the Blogicians who are now in high school, for all our students?

Kudos to the PLP Archdiocese team from St. Patrick School

2011-05-02T12:42:00.004-04:00

I've had the opportunity to learn with some very special educators from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia as I led their virtual community for Powerful Learning Practice this year.

The team from St. Patrick School has created a video around all their students have been learning; I love it and wanted to share it here too.

To everyone in the PLP Archdiocese community, thanks for allowing me to learn with you.

Saving the world-- problem based learning

2011-04-12T10:31:00.005-04:00

As if there ever was any question about the power of problem based learning---

Teams of students and teachers collaborated in a problem based learning project sponsored by Powerful Learning Practice. They were asked to save the world from an asteroid on a collision course with earth in Doomsday 1.

I've had the honor and privilege to serve in the role of community leader for the Archdiocese of Philadelpia community for this school year and teams from two schools in the community participated with their students- St. Alphonsus and St. Anastasia. What they and their students created is outstanding! And they saved the world!

Yesterday in an Elluminate session they presented their solutions to save the world. Check out their videos with a lens on all they learned, all the standards and benchmarks they mastered. Don't we owe all our youngsters these kinds of opportunities?

From St. Alphonsus--

From St. Anastasia--

Spartiger Research Saves the World from Ann Perrone on Vimeo.

Students and PLP educators from St. Alphonsus and St. Anastasia, I hope you can hear my virtual standing ovation!

You can find all the videos from the students participating here.

Something's happening here---

2011-04-08T09:13:00.002-04:00

Being part of an organization that not only believes but also lives sharing, collaborating, and collective action is pretty special.

Being part of an organization that is really all about learning, about transforming education, about building collective efficacy, about continuously working to be better is an extraordinary privilege.

That organization -- Powerful Learning Practice.

I've been humbled and privileged to be a part of the good and meaningful work that is spearheaded by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Will Richardson.

As this school year winds down, Powerful Learning Practice ramps up-- with incredible opportunities for educators to learn, to collaborate, to become more accomplished.

Join me, join us in making learning better for those children in your classroom, your district.

Explore all the options, select the one that's best for you!

Traditional communities

New for 2011 eLearning courses

Virtual Institutes for your district or building

The Leading Experience

Supercharge your classroom in 2011 Explore all these opportunities under one link.

Where we should be going--

2011-03-27T14:52:00.002-04:00

Play and experiment
Blackline worksheets

Create and reflect
Scripted direct instruction

Tinker and build
Bubble in the answer

An architectural studio for learning
Open, full of critiquing
Traditional classrooms
Closed, one right answer

A vision of what can be
What exists in many places in reality

John Seely Brown from 2008-- 3 years ago
A star to guide us

This notion of tinkering and an architectural studio although not new, if adopted can alter learning for us all.

Imagine an environment that is open and public, where all works in progress are done in public, where the struggles of all are transparent, where eveyone learns from each other and constructs knowledge together, where technology affords distributed communities of practice, global architectural studios, tinkering, creating, remixing--

But as LeVar Burton used to say, you don't have to take my word for it---

We need to remember this, revisit this often, aspire for this, and create these conditions in all of our classrooms. Don't our children deserve the opportunity to tinker, to learn from each other's struggles and successes? Isn't this where we should be going? Imagine the possibilities--

Another drop-- third in the series

2011-02-14T12:08:00.005-05:00

“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”
--Ryunosuke Satoro

One drop, then another
We can become an ocean
Changing learning

First drop--
Second drop--
Third drop here --

How tough is it for us when we learn new things? What keeps us on a course of learning, be it a new sport, a new computer application, a new recipe when cooking? From Jay McTighe

Do his words resonate with you?

And if it's tough for us, what about our students? How can we make a difference? How can we help them?

One drop--
What if we were exemplary in modeling persistence and enabling that for our students?
What if we--

Talk about yourself as a learner. Share your own failures and what you learn from them. Admit what you don’t know. Find out together. WhatEdSaid (her entire post on resilience is so full of goodness; thanks to her for the McTighe video and the inspiration for this post)

What if we push them a little bit farther?

This is one of the trickiest but most essential ways to work out children’s persistence muscles. It’s tempting for older kids who do something well to stay in their comfort zone and never venture beyond that point. Push them to try just a little bit harder next time. greatschools.org

What else can we do to encourage persistence?

Another drop to improve education-- model and enable persistence
If we each adopt this one drop, imagine the ocean--

One drop-- the second in a series

2011-02-04T18:59:00.001-05:00

“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”
--Ryunosuke Satoro

One drop, then another
We can become an ocean
Changing learning

Second drop (first drop)
Give students choice

From Mr. Chase, a narrative on learning that ended:

The progress came when I remembered what I believe to be true:

Give kids choices. http://autodizactic.com/blog/?p=647

And from Max Fisher who also shares strategies for providing choice to students:

Choice gives them a sense of empowerment over their learning environment. Choice helps keep them engaged. http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/profdev048.shtml

And from Anna

No matter who comprises our student populations, I am learning that providing choice to those students is crucial. Without the chance to make choices, and the skills and resources that help inform those choices, none of us would have much room to grow. http://www.fromstudiotoclassroom.com/2010/10/learning-to-offer-choices.html

One drop to improve education-- provide choice for all our students-- beginning with little ones, small choices, larger choices -- opportunities to make decisions--

Choice--
Empowering--
Engaging--

If we each begin with this one drop, imagine the ocean--
Imagine changing learning with this one drop--

Our choice-- Acquiescence or courage

2011-01-30T14:33:00.003-05:00

photo © 2009 Paul Simpson | more info (via: Wylio)
Flashback to 1999: A teacher in a professional development session I was facilitating came up to me at break time. He was excited at the prospect of creating and implementing some performance assessments for his students. We had been looking at performance assessments in a time when proficiencies were new to Ohio. His comment has not left me and never will: "I was a good teacher; I did lots of projects with my students. Proficiency teaching has withered my soul."

Flash forward to January 2011: A teacher in a community I am leading shares how she lost her creativity; she is in a district that prohibits projects for high school students in "regular" classes and allows 1 or 2 per semester for honors students.

And this tab open in my browser for days and weeks now--- from the Radical Learner that eloquently describes these tensions that tear at educators hearts--

These words are more than worth repeating.

I learned about undivided and divided lives in Parker Palmer’s profound and beautiful book, The Courage to Teach. Here is what he wrote:

Many of us know from personal experience how it feels to live a divided life. Inwardly we experience an imperative for our lives, but outwardly we respond to quite another… there are extremes of dividedness that become intolerable…

The institutions we inhabit, Palmer explains, can make it very difficult to live an undivided life because those institutions make claims on us that are at “odds with our hearts”:

That tension [between who we are and what our organization asks us to do] can … become pathological when the heart becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of the organization, when we internalize organizational logic and allow it to overwhelm the logic of our own lives.

And then he compares some teachers to Rosa Parks:

they teach each day in ways that honor their deepest values rather than in ways that conform to the institutional norm.

And so I'm thinking here we have two choices--
We can acquiece
We can have courage and teach in ways that honor our values

Or as Sheryl exhorts
We can be powerful
We can be pitiful

What if we engaged in a collective reading of "The Courage to Teach" in communities of like minded people with similar passions and values? And what if we become the change we want to see? And what if others see our courage and from it draw their own? It won't be easy; likely there will be reprocussions in some cases. Yet isn't it far more difficult to continue dishonoring the values we hold dear?

Missing from conversations--

2010-12-31T19:19:00.005-05:00

photo © 2008 Cliff | more info (via: Wylio)Recent discussions of effective and highly qualified teachers--

Walt Gardner's, Is subject matter expertise enough for successful teaching-- in which he concludes that teachers in some schools need to engage their students--

The Answer Sheet ,one of many posts, chronicling Congressional action to permit alternative-route teachers to be considered highly qualified-- most notable those involved in Teach for America

Something is missing from so many conversations--

Two powerful components essential to good learning in our everchanging learning landscape--

Understanding deeply how people learn--

"deep knowledge about the processes and practices or methods of teaching and learning and how it encompasses (among other things) overall educational purposes, values and aims. This is a generic form of knowledge that is involved in all issues of student learning, classroom management, lesson plan development and implementation, and student evaluation. It includes knowledge about techniques or methods to be used in the classroom; the nature of the target audience; and strategies for evaluating student understanding. A teacher with deep pedagogical knowledge understands how students construct knowledge and acquire skills; develop habits of mind and positive dispositions towards learning. As such, pedagogical knowledge requires an understanding of cognitive, social and developmental theories of learning and how they apply to students in their classroom." http://www.tpck.org/tpck/index.php?title=Pedagogy_(P)

Deep profound pedagogical knowledge, theories of learning--- knowledge that becomes internalized and conditionalized--

That then is fused with content knowledge in a sweet spot that adds an additional dimension to teacher knowledge-- a dimension in which teachers are competent in "the ways of representing and formulating the subject that make it comprehensible to others" (Shulman, 1986, p. 9).

“[T]he idea is grasped, probed, and comprehended by a teacher, who then must turn it about in his or her mind, seeing many sides of it. Then the idea is shaped or tailored until it can in turn be grasped by students.” (Shulman, 1987, p. 13).

It is a dimension where we need to consider our students, their abilities and talents. We need to consider the unique pedagogical strategies specific to a discipline; for example, paideia in the language arts, multiple representations in mathematics, or inquiry in science. We need to consider how to organize the content for our students in a way that honors the discipline and our students’ current knowledge.

And the second, an insightful grasp of the affordances for learning offered by current technologies--

“Good teaching is not simply adding technology to the existing teaching and content domain. Rather,the introduction of technology causes the representation of new concepts and requires developing a sensitivity to the dynamic, transactional relationship" (Kohler & Mishra, 2005, p. 134)between the technology, content, and pedagogy.

The legions of teachers who have elevated their practice and the learning of their students through collaboration and intense professional learning to make use of conditionalized content, pedagogical, content knowledge to add another dimension to their own learning and and that of their students-- those are the effective, qualified teachers--

Our students deserve no less than these--

From this computer, I'm continuing to engage in these conversations, nudging, pushing, and if need be, more assertively agitating for a more inclusive, more meaningful perspective on effective teaching and learning. What about you?

____________________________________

Koehler, M., & Mishra, P. (2005). What happens when teachers design educational technology? The development of technological pedagogical content knowledge. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 32(2), 131-152.

Shulman, L. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15(2), 4-14.

Shulman, L. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57, 1-22.

One drop--

2010-12-26T11:40:00.005-05:00

“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”
--Ryunosuke Satoro

One drop, then another
We can become an ocean
Changing learning

First drop--
Learning more about student passions

My sincere thank you goes to Ewan McIntosh for his post in which he quoted Marc Prensky on passions and learning.

From this brief audio file---

Listen!

Then these words--

If you don't know what the passions of those in front of you are then you'll never know how to teach the people in front of you.

If you don’t know what your students passions are then you basically don’t know who is sitting in front of you and that makes teaching at a really deep level, I think difficult. Its never 30 separate passions its typically clusters of passions so one thing that you can do is to put people into clusters

There ought to be times in a day, maybe the days that a substitute teacher comes in when what you say to kids is ‘your job today, is to just learn more about what you are passionate in’ and it may have nothing to do with our curriculum but it is still important because you are going to find it valuable.
...
If every teacher tomorrow or the next school day takes twenty minutes out of the day and says to every student ‘what are you passionate about?’ and writes it down and then thinks about it in the back of their mind how they can use that, education will be much improved overnight.

One drop to improve education-- listen more to our students, learn their passions, and make more of those connections in the learning experiences we design for them.

If we each begin with this one drop, imagine the ocean--

Then what is the next drop that can make a difference?

An appreciative vision -- Blogging for Real Educational Reform

2010-11-21T20:08:00.003-05:00

Just imagine--

A nation in which stakeholders come to appreciate all the best that can be found in education today

And upon those stories, create a vision and design for public education that--

Adopts a strengths based paradigm for learners and educators--

Shies from competition and strives for collaboration--

Believes its teachers are caring, compassionate, and competent and possess the vitality and desire to create a better world for their students--

Encourages authentic collegial collaboration among educators during which they connect and collaborate as they seek a more accomplished global practice as autonomous, open, self directed learners--

Recognizes the potential of the diversity of this great nation and its role in enhancing our ability to imagine, to create, to innovate in distinct ways by allowing states and regions to develop and create lean standards that best enable the learning of their children--

Believes in the resilience, the capacity, the potential of all students to learn--

Respects and celebrates the developmental stages of all learners--

Prepares its students for the future with global competencies and new literacies that can help them meet the challenges of living in a participatory culture--

Creates spaces and conditions for learning for students in which they inquire, ask questions, seek answers, connect, collaborate and take collective action for issues about which they are passionate--

Encourages authentic assessments as learning--

Invites parents as partners into the learning process--

Invokes appreciative inquiry in the ongoing quest for autonomous, open, distributed, connected, authentic learning--

Missy and learning

2010-11-14T19:20:00.003-05:00

photo © 2009 Andrew Magill | more info (via: Wylio)Warm and sunny, so unlike NE Ohio for November--
Enjoying a walk in the wildlife preserve without even a jacket--

Nearing the parking lot to find--
A 8 week old black lab puppy with her new owners--
Who were encouraging, laughing, aprreciating her antics, and providing lots of freedom on her leash--

And Missy, in turn, was exploring, greeting new people with grand bounces and kisses, prancing in the grass, sniffing and then stretching out, rolling over, and then up and running to become acquainted with someone else.

Pure joy-- that was contagious--- and learning, soaking up everything--

Such a contrast to many ideas for teacher learning-- for improving learning in our classrooms--

So much today in education for our students and for our profession of

Fact, Fear, and Force

that foster

Flight, Fight and Resistance

What if instead we looked at

Relating, reframing, Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose

Wouldn't that foster

Motivation, Self efficacy, Trust, and a Passion for the Possible

What if we strived for

"positive relationships that broker encouragement, extend respect, cultivate trust, reframe failure, endorse competence, model excellence and challenge teachers (and our students) to be the best that they can be." (Tschannen-Moran & Tschannen-Moran, Evocative Coaching, p. 177)

Note: (and our students) is mine.

Imagine the possibilities--
Imagine the joy and learning--

Afloat in the ebb and flow

2010-11-06T20:33:00.003-04:00

First the tide rushes in

Plants a kiss on the shore
Then rolls out to sea
And the sea is very still once more.

One of my favorites--
The melody--
The lyrics in that first stanza--
So often on my commutes, I'd sing along with the Righteous brothers--

And never, until just this week
Realized that it held perhaps an answer
To my lifelong quest for what I thought was balance

And then this:

"It's an ebb and flow. Balance isn't found in finding a middle place. It's found in staying afloat in the ebb and flow."

I hope John Spencer will forgive me for taking his words out of context (his metaphor for finding balance in his classroom was eloquent) but they struck a chord with me in so many ways--

Staying afloat in the ebb and flow of the seasons

The fall season -- leaves down and brown and curled from many trees, maples still proudly strutting their colors to the end –golden pine needles, once green and thick on evergreens, down on driveways, paths, and the wood’s floor, yet others cling still to branches high –and with each wind gust, no matter how slight, leaves and pine needles drifting sometimes slowly, often swiftly to join the others on the earth.

Into winter, with the first snow-- wet with enormous flakes covering first the roof, the deck and finally the grass-- the branches of the butterfly bush weeping from the weight of the snow-- and then it's gone-- Until later in the season one flake after another after another create a wonderland, with tree branches laden and bending down-

And finally spring, and a rebirth with green growth poking up in all of the gardens, blooms of daffodils, grass growing, and long walks in the park with an ear to the many birds stopping by on their migrations to their summer homes--

Staying afloat in the ebb and flow of our lives made more complex with the challenge my love's life with MS

Walking, talking, walking more ,some more than 30 years ago. Planning our lives and living them to the fullest. Never thinking, perhaps like many, how the years would change us, how our bodies would grow old despite young and fun loving attitudes, how strong and deep a bond would grow from our happy times and challenges. Still planning together our future.

My soulmate -- fighting poison of cytoxan as it attempts to restore some balance to his system, to strengthen some neural pathways so we can walk again together in the park, to confuse his immune system, to halt or hinder the progression of MS -- his strong will and mind that rise and greet each day ready to deal with all challenges, to adapt to new refusals by his leg or foot to listen to his brain and move, to go beyond himself and always think of us. And for 2 weeks, those walks in the park on his walker and then not so much-- and yet always, never complaining going with the ebb and flow-- and with his courage, how can I not meet each day as he does.

Staying afloat in the ebb and flow of my passion for teaching and learning--

Always wonderfully amazed at my evolving beliefs about learning-- and how that changed how my classroom looked, and sounded and felt- Always cherishing the relationships with students-- Sadly, yet not, in leaving the classroom to work from home-- spending some years developing online PD for Ohio teachers, missing sorely the possibilities for collegial relationship. And yet stil learning in a MOOC and from colleagues who generously share in the global PLN I've been fortunate to develop-- Isolated no longer-- with opportunities for collaboration-- to continue in some small way make a difference--

To facilitate in growing online communities of practice-- afloat in the ebb and flow of the community, at times electric and then again slow, sitting on my hands enjoying the conversations, jumping in inquire, to wonder, to pull in, hoping to deepen thinking and learning-- to engage in conversations around moving to a more accomplished global practice-- and reflecting deeply.

My life--
Afloat in the ebb and flow--
The extraordinary, remarkable beauty of balance--

Let's talk with each other

2010-10-12T12:08:00.002-04:00

"To be a recipient of a communication is to have an enlarged and changed experience. One shares in what another has thought and felt and in so far, meagerly or amply, has his own attitude modified. Nor is the one who communicates left unaffected." --John Dewey

There’s lots of goodness in the "Talk TO me" post at Autodizactic.

These pieces really resonate with me:

Hi.

I’m a teacher.

Please talk to me and not about me.

I understand we’ve been talking about each other for a while, and I’d like to work on ending this game of phone tag

…I wanted to thank you, though, for drawing attention to the importance of teacher quality. I’ve been working on mine since I entered the classroom in 2003.

From in-services at the end of school days to sometimes weeks-long trainings in the summer to attending professional conferences, I’ve really attempted to learn as much as possible.

That’s just the formal stuff. Since right around the time it launched, I’ve been connecting with teachers across the world through twitter and other social media tools to help me workshop ideas for helping my kids learn. Are you on twitter? If you are, follow me.

Plus, I’ve been using my blog as a space to play with ideas before implementing them in the classroom as well as a place to share the things that work so others can take them an build off of them.

Oh, also, I’ve connected with a couple of non-profit groups nationally and internationally that work to help teachers be better, well, teachers.

…You might be surprised to hear about it, but quite a few teachers are doing some great things in their classrooms. If you’ve got a feed reader, go ahead and subscribe. I’ll be writing about more teachers soon.

In fact, I know at least one teacher in every state personally. You should too; they’re doing some amazing work.

… I know the government has allocated quite a bit of money to helping schools and districts improve teaching and learning.

I was just wondering why nobody checked in with me or my colleagues about how we could use that money to shape lives and help our kids

… I don’t want my kids thinking I’m teaching them stuff so I can get more money. I’ve got this thing going where I help them come up with questions about their lives and their worlds and then help them to work to find answers to those questions.

I worry that, if they found out about merit pay, they’d start to wonder if I was just teaching them stuff so I could get paid more rather than because I wanted them to be thoughtful and caring citizens.

Changing mindsets— The "Talk TO Me" post is a call in that direction.

We need dialog

We need conversations

And more than “talk TO me’

I’d far rather see

Let’s talk

Let’s listen

Together

We need to engage in difficult conversations together. We need to delve deeply into convoluted waters with courage and tenacity. We need to emerge on the other side willing and ready to suggest new initiatives that may also involve messy yet compelling dialogue.

We need to talk with each other.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23964209@N00/758284368

Visible Thinking-- the potential

2010-10-04T14:18:00.005-04:00

Visible Thinking

This tab has been open in my browser for likely a couple of weeks now—

At this point I can’t thank whomever point me to this resource--

So sorry, for it’s full of goodness--

It called to me daily, reminding me of Darren Kuropatwa’s “Expert Voices” projects that he often described as making thinking visible—

Powerful concepts on these pages, ones that, were I currently in a classroom, I’d use or modify with a goal of bringing to the surface for all learners, me included, our thinking – to analyze, to reflect, to clarify and to dig deeper.

Just some snippets describing Visible Thinking, a Harvard Graduate School of Education project—

"Is thinking visible here? Are students explaining things to one another? Are students offering creative ideas? Are they, and I as their teacher, using the language of thinking? Is there a brainstorm about alternative interpretations on the wall? Are students debating a plan?"

When the answers to questions like these are consistently yes, students are more likely to show interest and commitment as learning unfolds in the classroom. They find more meaning in the subject matters and more meaningful connections between school and everyday life. They begin to display the sorts of attitudes toward thinking and learning we would most like to see in young learners -- not closed-minded but open-minded, not bored but curious, neither gullible nor sweepingly negative but appropriately skeptical, not satisfied with "just the facts" but wanting to understand.

We talk the need for relevance and connections, is this one avenue that leads in that direction? The attitudes, dispositions, they describe above really resonate with me.

The project details thinking routines, ideals, and suggestions that are easily incorporated into any curriculum for any age band.

About thinking routines---

Thinking routines are simple structures, for example a set of questions or a short sequence of steps, that can be used across various grade levels and content. What makes them routines, versus merely strategies, is that they get used over and over again in the classroom so that they become part of the fabric of classroom' culture. The routines become the ways in which students go about the process of learning.

Here are links to two examples of thinking routines--

3 2 1 Bridge

Question Sorts

About thinking ideals---

Thinking ideals are areas of thinking like understanding, truth, creativity, fairness, and more. They are important kinds of thinking that we cherish and strive to cultivate. Although there are certainly other thinking ideals besides these four, right now Visible Thinking includes specific guidelines on how to foster the development of these specific ideals.

What does it mean to get started with Visible Thinking by focusing on an ideal? You focus on that ideal, foreground thinking routines that emphasize the ideal, and draw out students' ideas and reflections about that ideal, to foster their conceptual development.

Personally and professionally thinking ideals of understanding, truth, creativity, and fairness have great appeal, particularly when I see them aligning with learning in a digital age.

Just imagine, youngsters deep into inquiry based learning around questions of social justice, around a globalized digital society-- having thinking routines, thinking ideals as part of their learning toolbox. Imagine making their thinking visible--

What learning might transpire-- What a future we might have before us--

Photo Credit

Making pizza and thinking of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia PLP cohort

2010-09-27T12:52:00.004-04:00

Yeast, sugar, water and some flour---

Pizza dough in the making---

Adding some sugar and warm water to the yeast---

Hmm, a bit of interaction as they get to know each other—

Then stirring in flour and kneading—

Observing the relationships the ingredients are forming---

The dough with continued kneading (I’m not one of those pound-get-rid-of-the-frustrations kneaders but more a gentle but firm pushing one) becoming elastic, malleable, and open—

With a timer set for the rising, I’m thinking and anticipating---

In one sense, my anticipation is focused on great pizza dough and the subsequent eating of homemade pizza. Yet on the other, my thinking and anticipation are on the upcoming PLP kickoff for Archdiocese of Philadelphia cohort for which I have the privilege and honor of joining as community leader.

Last year as I joined a new cohort I wrote:

Anxious yet eager--

Apprehensive yet confident—
Never really knowing the ending, yet perceiving an exciting journey--
Always upbeat and hopeful—
From kindergarten through 35 years in education, more than 55 years (oh my goodness), always the delight and thrill of a new beginning—the first day of school!
And still, those same feelings -- and an additional sense of urgency-- to get to the work that I passionately believe can result in a more accomplished global practice, a practice that seizes the potential of collective action to make this world a better place. --Beginnings

Those same feelings are accompanied by thoughts a bit deeper this year. As the pizza dough rises, I’m wondering if there isn’t an analogy here; if the ingredients for the dough aren’t like the cohort members which when the opportunity to interact with one another, begin to develop deep and meaningful relationships with one another, to grow and stretch. And with thoughtful and careful nudging and encouragement, they may begin to collectively become open to new ideas; they may work together to grow such a community that by its very nature embraces the strength found in flexibility and the potential that arises from kneading together ideas for new possibilities.

This batch of dough – exceptional. And I’m going beyond hope to work to assure that the relationships formed in this upcoming community are as extraordinary, as deep, as meaningful, and as fulfilling. For it will be with those relationships that, together, we will learn, and connect and collaborate and eventually take collective action to improve instruction for our students. And with that, may the extraordinary become an ordinary occurrence.

Archdiocese of Philadelphia PLP cohort-- are you ready -- to mix together, to grow and stretch and develop those extraordinary relationships? And can we have pizza too?

Photo Credit

Adopting new mindsets--

2010-09-27T07:51:00.005-04:00

Talk of war and victims--
References to being saved by Katrina--
Blame, fault, dysfunction--
Deep, and dark postings all around--
In discussions around educating our children--

So much energy expended--
So much frustration and anger expelled--

In my humble opinion, there is something very wrong with this picture. A bit of a slow thinker, I'm mulling over and questioning hard do I raise my voice with encouragement to move forward from a different perspective when a Tweet from Chris Lehmann last night aligned with much of what I'd been thinking:

Yes, the words humility and listen totally resonate with me and both of those have been pretty much missing entirely in recent weeks. Chris expanded on that in a later blog post from which I'm quoting. He eloquently voiced what he hoped he'd hear in the conversations.

"We are thrilled that the nation is focusing on education. We welcome so many leaders from such a wide array of professions are now making education a focus. We look forward to working with anyone who is willing to come to the conversation with humility and a willingness to listen, question and change. The task in front of us is so hard, and we understand that teachers and schools must change with the changing times. All that we ask is that you understand that school reform is not something you do to students and teachers and parents, it is something to undertake with students and teachers and parents. That is how we will build the schools we need." -- Chris Lehmann

As we strive to build the schools we need for our children, what if each of us humbly brought our stories of the best that we've observed thus far in learning and teaching. And what if after we listened to those provocative stories of learning at its best, we collectively built a vision of the future. What if from these stories we generate

"new ideas, images, theories and models that liberate our collective aspirations, alter the social construction of reality and, in the process, make available decisions and actions that weren’t available or didn’t occur to us before". --Gervasebushe

Naive on my part-- maybe-- But truly believing that together, if we adopt a new mindset, we can collectively create a design that enables possibilities we have not yet imagined. Just think-- twitter streams, blog posts, news media reports and symposiums--all that energy generating possibilities. Possibilities that can fuel the difficult and hard work to follow.

My letter--

2010-09-20T10:34:00.002-04:00

Today, on the Answer Sheet at the Washington Post, Anthony Cody was a guest blogger. As he makes his compelling case for teachers to raise their voices, he referenced and linked to letters written by members of Teachers Letters to Obama that call for change in current educational policy trends. Mine is there, one of many; I'm pasting the letter here also. As the conversations and the rhetoric gears up, remember our children.

Dear Mr. President, Secretary Duncan and members of Congress,

As a National Board certified teacher, a former classroom teacher of over 35 years, and a current teacher leader in a number of online communities of practice, I strongly encourage you to seriously consider an alternative direction as you address the issue of improving teacher practice to support student learning. The current trend of using test scores to evaluate teacher practice and improve instruction, in my opinion, is divisive, counterproductive, competitive and unsubstantiated by research.

There are many and varied studies indicating that teachers --who collaborate around their practice, who share a deep commitment to understanding learning and improving practice in communities, who develop collegial relationships and dispositions, who engage in difficult and meaningful conversations around learning, who take risks in implementing new strategies to improve learning, who continuously reflect on those changes and as a community develop a sense of collective efficacy-- will develop a knowledge of practice that leads to systemic change and better learning for all students.

In Finland, for example, teachers are provided weekly time to collaborate around questions of learning, they collaboratively develop curriculum from a lean set of national standards that meets the needs of their students. They work collectively to improve teaching practice and the country has seen positive systemic changes in instruction and learning for students.

I have had the privilege to participate as a leader and co learner in a number of online communities of practice and witness firsthand the power of teacher collaboration in improving learning. I urge you to open conversations with teachers and researchers around this topic and to support and implement policies for teacher collaboration that can lead to transformation in instruction and greater learning for all students.

For our children,
Lani Ritter Hall

Learning across times zones

2010-09-15T14:32:00.004-04:00

Four educators--

Two half a world away--

Across so many time zones that in our eastern time evening meetings, our Australian friends referred to the morning meetings as yesterday

On Skype and signed into an online community of practice--

Seeking a common understanding of aspects of knowledge construction in an online community to reach an inter rater reliability co efficient appropriate to proceed with a content analysis of more than 1000 responses--

This opportunity to learn from and with Sheryl, Sofia and Richard was pretty incredible and energizing -- filled with laughter --with deep meaningful conversations –with difficult decisions as we analyzed responses--

The knowledge construction functions we used in the content analysis were adapted from

Gunawardena, C. N., Lowe, C. A., & Anderson, T. (1997). Analysis of a global online debate and the development of an interaction analysis model for examining social construction of knowledge in computer conferencing. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 17(4), 395-429.

The original framework included sharing and comparing information, discovery and exploration of dissonance, negotiation of meaning, testing and modification of proposed synthesis and applications of newly constructed meaning.

Now that I’ve completed coding the sample I was assigned, I’ve begun to think on how valuable this experience is to my work as community leader for Powerful Learning Practice. My sense is that I may be more mindful of the types of responses in the communities in which I am learning and working; and given that mindfulness, may be able to draw on what I’ve learned about facilitation, particularly from MOOM, in helping folks dig deeper. Working with the framework on knowledge construction clarified for me, in a way that I’m not currently able to articulate (is that an oxymoron), a path to becoming better at learning and leading. I need to continue to think on this, as I know that my ability to intelligibly share with others will mean I’m far clearer in my thinking too.

Thanks to Sheryl, Sofia, and Richard for the opportunity to learn and grow--

Photo credit

On leadership and education

2010-07-20T13:53:00.003-04:00

Seemingly mired in a state of inexplicable inertia—

Hoping to extricate myself with this writing—

These resonated deeply with me in the last few weeks—

In Matters of the Heart, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach mentions seven themes of a leadership approach espoused by Jonathan Jansen:

1. We must recognize the politics of emotions that energize behaviors.

2. The change strategy cannot create victims.

3. The problem must be named and confronted.

4. Leaders must exemplify the expected standards of behavior.

5. We must engage emotionally with students in their world.

6. Teachers and principals themselves are sometimes actors.

7. The environment must accommodate risk. (Jansen, 2009b, p.189)

The basic message Jansen gives and Fullan underscores is that we need to learn to combine love, trustworthiness, and empathic but firm handling of resistance, to quicken the pace of the change we wish to see.

Themes one and two really caught my attention. As many work to impact and redirect the trending educational policy of the current administration, hoping to move the punitive rhetoric to that which is positive and supporting of America’s children, I think there is an important implication in “recognizing the politics of emotions that energize behaviors”. It’s my sincere belief that a focus on the well being of our children, the well being of our democracy plays to those emotions and can energize a diverse group of stakeholders and citizens to become activists in changing the direction of educational policy.

What really struck me was number two—a theme that seems rare in these days of polarity, vitriol, and deep partisanship in which bitterness and hatred often prevail-- a theme to me that offers limitless potential and possibility for moving forward. In Leadership comes from within, Jansen writes:

“I have learned that leadership is not only technical and muscular; it is also spiritual and emotional. Strong leaders are in touch with their own emotions and the emotions of their followers. They know that the "bottom line" can only be achieved by relating to the spiritual and emotional lives of people.

In divided communities, equanimity of leadership matters. Even-handed leadership acknowledges the humanity of all followers, irrespective of what they look like or what they believe.

I've learned that leadership that overcomes division has to be counter-cultural leadership.

To be a strong leader, do what people do not expect; love those you are expected to hurt; forgive those who do not deserve it. Surprise your followers by generosity when it is least expected. Make your leadership appeal to human solidarity.”

I see this leadership approach more far more difficult than the bitter blasting away at and denigrating of those that disagree and hence creating victims; it has the power to engage all parties in systemic change. To those who may find this unrealistic, Jansen bases his tenets on the leadership of Nelson Mandela in South Africa (Mandela’s 8 Lessons of Leadership under the link) which is what Jansen terms a leadership that makes an “enduring difference.” Given the changes that have occurred in what was historically a bitterly divided South Africa, my sense is we would do well to adopt and adapt these Jansen’s premises and Mandela’s lessons as we work to support a new direction in educational policy.

How might that approach to leadership look, read and feel? Two brief examples--

From Chris Lehman in Constructing Modern Knowledge Reflections – This feels to me an exemplar of language that envisions leadership in education from a lens similar to that of Jansen:

“…we also succeeded because we were in an environment where we were encouraged to spend the time to solve the problem. We had the permission, freedom, time and resources to create something.

This week, I was reminded of how powerful -- and how frustrating -- problem-solving and building can be. I also was reminded that we can work with our hands, we can listen and engage our minds in the world of ideas, and we can speak from our hearts.”

From Brian Crosby who urges us to go “back to the notion of building schools that honor kids” and in his sharing leads us, aware of our emotions that energize— through his students, our students--

What can we gain from such an approach? The possibilities abound-- How can we garner support to move forward in this way? Can it be through our very own modeling and demonstration?

To come back to--

2010-06-29T10:00:00.004-04:00

One thought led to another and then another,

Wanting them here as I continue on my journey,

To come back to.

Years ago, one of my favorite books, Teaching with your Mouth Shut, by Finkel,

Not forgotten, influential--

Finkel 's overarching theme in his text Teaching with your Mouth Shut stems from John Dewey's belief that "no thought, no idea, can possibly be conveyed as an idea from one person to another". Finkel explores, through both theory and praxis, possible methods for moving from the realm of "telling" students to "teaching" students. Early in his text, Finkel defines good teaching as "creating... those circumstances that lead to significant learning in others" --source

Recently, at Education Innovation a post, Teaching in the White Spaces--

Resonating, really--

"Leaving out the right ideas, concepts, information in our lessons engages the student’s imagination."

And he quoted this from Lao Tzu:

"Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu wrote

“Thirty spokes share the wheel’s hub,
It is the center hole that makes it useful.
Shape clay into a vessel,
It is the space within that makes it useful.
Cut doors and windows for a room,
It is the holes which make it useful.
Therefore profit comes from what is there,
Usefulness from what is not there."

And then today, from The Freire Project Blogs--

An Indian fable --

That spoke to me--

A wish Cocoon

Along a dusty road in India there sat a beggar who sold cocoons. A young boy watched him day after day, and the beggar finally beckoned to him.

"Do you know what beauty lies within this chrysalis? I will give you one so you might see for yourself. But you must be careful not to handle the cocoon until the butterfly comes out."

The boy was enchanted with the gift and hurried home to await the butterfly. He laid the cocoon on the floor and became aware of a curious thing. The butterfly was beating its fragile wings against the hard wall of the chrysalis until it appeared it would surely perish, before it could break the unyielding prison. Wanting only to help, the boy swiftly pried the cocoon open.
Out flopped a wet, brown, ugly thing which quickly died. When the beggar discovered what had happened, he explained to the boy "In order for the butterfly wings to grow strong enough to support him, it is necessary that he beat them against the walls of his cocoon. Only by this struggle can his wings become beautiful and durable. When you denied him that struggle, you took away from him his only chance of survival."

Don't we need to spend more time listening? providing time for learning? designing opportunities for our students to struggle, and to grow and to become? I think so!

Photo Credit

21 days-

2010-06-20T13:11:00.005-04:00

ECMP455-- Spring ECMP 455 Class at the University of Regina

13 weeks reduced to 3--

21 days to develop an understanding of these concepts (Learning is social and connected, Learning is personal and self-directed, Learning is shared and transparent, Learning is rich in content and diversity)--

Dean Shareski shared his plan--

His students, joining him, explored vast new landscapes in an exciting, roller coaster, journey into deep learning—

And because their learning was social, connected, shared, transparent, personal and self-directed, they have compiled powerful personal PD plans with wonderful resources, they have experienced some serious “aha” moments, and they have revealed some personal stories that will affect not only the look and feel of their future classrooms but their “learning” lives forever—

Just 3 of many for example—

Learn to Unlearn
So this was unexpected
Cyber bullying

Their blogs are linked here—

To the accomplished and caring educators they are becoming, to the power of a learning environment that is social, connected, shared, transparent, personal and self-directed, and to Dean for its creation— a standing ovation--

That we all can learn in and design this type of environment for all our students-- what possibilities might arise and abound—in 21 days--

Photo Credit

Help Wanted: Moving conversations from testing to learning

2010-06-15T18:59:00.005-04:00

Passion against testing and for learning--

Synergy electrifying a digital meeting space--

Expertise abounding--

Connecting with likeminded teachers--

Collaborating for our students--

Collective Action in the works to move the conversation from testing to learning—

One gathering of many planned—

To engage all stakeholders moving the conversation around education from testing to learning—

When teacher leaders, Yong Zhao, Doug Christensen and Monty Neill gather together in one room (this one sponsored by PLP) to dialogue as they did last night in TLO’s first virtual Teach In around education and learning, a remarkable electricity fills the air and ideas grounded in principles, values and vision encircle and embrace the gathering. (You can access the archive of the Elluminate gathering at this link.) Too rare an occurrence -- one to be treasured.

Under the fine leadership of Anthony Cody and Nancy Flanagan, teachers, teacher leaders, the members of the Facebook group Teachers’ Letters to Obama, are ready to move out of the “echo chamber” and engage all stakeholders as they seek to enable a huge shift --from discussions of testing to ones of learning- The time is now, as Anthony Cody says to use our “outside voices”.

My deep belief is that we can make a difference; through collaboration and collective action, we can influence change in policy. We have to, for our students.

How?

1. By joining the Facebook group, participating in the discussions there, and attending their upcoming gatherings.

2. By following Nancy’s and Anthony’s blogs

3. By learning more about alternatives to the current toxic testing policies and collecting evidence that supports the negative impact of this testing culture.

Monty Neill suggested these websites had useful information:

http://www.fairtest.org/
http://www.edaccountability.org/

Are these specific documents at the Fair Test site of value?

How Standardized Testing Damages Education
http://www.fairtest.org/how-standardized-testing-damages-education

Seven ways to work for NCLB reform
http://www.fairtest.org/seven-ways-work-nclb-reform

Forum on Educational Accountability (FEA) recommendations for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
http://www.fairtest.org/files/FEAreauthgoalssummary4-10_0.pdf

These sites on the alternate model that Doug Christensen described in the session-- The STARS model that had been implemented in Nebraska share a unique perspective that really resonates with me:

How Nebraska Leaves No Child Behind, 2007

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1626423,00.html

Douglas Christensen Assessment Maverick

http://www.edutopia.org/douglas-christensen

Doug Christensen on Classroom-Based Assessment

http://practicaltheory.org/serendipity/index.php?/archives/701-Doug-Christensen-on-Classroom-Based-Assessment.html

4. By committing to help move the conversation from testing to learning through writing letters to editors, to legislators and/or meeting with legislators. Zhao, Christensen and Neill all stressed the need to educate and influence legislators and the public and offered suggestions—

· Be for something; offer stories of youngsters learning—

· Learn a little about them before you write or meet and always mention something good they’ve done—

· Make a request-- for example, ask if we might return to the 1994 law

· Have evidence to back it up your request that illustrate the power of learning

· Leave them some materials if you are meeting in a group with them, not more than a 2 pager

Imagine the possibilities when hundreds and thousands of teachers raise their voices for learning and for their students—

Photo Credit

KIPP-- a model for the learning revolution?

2010-05-29T10:03:00.005-04:00

Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk, Bring on the Learning Revolution --
I'm listening, enjoying the humor, nodding in agreement--
Appreciating the comments about diversity and passion and the need for an agricultural model--
And then he mentioned "a great model" KIPP at 14.06 minutes into his talk--
The only model mentioned--
Disappointed --
KIPP, learning revolution, diversity, passion in learning -- not seeing how they go together--

Reflecting--

2010-05-23T10:01:00.003-04:00

‘Any serious learning will take you through a dark night of your identity’.
–Etienne Wenger via Jenny Mackness

Well into my 6^th decade and yet some of my most serious learning

Truly enjoying a second year in a role of community leader for PLP

Hoping to attain a greater sense of competency far sooner than occurred in my teaching practice

Realizing as Sheryl suggests that learning is not so much just doing but more reflecting transparently while doing, and thus this posting--

When the opportunity to act in the role of community leader with PLP opened, I welcomed the occasion to continue learning and the challenge of facilitating a diverse cohort of educators in a virtual learning community. My thought-- much of what I had learned in my many years as a classroom teacher and more recently in designing online PD for teachers, particularly my MOOM-ing experience, would translate easily into this role as well and be very helpful. While providing a sound foundation, what proved most valuable was my experience with full spectrum questioning from MOOM and the WRITE model (warm, responsive, inquisitive, tentative, and empathetic) for facilitation.

However, my understanding of learning in the social networking environment of PLP and my sophistication in applying my knowledge of concepts of community of practice was far from accomplished when I began. Thanks to the members of the Illinois-Ohio cohort, the Ohio Consortium, and the Elementary Virtual Institute of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Sheryl, Robin and Will, my wayfinding has been fruitful, though often fraught with frustration over my perceived inadequacies as I seek to become more competent in supporting socialibility and participation in a community. Always asking how can I better help to support and build a sense of community and social relationships and trust, how can I better encourage different levels of participation, and how can I better add value to the community on the side out of the middle, always as a co-learner --for that is how I presently view this role.

Much learned, and so much to yet to learn, from this place in which I now find myself—

That community, relationships and trust are essential to learning has long rung true to me and I always made a sincere effort to develop those in my classrooms. I treasure amazing and very special memories of students, events, and years in which we experienced incredible synergy and learning that arose from those relationships and trust that had developed. I’ve come to understand how much more critical these characteristics are to online communities.

Helping build a sense of community

Taking the recommendation of Cothrel and Williams (1999) to heart --that community building is the key to success and developing a sense of community for its members is essential to achieve a high level of participation, I’ve worked hard to do that. I’m feeling some degree of confidence in building community through one-on-networking. My feeling is that one of my greatest strengths is the ability to allieve some of the fears of novice members and work with them to understand all levels of participation are welcome in the community, that they have something of value to add. In addition, although I make pretty extensive use of comments to member’s personal pages in the virtual learning community, as well as to videos and photos they publish. In addition, I try to increase the exposure of community members to each other with references to postings or comments by others. I need, with greater intention, to leave comments for all in the community in the initial stages of the cohort and over the course of time.

Helping to build social relationships and trust

With the building of relationships, collegiality and trust, members begin to feel a sense of community and with that arises sharing and learning from each other. Nichani and Hung (2002) point out that:

“trust is the glue that binds the members of a community to act in sharing and adapting manner. Without trust, members would hoard their knowledge and experience and would not go through the trouble of sharing with or learning from others”

In my desire to build trust, I’ve used member’s names, met virtually with teams, responded with affirmations and positive statements, attempted to be sure that every member received a response in a timely manner, pointed to responses that evidenced competence, and co created content with digital stories as we became acquainted with each other for I’ve learned that in communities that are perceived as friendly, honest, reliable and competent, members are more willing to participate. (Sharratt and Usoro, 2003) Although my sense is that I’ve been somewhat successful, I believe there is a need for me to model more often and more fully competence through transparency and sharing, making myself more vulnerable to others in order to develop that kind of trust. That willingness to be more vulnerable is not always easy for me-- I’ve long been a pretty private person and paradoxically a great sharer when approached—lots of life experiences reinforced those characteristics. However, to that end, I’m committed to reading more widely, blogging and reflecting more frequently and openly, and tweeting with more consistency and substance.

Helping to encourage different levels of participation.

Knowing when to invite folks in and how often has been an area that has challenged me. Knowing and understanding the normal three levels of participation in community (a small core leadership group of active participants, about 10-15% of the whole community; a small active group (15-20%) that attend regularly participate in community forums occasionally; and large proportions of members are peripheral and rarely participate) (Wenger and his colleagues, 2002) and confidently encouraging the participation of those on the periphery are two very different things. Lurking or legitimate peripheral participation has been the topic of member posts in the communities in which I’ve learned, and often there are members who want to push and do aggressively; I’d rather pull and invite, those lurking. I’ve been extremely gentle in these conversations and in the future will be a bit more assertive in sharing if the topic is raised early on now that I’ve learned that it has been argued that with diverse members in terms of knowledge and expertise, allowing novices to the practice to acquire expertise through legitimate peripheral participation is important, as early criticism can lead to inactive community members. (Lave & Wenger, 1991) I need to be more sensitive to content that will draw those on the periphery into the community.

On another level, nurturing the growth of others to become leaders and then knowing when to step back and sit on my hands as they emerge to lead others has been a dimension that has been somewhat effective for me and an area I’ll continue to tweak and adjust with the dynamics of a particular community as guides.

Lastly, with a deepened understanding of Tuckman’s stages of group development, I hope to develop a better sense of how to respond most appropriately to responses that clearly represent one stage in which a professional learning team may be operating. Sheryl’s modeling has been of such great value and I hope to be able to apply what I’ve learned from her more aptly.

Mentoring and offering assistance to the diverse membership of the communities has been an area of overall strength as I see it and has provided great joy to me as the community has flourished and learned together.

Helping to add value

To encourage participation, potential members have to be convinced that it is worth participating in the CoP. (Sharratt & Usoro, 2003). As evidenced by an evaluation, this is an area in which I am challenged. Although I believe that I have been particularly effective in helping members to clarify their thinking and deepen their understanding through good questions and very tentative “what if” scenarios, and I believe that has been instrumental to building collective knowledge, I realize that I’ve not been seen as one to add value. With my previously stated commitment to model and demonstrate more fully transparency in learning and sharing through blogging, tweeting and more widespread reading, I hope to feel more confident that I do add more value to the community and that that confidence may shine through in the sharing and be a factor in persuading others to also add value to our collective learning.

If that occurs, I hope that I might be more effective in encouraging more reflection in the community (I was totally unsuccessful in that area) and in sharing the potential I see in community for learning. Encouraging critical reflections at junctures of the journey through modeling may assist all of us in the community to take knowledge creation to the next level and demonstrate to members that despite how busy they may become, the virtual community of practice can lead to continued learning, collective action, and a sophisticated global practice. I am seriously considering how I can better do just that.

What has truly taken me through a dark night of my identity and continues to be more difficult for me is my nature to mull things over and my failure to become more comfortable in communicating without the customary visual and auditory cues afforded by face to face conversations.

I’m a “ponderer”; my brain doesn’t seem to be wired for quick immediate responses, but for ones for which I’ve had time to consider angles and perspectives and word use that best relays my meaning. In a fast paced virtual community and digital society, those are not always most valuable ways to guide and build community. And although I’ve made some progress in this respect, I need to work more diligently at getting beyond always needing just the right word or phrase.

More critical though, I think, is that in my lifetime, I’ve been a grand reader of eyes, of facial expressions, of gestures, of body language, and sophisticated listener of the nuances of word choice, tone and rhythm in speech. That’s been a strength, an important for me-- one that I can’t play to in a virtual environment. Without those cues, I’ve found myself less confident in replying, concerned (perhaps overly and yet again maybe not) about misinterpretation and the opportunity for misunderstanding that by the nature of the asynchronous environment, seems to me to have the potential to become amplified. That I’m finding learning to infer and imply the correct meaning from pure text and infrequent images, the complexities and nuances, in a manner in which I am comfortable and feel competent challenging is an understatement. Yet it is my impression that this will come with more years of experience; I hope sooner than later for I know a more sophisticated approach may help to better build community, encourage participation and add value. Now a passion—to help others recognize the power and potential of community to improve our practice and learning for our students.

This reflecting and the very process of bringing some sense of organization to my thoughts regarding my current place in wayfinding has been incredibly powerful learning-- For these opportunities and all the possibilities that abound from them, I am most grateful. A very special thanks to Sheryl for her generous, inspired sharing and the pathmarkers she has provided on this journey.

Deep and serious learning, through a dark night of identity, significant time to reflect meaningfully— might these same opportunities excite all learners, educators and students, as much as they have this aging, grey haired woman?

_______________________________________

Cothrel, J. & Williams, R.L. (1999) On-line communities: helping them form and grow. Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol.3, No.1, pp 54-60.

Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity: Cambridge University Press.

Photo Credit

Slow learning

2010-04-21T10:36:00.003-04:00

A volcano—

An ash cloud—

Fast paced global traveling in Europe came to a halt--

And then the stories not only of frustration but also of folks talking, and moving slowly—

Ewan McIntosh’s [#ashcloud] Keep moving in the right direction and talk to people thinks on the latter and then draws a terrific parallel to learning:

“But imagine if learning could learn to slow down a little. Fewer (or no) tests we have to meet (like unpredictable timetables and trains to new, uncharted destinations), and more talking to strangers who might be interesting, useful (or might not, and necessitate some diplomatic manoeuvrings onto the next conversation).”

There’s faster movement now with the return of some air travel—

In that increased speed, I hope we don’t let go of that notion of slow learning—

In A Dangerous but Powerful Idea - Counter Acceleration and Speed with Slowness and Wholeness, Geetha Narayanan (Founder and Director of Srishti, School of Art Design and Technology and the Mallya Aditi International School) describes slow learning—

“Slowness as a pedagogy allows students to learn not at the metronome of the school day or the school bell, but at the metronome of nature, giving them time to absorb, to introspect, to contemplate, to argue and rebut and to enjoy.”

And she continues:

“The learning opportunities which foster slowness are created in such a way that they operate on three levels which are not discrete, linear or sequential. Taken together they enable experiences which foster genuine and sophisticated understanding. The layers are:

1. looking and listening

2. exploring and thinking

3. making and being.

The goal of our slowness pedagogy is to generate the more creative, more lyrical and the playful aspects of learning and represent it in the many languages of children - the language of movement or music; the languages of colour or shape; the language of images and of forms; the language of sounds and of feelings and many more.

In order to do this we arrange learning differently, because we are not-school. The learning arrangements that we find foster and promote slowness are:

1. the circle which represents symbolically the spirit of unity and equality within the learning community

2. grouping learners in collaborative, vertical heterogeneous teams

3. using large blocks of time

4. themes or topics for study are not prescribed but are emergent. The topics are selected from student talk, through dialogue with the community or based on the individual experiences of a family or the interests of a child. It is not static and a given but is the constant subject of negotiation.

5. the learning is organised into projects - some seem to go on for as long as a term and others last just a few weeks. The facilitators at the centres help the learners frame their learning plan, research the topic and make decisions on the representational medium that will demonstrate and showcase their learning.

6. the learning materials are made using local content, in ways that allow them to be used and re-used and to be produced within the community at low cost

7. all learning is the result of direct first person conscious experience. This method or tool focuses on the transformation of the self and the awakening of the mind rather than on the transfer of knowledge and the acquisition of skills.

The new digital technologies are tools that allow for learners to develop their imaginations, to be able to play and to have fun, to be able to tell stories in different and exciting ways. But in order to generate value they need to be integrated into new forms and structures in an invisible and contextual manner, so that they work slowly and with great finesse to create an unquiet and critical pedagogy - one where new media arts can sustain social change.”

In an interview Geetha shares:

Deceleration--- “an unquiet and critical pedagogy” in which technology is integrated so it “works slowly and with great finesse”-- Just imagine the possibilities for learning--

Photo credit

On paths to possibilities

2010-04-13T19:41:00.003-04:00

"It's easy for anybody to point out what a kid does wrong. But that's not what a good teacher does. A good teacher goes out of his way to figure out what the kid does right and then sets the kid on a path of confidence and success." --Teach Paperless

Reading—

Liking this quote—

And thinking and wondering---

It was not uncommon to seek out a youngster’s talents, to build on them, and set them on such path-- years ago-- this statement would not have been so remarkable.

It’s a mindset that often leads to unforeseen learning and achievements—to young people with heads held high and eyes on the future.

Can this mindset also be of value in professional development as we seek to engage reluctant professionals in 21^st century learning?

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/imuttoo/2987257461/

Different paths, different outcomes--

2010-03-11T10:45:00.003-05:00

Elimination of funding for the National Writing Project—

Common Core Standards proposals--

National Educational Technology Plan—

Seemingly very different paths, different outcomes-

Sensing some tensions here, some real disconnects?

Despite many sources and opinions available, feeling compelled to add my voice to the mix---

The National Writing Project -- The proposed national budget would eliminate funding for the National Writing Project. That would be a great loss. Don’t reading and writing and thinking, more reading, revising and thinking lead to good learning? Bud Hunt here and here, Brian Crosby, and Zachary Chase are some of the many seeking to change this. Add your voice; our government needs to understand the importance of writing and the positive impact of this project.

Common Core Standards-- The draft of the Common Core Standards is available for comment. The New York Times says:

The new proposals could transform American education.

Believing in my heart that diversity has lead to the richness of underlying values of our nation and really questioning here the wisdom in striving for such conformity--- especially from each youngster at a specific time in their lives, when developmentally perhaps it really isn’t just right for them? And appreciating the following perspectives:

The goal here isn’t to nourish children’s curiosity, to help them fall in love with reading, to promote both the ability and the disposition to think critically, or to support a democratic society. Rather, a prescription for uniform, specific, rigorous standards is made to order for those whose chief concern is to pump up the American economy and triumph over people who live in other countries.

If these standards are more economic than educational in their inspiration, more about winning than learning, devoted more to serving the interests of business than to meeting the needs of kids, then we’ve merely painted a 21st-century facade on a hoary, dreary model of school-as-employee-training.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/01/14/17kohn-comm.h29.html

The debate about national standards should really be a debate about what education is, what kind of skills and knowledge should be taught, and what truly are essential for our children to succeed in the 21^st century. We cannot simply look at what is taught in a subject area. We must consider the meaning of education. After all, what we want is the big watermelon, not the tiny sesame seed.

http://zhao.educ.msu.edu/2010/01/19/sesame-vs-watermelon-what-is-missing-in-the-national-standard-debate/

About the National Educational Technology Plan from THE Journal:

If there were any doubts about the Obama administration's intentions toward education technology, the United States Department of Education settled them Friday with the release of the first public draft of the National Education Technology Plan (NETP). The 114-page document reveals an intent not only to infuse technology throughout the curriculum (and beyond), but to implement some major--sometimes radical--changes to education itself.

You can find the entire plan here. Will Richardson’s summary mirrors my surprise, excitement, and wonder. This snippet from his post captures the good stuff in the plan:

* Personalized learning

* Learning that is “lifelong and life-wide and available on demand.”

* A device and ubiquitous access for every student and teacher.

* Professional development that focuses on “connected teaching” in “online learning communities” (Sounds familiar.)

* Professional learning that is “collaborative, coherent, and continuous.”

* Learning that is “always on”

* Learning that is no longer “one size fits all.”

* Student work on the cloud

* Student managed electronic learning portfolios

* Students as “networked learners”

* Broadband everywhere

* Open educational resources

* Creative Commons licenses

* Changes to CIPA and FERPA to open up access

* Rethinking the “basic assumptions” of schooling

Given these, wouldn’t all children have opportunities to realize their fullest potential? Won’t individual talents, creativity, and innovation grow and flourish in such an environment?

Now I’m wondering here -- how do national standards and “Learning that is no longer ‘one size fits all’.” co-exist with each other? Or can they? Or maybe I shouldn’t even get stuck there but be energized to move forward, to move beyond hope to the work at hand, as I consider the possibilities that can abound as we travel the path of the National Educational Technology Plan which seems to me can lead to far richer and far more abundant outcomes?

Harley

2010-03-06T19:26:00.003-05:00

Chasing deer, treeing turkeys, stalking rabbits, dragging huge sticks and branches, loving the sun and the grass, riding everywhere in the back seat of our Civic—

Even blogging--

He lived life to the fullest—

He loved us as fiercely as we loved him—

A bond so strong it defies description--

We miss him terribly--

Why does that test label her grade for this school year?

2010-02-10T14:16:00.003-05:00

An email from a former student--

A caring, bright, energetic young woman who excelled in her classroom internships as a senior in high school--

Now a first year teacher in middle childhood classrooms in a large urban district—

And experiencing a myriad of challenges with classroom management and testing--

“I don't see the purpose of tests on top of tests on top of tests... I have a young lady in my 8th grade class that is working harder than I think she has worked her whole school career. She comes to me for help and really desires to do well this term. I was told that my grades for her are inflated and that she cannot receive a B in my class because she is below basic according to last years’ PSSA test. My classroom tests obviously aren't challenging enough if she is doing that well, yet I have students that do absolutely nothing and have F's in my class. I don't understand the education system anymore. What if the day before the test her dog died, what if that was a day she didn't eat breakfast, what if she was being bullied or something else was going on? Why does that test label her grade for this school year?”

Tears in my eyes, consumed by anger and sorrow, with a heavy heart, my reply attempted to suggest how it might be possible to maintain a good relationship with her student since I had worked with so many “at risk” kids who desperately needed to be able to feel some success at school after significant effort --yet regretting and knowing it did not address the real issue-- and surely didn’t answer her questions--

And a later email—

“I am going to have to try giving harder tests structured like the PSSA exam according to the math lead teacher and the testing specialist.”

I had some sense that ‘testing cultures’ were pretty abhorrent in urban districts – I have no words to accurately describe my feelings regarding this.

Aren’t we going to lose an entire generation of young people -- not only those whose circumstances into which they are placed through no fault of their own make learning a challenge yet thrive and flourish in a caring, student centered classroom, but also those who play the game of school so well and leave us with the skills of test taking rather than critical thinking?

And what of this generation of new teachers, who entered the profession full of hope, energy, creativity and passion-- who hope to touch the souls of youngsters and share a love of learning -- How long will it take for them to wilt and wither?

The “tuning out” or quiet cries of young people, the despair of novice, caring teachers-- the outrage of those of us who’ve come before them -- surely these can no longer be heard by the powers that be as just mere whimpers and irrelevant? Or can they?

A learning posture--

2010-01-27T15:31:00.003-05:00

Stand up straight; watch your posture. Do you remember that or is it a product of my generation? I heard it lots when I was young; even had to practice walking with a book on my head—my folks really stressed it and I never had good posture to their chagrin—

In the classroom, I did think about posture-- from a different perspective, always searching for a more accomplished practice. Initially, my posture was upright, in the front of the class, talking, giving information, and telling. My “teaching posture” evolved -- I was often sitting, in the back or with a group of students or a student, sometimes prodding, questioning, and listening. Yet I’ve noticed that my initial posture still is in vogue in many classrooms.

And as I’ve been involved in various learning communities more recently, I’ve noticed that teachers seem to be so comfortable in “teaching postures” which mirror my initial one, that it is translated into their professional learning too. I’m really feeling, and I could be wrong, that negatively impacts moving forward toward a global 21^st century practice. So lately I’ve been spending time pondering on a learning posture-- what it looks like, what it sounds like, and how to help teachers adopt one.

I’m wondering, after reading and thinking, might a “learning posture” be characterized as:

Curious and Inquisitive

So I am curious- what do you think? Should we be focusing on a different conversation than the one we are having? Should we be re-envisioning education in ways that are radically different? And if so- How do we move from talking to doing? Or is that important? --Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach

What does this new design look like? What are the big questions regarding learning, teaching and schooling that we need to begin to address? How will the roles of elementary schools and high schools begin to evolve? How will we address the divide issues that these opportunities outside of school create? And how do we personally plan for these changes as learners, parents and teachers? --Will Richardson

My focus for the next while will be an experiment as well as a creative outlet. I’ve created a space to publish fictional narratives where my true identity is intentionally obscured. I want to see what happens to the questions of digital identity, social structures and relationships, and network dynamics when the identity of the author is replaced with a fictional character – and the readers are aware that the "I" and "me" in the blog entries refer to someone who does not actually exist. –Mike Bogle

Tentative and Unfinished

Examples of “process as text” are recordings of classroom conversations, considered temporary and fleeting, that become something more than a passing conversation when they exist as video or audio recordings. These types of texts stay fixed – we can’t really go back and change the flow of a conversation – but our finished products, when published digitally, are easily and perhaps even secretly editable and revisable after publication. So we’re able to fix the temporary and fiddle with the permanent. That seems interesting and worthy of further exploration. –Bud theTeacher

That’s all I’ll say for now. I hope to revisit these ideas on occasion. I also hope you’ll help me think through them. – Jon Becker

Much to continue to mull over here: some ideas to tinker with, and some practices to encourage, but still very much a set of “conjectures and dilemmas” (Bruner) to keep exploring. – Gardner Campbell

Collaborative and Participatory

I was part of an interesting discussion on Twitter Friday night and I wanted to share it here, as well as add a few final thoughts. Participants that I reference are Bud Hunt, Brian Crosby, Dean Shareski, Anne Van Meter, Barbara Barreda, and Karen Fasimpaur. Thanks to all of you for helping me think through these ideas. – Karl Fisch

Reflective

That’s one of those really concise shift statements that makes me bend my own frame a bit. I think too often I fall into looking at these tools and wonder what they can add to our classrooms and our teaching when the real question is how can our classrooms and teaching add capacity to the tools. – Will Richardson

When I began mulling this over I had not anticipated that I would be including a sense of unfinished business; yet I have begun to feel that is particularly important. I’m not yet satisfied that I’ve captured the essence of a “learning posture” yet am feeling pretty strongly that it’s worth pursuing, especially avenues for helping teachers with an awareness of their posture and how that may affect not only their own professional learning but also that of others.

Might it not be possible that such a focus may open doors for many to possibilities for learning not yet imagined?

Photo Credit

Two years pass--

2010-01-19T08:41:00.000-05:00

A time for rededication--

2010-01-17T20:45:00.000-05:00

The national holiday honoring Dr. King is an occasion for joy and celebration for his life and his work toward nonviolent social change in America and the world. Traditionally, we celebrate holidays with parties, family picnics, fireworks, a trip back home or to the seashore. However, we must also be mindful that this is a special holiday - one which symbolizes our nation's commitment to peace through justice; to universal brother- and sisterhood; and to the noblest ideal of all: a democratic society based on the principles of freedom, justice and equality for all people. ... the holiday is an occasion for thanksgiving, unselfishness, and rededicating ourselves to the causes for which he stood and for which he died. -- source

Photo Credit

Why Haiti Matters-- from President Obama

2010-01-17T13:42:00.002-05:00

"We act for the sake of the thousands of American citizens who are in Haiti, and for their families back home; for the sake of the Haitian people who have been stricken with a tragic history, even as they have shown great resilience; and we act because of the close ties that we have with a neighbor that is only a few hundred miles to the south.

But above all, we act for a very simple reason: in times of tragedy, the United States of America steps forward and helps. That is who we are. That is what we do. For decades, America's leadership has been founded in part on the fact that we do not use our power to subjugate others, we use it to lift them up—"

Barack Obama
Today's technologies afford to us incredible possibilities and opportunities to take collective action--

Add this to joy and passion --

2010-01-04T13:49:00.006-05:00

“We need to include “poignance” as an essential analytical and expressive skill.”

Gardner Campbell

This is a revised version of a post I created for the PLP Ohio Consortium. Strangely, I’m more comfortable with it here in my own space; perhaps because of its subject and how important I think it is to all learning experiences.

Although the focus of Gardner’s post is university level learning, I’m wondering if it doesn’t readily apply to teacher learning and learning in k12 classrooms. His post is beautifully written; far more articulate that I can be. Be it the writing, the ideas--- they touched a spot deep in the core of me. For it seems to me, given poignance, passion, and joy, learning in our current schools would look and sound so very different.

He writes:

“What do our students see? That learning is largely a matter of being overruled, of memorizing the lesson that beginners don’t know enough to ask intelligent questions (when in fact some of the best questions come from beginners). And that teaching is an exercise in providing answers and furnishing conclusions, not in guiding inquiries or (heaven forefend) asking real questions.”

As he described current learning, I was taken back to an online course, CCKO8, in which I was a novice participant and faced with the professor’s comment that novices irritated him. It was not a comfortable feeling and at times I did my best to learn as much as I could under his radar.

But more important, I thought back to my classrooms, and then to my current work with PLP and spent some serious time reflecting and hoping that no learner in my classroom, no learner in the communities that I’ve been privileged to have a role, have ever in any way experienced diminished learning, felt unwelcome or inadequate because of similar attitudes and words; only wanting every learner to know the joy of asking questions and learning together.

The definition of poignance that Gardner applied:

“OED’s last senses in definition 2a: “tenderly sorrowful, bitter-sweet.”

And his suggestion:

“In the context of education, especially as one gains more sophisticated skills of analysis and expression, it seems to me vitally important that we maintain a sense of humility and shared tenderness in the midst of our uncertain journeys.”

I’d not considered previously—

Yet I’m wondering if this is one critical element of what may be missing in so many teacher learning experiences, of what may be missing as so many of us seek to change learning in schools, of what may be lacking in individual classrooms.

Doesn’t looking at learning through a lens of poignance help guide us on our journey? How might that lens/consideration change what we do, what we say, how we say it? Might learning be more as John Steinbeck described in Captured Fireflies?

In her classroom our speculations ranged the world
She aroused us to book waving discussions.
Every morning we came to her carrying new truths, new facts,
New ideas cupped and sheltered in our hands like captured fireflies.
When she went away a sadness did not go out.

Poignant, joyful, passioned-- won't possibilities abound?

Photo Credit

For the new year-- a wish for peace

2009-12-31T15:39:00.002-05:00

Imagine all the people living life in peace.

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.

I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will live as one.

--John Lennon

Photo Credit

One year later—wayfinding continued

2009-12-12T14:36:00.001-05:00

One year ago—passioned, savoring my journey as a PLP community leader—

Feeling exhilarated, bungling, practiced, ineffectual, poised, uncertain

And finally thinking I was on the cusp of moving beyond the tensions, the dualities I found inherent in the role of community leader—

One year later—perhaps a little wiser

Just a touch more widely read—

Privileged to be mentored by Sheryl and learning from her brilliant expertise and exceptional, sophisticated understanding of online communities of practice-

Engaged with two vastly different evolving PLP communities – PEARLS and Ohio Consortium-

Each unique, with its own politics, personalities, passions and focus-

Yet sharing the common ground of a exigent learning journey-

Arrogant in suggesting a year ago that the “perhaps less need for me to make those difficult choices” as the community evolved-- of what, and when and how to nudge, to cajole and to be silent—

Yet right spot on in predicting “special” learning journeys--

Finding that wayfinding, despite the markers with which Sheryl lights the way, always is infinite and never-ending—

Finding that wayfinding, always is fraught with tensions and dualities – jumping in, sitting on my hands, nudging, holding back, encouraging—

Finding that wayfinding continues to invoke inexplicable, disparate feelings – joy, insecurity, fervor, doubt, excitement, indecision, zeal, awe —

Learning, forever learning-- reveling in the messiness, the tensions, and the day to day need for nuanced silence or responses—

Now a bit more certain, in any emergent, evolving community, as a community leader, finding my way never will be less difficult or demanding, never less exciting or invigorating—

Absolutely loving the ambiguity and the complexity--

Truly hoping that each community member sees their personal wayfinding in the same light—

And is able to share, as I will, wayfinding one year hence--

Yes, let's!!!

2009-12-10T13:36:00.003-05:00

"Let's make school a place where we meet students in their mind's eye, where we encourage the square pegs to stand atop the round holes, to build not a standardized future but a wildly innovative and creative future, beyond anything even the best drillers of round holes could have imagined." -- ASCD Inservice

Photo Credit

Missing, Celebrating, and Wondering

2009-11-30T14:21:00.003-05:00

Thinking about blogging –

Seriously and thus this subsequent post--

Prompted by a gnawing emptiness— missing opportunities to have windows on the classrooms of two accomplished teachers and their students through their blogs.

Finding real value in returning here to think “out loud”— to create some record of my continued journey into learning— continuing attempts at articulating a lifelong passion for learning and education--

As Anne Davis and Darren Kuropatwa found new directions in their lives, I celebrated with them; and selfishly regretted the loss of the opportunity to connect and develop relationships with their students. And just as great the loss of their transparency in their practice surrounding blogging which was and continues to be a beacon -shining on the potential for making student thinking transparent, for building communities of learners and bloggers, for enabling student ownership of learning, for extending learning through audience participation , for collaborating and reflecting, and for promoting learning in which mistakes become avenues for continued learning.

On Darren’s class blogs, student authors composed daily scribe posts and expert voices projects which not only made their understanding of the concepts of the day transparent but also helped deepen their learning as they taught others through their blogging. Classmates helped with understanding by noting and suggesting in the comments. Excellence was expected; mistakes were viewed as a part of learning. I shall forever be eternally grateful to Darren for accepting me as a mentor for a number of years, trusting me to comment to his students. His transparency in describing his ever evolving and ever more accomplished practice was a source of great joy and learning for me.

As well, the years that I had the enormous privilege to be a commenter for Anne’s 5^th graders and learn from Anne and her students profoundly touched me. I learned so much more about joy in learning --particularly blogging, and reflecting. Anne’s process of developing an understanding of blogging for her students seems to me to be exemplary as they examine and explore the concept of blogging framed by the traits of writing plus linking and gradually move from commenting on other blogs to designing and writing their very own posts. Anne always recognized the importance of audience for student voices and consequently Harley and I were delighted to become 2 of many who were contacted in advance and invited to become a part of the group of commenters. Posts were never reviewed by her prior to publishing; commenters often provided pointers for improvement. Anne often asked them to “bump” their writing later in the year by going back to a post and revising and she developed a process for proof revising with podcasting which was very effective. Her kids truly enjoyed collaborating and connecting with Darren’s high school and Clarence’s middle school students. I’m really looking forward to the chapter publication of her work on building a community of bloggers that describes the complexities and nuances of blogging with young people.

Involved as a mentor with Darren’s students and as a commenter with Anne’s, I had the sense that something pretty special was occurring. Now, upon lots of reflection and collecting all these resources (and I’m missing many) I’m wondering if they don’t they point to pedagogies that epitomize the potential of and the reasons for blogging? What keeps us from offering such incredible opportunities for joyous, authentic, collaborative, student owned learning for all our students? Don’t all our children deserve these kinds of opportunities?

At a crossroads--

2009-11-04T21:38:00.001-05:00

"...what America needs is an education system that cultivates a diversity of talents and develops “unique niche talents” that are not available at a cheaper price elsewhere in the world or that cannot be replaced by machines." --source

Yong Zhao

Sees American education at a crossroads—

Zhao’s perspective truly resonates with me both on his blog and in his recent book, Catching Up or Leading the Way

On national standards and NCLB--

As a result of adopting national standards, schools will produce a homogenous group of individuals with the same abilities, skills, and knowledge. Such a result will be disastrous to America and Americans because as globalization and technology continue to change the world,

America needs a citizenry of creative individuals with a wide range of talents to sustain its tradition of innovation. Americans need talents and abilities that are not available at a lower price elsewhere on earth. American education, despite its many problems, has at least the basics that support the production of a more diverse pool of talents. However these basics are being discarded by NCLB and similarly spirited reform efforts.

In a way, the reforms that aim to save America are actually putting America in danger. NCLB is sending American education into deeper crisis because it is likely to lead increasing distrust of educators, disregard of students’ individual interests, destruction of local autonomy and capacity for innovation, and disrespect for human values. --source

On our country failing to compete with other countries, particularly in math and science--

Last week, a comprehensive study based on analysis of major longitudinal datasets found “U.S. colleges and universities are graduating as many scientists and engineers as ever before.” The study was conducted by a group of researchers at Georgetown University, Rutgers University, and the Urban Institute. “Our findings indicate that STEM retention along the pipeline shows strong and even increasing rates of retention from the 1970s to the late 1990s,” says the report. However, not all STEM graduates enter the STEM field. They are attracted to other areas. --source

From Education Week Curriculum Matters on the need for niche talents, and passionate people:

"The American education system now is driven ... to push us toward standardization, centralization, and embodying test scores, which actually I think is moving American education away from the future," he says in the video, produced by the Mobile Learning Institute and sponsored by the Pearson Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the publishing giant. "The global economy requires niche talents, requires people to become artists, become creators, become musicians, become innovators, become people who are passionate about their work."

From Teacher Magazine Living in Dialogue on testing and monolithic thinking--

Zhao makes a strong case that uniform tests result in monolithic thinking. In the modern global economy, the passion that results when people are allowed to develop along diverse paths is far more precious than the large scale mediocrity that results from national standards and a test-centered (or "data-driven") school culture.

Most pointedly, he questions the contradiction between President Obama's condemnation of the emphasis on tests, and his embrace of "tougher, clearer standards" as the key to reform.

From his book—on the strengths of American education and suggested changes--

The traditional strengths of American education—respect for individual talents and differences, a broad curriculum oriented to educating the whole child, and a decentralized system that embraces diversity—should be further expanded. Page 182

Offering suggested changes--

expand the definition of success, personalize education and view schools as global enterprises. P 182

And in his book, he concludes--

American education is at a crossroads. Two paths lie in front of us: one in which we destroy our strengths in order to catch up with others on test scores and one in which we build on our strengths so we can keep the lead in innovation and creativity. The current push for more standardization, centralization, high stakes testing, and test-based accountability is rushing us down the first path, while what will keep America truly strong and American prosperous should be the latter, the one that cherishes individual talents, cultivates creativity, celebrates diversity, and inspires curiosity. As we enter a new world rapidly changed by globalization and technology, we need to change course. Instead of instilling fear in the public about the rise of other countries, bureaucratizing education with bean-counting policies, demoralizing educators through dubious accountability measures, homogenizing school curriculum, and turning children into test takers, we should inform the public about the possibilities brought about by globalization, encourage education innovations, inspire educators with genuine support, diversify and decentralize curriculum, and educate children as confident, unique, and well-rounded human beings. From page 198 also quoted here

So much more in his book, documented— with suggestions for global and digital competencies-

Isn’t this powerful, good thinking? How can we persuade policymakers to read and listen?

Core standards--

2009-10-12T16:41:00.002-04:00

A move to standardized standards—

By folks who feel it’s in the best interests of students and our country—

But is it?

Lots of articulate folks adding to the discussion-- with reason and some with more passion--

Tom Hoffman’s 10 Reasons you should care about the Common Core State Standards Initiative's Draft English Language Arts Standards-

“Your state has probably already committed to using them.
The federal Department of Education is exerting heavy pressure on states to adopt the Common Standards.
An impressive and powerful list of partners and supporters are backing the Common Standards initiative.
These "college- and career-ready" standards, if implemented, will become the basis of all subsequent K-12 English Language Arts standards.
These standards, if implemented, will become the basis of all subsequent K-12 English Language Arts curriculum and assessments.
The results of those assessments will, if implemented, be used to evaluate not just schools and students, but the performance of individual teachers.
The creation of data systems to attach test scores to individual teachers is a basic requirement for federal Race to the Top grants and a top priority for the federal Department of Education and other powerful interests.
The Common Core State Standards Initiative English Language Arts Standards are not actually English Language Arts standards.
The Common Standards for English Language Arts are narrower, lower, and shallower than the Language Arts standards of high performing countries.
We are inviting testing companies to determine the future of our schools with virtually no accountability or public input.”

Deborah Meier’s Standards and Passing on the Idea of Democracy

“On standardized standards: I'm a fan of disagreements and messiness—and maybe that's beyond the call of Reason. But here's a try.

If we all agreed on everything, or even came close, democracy would be an inefficient and cumbersome business and a luxury we could ill afford in tough times. Yet getting agreement is no easy matter. Democracy was "invented" to do that—when needed.

My default position: leave it to those most affected to settle it.”

Chris Lehman’s Core Standards Sound Bites and Standardization

“There are plenty of reasons to question this movement, but here's the scariest part for me. This Core Standards movement should scare everyone who believes that meaning and learning is still most powerfully made in the spaces that students and teachers share.

This is about how students are taught that information, how they are assessed on that information, and on the role of big business in teaching and assessing them.”

Karl Fisch’s What’s Core? summarizes and extends many of the points in all the conversations.

“I would strongly suggest that you take some time to review the standards and some of the thoughtful posts about them, and then provide your feedback. Particularly if you’re a Language Arts teacher, but even if you’re not because, as Tom points out, as they are currently worded all teachers will be responsible – and held accountable – for students meeting these standards. And, as he points out in another post, it appears as though the end goal just might be high school graduation requirements.”

As Karl notes:

“Where can you provide some feedback? NCTE has issued a statement and is soliciting feedback, and you can provide feedback directly to the validation committee by October 21st. If you’re a member of NEA or AFT, you might also consider letting them know what you like or dislike about these draft standards.”

Isn’t this a time to raise your voice and comment?

Caught my attention--

2009-09-29T11:19:00.003-04:00

Stephen Downes' post caught my attention--

His analogy of 21st century skills as an operating system for the mind resonates with me, really paints a picture--

Not wanting to lose it--

"21st century skills are, in short, an operating system for the mind.

They constitute the processes and capacities that make it possible for people to navigate a fact-filled landscape, a way to see, understand and acquire those facts in such a way as to be relevant and useful, and in the end, to be self-contained and autonomous agents capable of making their own decisions and directing their own lives, rather than people who need to learn ever larger piles of 'facts' in order to do even the most basic tasks."

Beginning--

2009-09-17T10:09:00.003-04:00

Anxious yet eager--

Apprehensive yet confident—

Never really knowing the ending, yet perceiving an exciting journey--

Always upbeat and hopeful—

From kindergarten through 35 years in education, more than 55 years (oh my goodness), always the delight and thrill of a new beginning—the first day of school!

Tomorrow— again a new beginning with the Ohio Consortium PLP cohort and Sheryl and Will—

And still, those same feelings -- and an additional sense of urgency-- to get to the work that I passionately believe can result in a more accomplished global practice, a practice that seizes the potential of collective action to make this world a better place.

This beginning is really very special.

Photo Credit

Principles and Practices--

2009-09-10T20:21:00.001-04:00

Earlham College-- 4 years in an environment that shaped my being-- one of great respect for each person, one of classlessness, one of listening--

One of my first posts shared my story of finding the power of silence in knowledge construction at Earlham--

Thinking even more about Earlham lately, its influence on my worldview and my being, even some 40 years hence—

A worldview that compelled my last post--- listening, civil discourse, and moving away from “us and them” –

And today in the US mail a letter from the college president that spoke to the college community’s principles and practice, “a document that does not make detailed prescriptions about what people should say or do but rather helps them learn about how to speak and act responsibly in a community in which we accord unreserved respect to each individual.

I’m wondering if the Principles and Practices of this community can’t be helpful in guiding our country’s leaders, families, teachers and children as we strive to move forward.

In an introductory section, the use of the word “we” is discussed:

“We recognize that this is not a homogenous “we.” …We are a changing group of diverse persons, bringing to this institution a variety of racial, ethnic, sexual, and other identities, as well as a great range of personal and cultural values, experiences, and perspectives. We welcome this diversity, and the strength and transformations it makes possible.”

The principles, their practice and queries:

I’m wondering again what our nation and our schools might look and sound like were the principles of respect for persons, integrity and consensus governance to underlie all our actions.

Me--- I’m going to return to this post, to the principles, practices and queries, to check myself when the wars of words rage, and emotions and vitriol run rampant—and attempt to live a better life that in some small way may help to make this world a better place. Join me??

What if--

2009-09-06T20:31:00.001-04:00

A passioned people--

From the very beginning, fiercely engaging in protecting perceived freedoms--

From a variety of life experiences, yet unable to welcome diversity and newcomers--

A people often at war with each other, unaware of the perspectives of others in distant cities and rural towns--

Always us and them--

“The United States is a fragile nation. Always has been.” Ira Socol

Now participatory web-based technologies and with them grand opportunities to listen, engage in conversation and come to understand each other—for all voices to be lifted and heard

AND YET—

With no norms, no expectations for civil discourse, no voluntary compliance to listen, to reason— these very technologies seem to amplify vitriol, unleashed passions and incivility.

Sadly, it is the President’s speech to students on Tuesday at noon which has been met with great resistance by some and embraced by others that compels this writing because tragically, the language around this issue has again highlighted the inability of our diverse populace to engage in civil discourse with seemingly few exceptions.

Even as Will Richardson eloquently and with great civility reflects upon the possible lost opportunity for a “teachable moment”, at least one of his readers touched the fringes of “us and them” oratory.

It brings me to wonder--

What if we took the lead--

What if we made a concerted effort--

And made use of these participatory technologies to model -- really listening to another’s perspective, and then engaging in civil discourse without the “us and them language” that polarizes and separates us all even more. Not just in online educational communities (although it seems to me there is need here also) but face to face in faculty meetings, classrooms, board of education meetings, meetings with parents –and online in response to news postings in our local area and beyond. What if videos illustrating the potential and power of civil discourse were posted by students or educators and went viral.

Don’t we live in a new age in which we can converse with others easily through the affordances of web technologies? Can’t this be a time when what’s always been is no longer good enough? Can’t we stop lamenting our situation and resolve to make an effort? Can’t we be about eradicating “us and them” mentality? Can’t we each, individually and through collective action, work to bring our nation’s people to a new and better place?

What if we did-- imagine the possibilities--

A summer lost or was it?

2009-08-30T21:17:00.001-04:00

A vegetable garden with great promise for a grand harvest—neglected, not nurtured and now without potential—

Aspirations of walking, exercising -- unfulfilled—

Days with many hours of daylight, awaking early to sunshine streaming in the window --- now so much shorter—

Conversations with my soul mate, time just spent together-- almost nonexistent

A summer, two precious months, lost or was it?

Now that I’ve finally reclaimed my life from a project that so totally stripped the summer away and I’ve had time to breathe again away from the pressure and frustration, shades on a window of realization have been lifted. Not only has what I sensed I knew been amplified and reinforced, I’ve had a bit of an epiphany--- at this age---

Passion-- passion for learning, passion for projects --- This summer there was no passion. I learned lots about RtI for which I have no passion. I know, RtI is big today --absolutely no passion. I fondly remember my years in the classroom—no universal screeners, no probes, no progress monitoring, no graphs, no decision rules— lacking all of these I knew my students’ strengths, their weaknesses, and how they were progressing. And so it was a project of drudgery, frustration, wanting to be finished. Recalling those times of synergy and learning and comparing -- thoughts of youngsters doing worksheets, being tested, wanting to be out of school. How can we not recognize and honor the need for passion based, interest based learning for our students?

Connecting and Collaboration- A member of a team, yet working in isolation on my designated duties, reminiscent of the isolation of the summers during my career in the classroom, soaking up as much as I could from professional journals. Finally this summer, project completed-- logging in to bloglines and twitter accounts after weeks away, wondering all that I had missed, realizing and appreciating even more the connections and collaborations that have taken my learning to a new level. And then thinking back to my students as we collaborated with other classes from other countries—their excitement and anticipation of learning to come—How can we not develop collaborative, connected learning experiences for our students?

Learning— This project, self paced online learning so opposed to my beliefs about learning. The paths I’ve traveled learning, learning about learning-- from my early years in teacher centered classrooms attempting to give my teachers what they required --to my participation in MOOM where I experienced the joys, fears and exhilaration of inquiry based learning -- to CCK08 where I discovered more fully the power and potential of networked connected learning— How can we help educators move to networked connected learning for students? How can we not recognize the need for job embedded collaborative learning for teachers?

The epiphany—I’m not what I’ve called myself for the past 5 years. I’m not an instructional designer. I am a learner. I retired from the classroom, and wanting to continue to contribute to education, learned that Ohio was beginning to develop online courses for teachers. I was interested in learning and online learning and upon inquiry, the folks at what was then Ohio Schoolnet felt that I’d fill the role of what they called instructional designer. I’ve used that label since. No formal instruction in design, as a member of a team, I helped to design and develop online courses for Ohio teachers within a learning management system. I’ve learned that I don’t have the skills of an instructional designer and I have no passion to acquire them. I know what CSS are; I have no idea or desire to learn how to create them. I don’t know applications that produce canned learning within an LMS nor do I want to learn them. I have a sense of what looks good to me but I know no rules for design. I am a learner on a journey, a learning journey with lots of sidetrips and hours of wayfinding-- for the love of the journey— not desirous of a particular destination-- And again, I’m reading, I’m writing, and I’m learning with a passion--- And I’m wondering do we really think that the current trend in education invites our youngsters to embark on incredible learning journeys with expansive landscapes beyond imagination for the love of the journey? With an invitation to such a learning journey, wouldn’t possibilities abound?

Hmmm, maybe the summer wasn’t lost at all—it was me that was lost for just a while--

A rainbow gone---

2009-08-28T12:08:00.008-04:00

Always, always a pot of gold with each episode of Reading Rainbow—

LeVar Burton’s engaging stories, activities and laughter—

Smiling, joyous youngsters regaling young readers and old with wonderful reasons to make their book a favorite---

26 years of encouraging a love of and passion for reading—

Gone because—“the decision to end Reading Rainbow can also be traced to a shift in the philosophy of educational television programming. The change started with the Department of Education under the Bush administration … which wanted to see a much heavier focus on the basic tools of reading — like phonics and spelling.”

But you don’t have to take my word for it-- Reading Rainbow Reaches Its Final Chapter

“Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high,
Take a look, it's in a book — Reading Rainbow ...”

Photo Credit

Bits, Pieces and Questions

2009-06-08T10:24:00.001-04:00

Last week—an early morning reading of the New York Times led me to “Next Test: Value of $125,000-a-Year Teachers”

-- An article about the new teachers for The Equity Project Charter School that also asked:

“Is a collection of superb teachers enough to make a great school? Are six-figure salaries the way to get them? And just what makes a teacher great?”

Unsettling, not sitting right with me, wondering what learning theory underpins the decisions, wondering about the organizer, about the premise that top money equates with quality educators and about the standards they employ in evaluating great teachers, about the pedagogical beliefs they seek--

Later that day at ASCD,”The American Idol* of Education”, some description of the teacher selection process quoted from the TEP website:

“Expert Subject-Area Knowledge demonstrated through

· undergraduate and/or graduate coursework and excellent grades in the relevant subject area

· an original piece of writing on any topic in the subject-area

· a written analysis of a pedagogical issue related to the subject area

Teaching Expertise and Experience demonstrated through

· the submission of TWO of the following three items

· an unedited video clip of a lesson, accompanied by a written narrative that analyzes and reflects upon the teaching and learning that occurs in the lesson

· a portfolio of student work that demonstrates the progress of 2 specific students, accompanied by a written narrative that analyzes the progress that each student demonstrates

· assessment data for at least one entire class of students accompanied by a written narrative that provides background on the assessments and analyzes the data

· the submission of one additional piece of evidence of any form demonstrating student learning

· an essay describing personal pedagogical beliefs and approach

· a day-long teaching audition (either in the candidate’s classroom or in a TEP classroom)

Strong Curriculum Development Ability demonstrated through

· one originally developed and refined curricular tool of any form (e.g. written materials, instructional methodology, technological innovation)

Outstanding Verbal Ability demonstrated through

· the quality of the written work submitted in the application

· communication skills demonstrated in the day-long teaching audition”

My initial reaction-- similar to National Board Certification but-- where are the standards? My personal experience-- those standards explicitly stated a belief in social learning, respect for diversity, and a student centered pedagogy that was expected to be evident in each of the four areas that TEP and research acknowledge are attributes of teacher quality.

For some reason, perhaps this lack of standards and what I believe is a questionable premise for the creation of a school, seemingly missing the point of learning, I couldn’t let this go and looked farther. I wonder how these bits and pieces strike you?

The organizer:

“The school’s founder, Zeke M. Vanderhoek, 32, a Yale graduate who founded a test prep company” --source

Zeke M. Vanderhoek at Zoominfo Under education-- no mention of Yale, just Columbia Teachers College

“Mr. Vanderhoek spent three years teaching at Intermediate School 90 in Washington Heights through Teach for America, which places recent college graduates in challenging schools. He started tutoring to supplement his salary and created a test preparation company called Manhattan GMAT in 2000.” -- source

Teacher selection process:

“There will be telephone and in-person interviews, and applicants will have to submit multiple forms of evidence attesting to their students’ achievement and their own prowess; only those scoring at the 90th percentile in the verbal section of the GRE, GMAT or similar tests need apply. The process will culminate in three live teaching auditions.” --source (emphasis is mine)

TEP, Summer Institute, Sabbatical

“The Equity Project (TEP) Charter School believes that teacher quality is the most important factor in achieving educational equity for low income students.” --source

“Summer institute of 6 weeks teaching challenge: One example of a Teaching Challenge & Tangible Deliverable is as follows: How can technology be maximized to collect student data that informs and improves teaching? Deliverable: Create or identify an exemplary piece of data-collection technology and integrate it into the TEP student and teacher experience.” --source

“Required sabbatical: In addition, TEP teacher sabbaticals are not “sabbaticals” in the usual sense of the word, since they will typically occur every fifth or sixth year, instead of every seventh year. TEP believes that the intensity of the teaching profession mandates a shorter duration between sabbaticals. TEP teachers are expected to begin researching sabbatical opportunities at least one year in advance of their sabbatical year. Teachers may use their sabbatical year for employment (e.g. a position at a think tank), education (e.g. a one-year art-history masters program), or travel (e.g. a travel fellowship). Teachers are not paid by TEP during their sabbatical years; however, TEP attempts to assist teachers in securing funding for their sabbatical-year project.” --source

Hmmmm---------------

Cultivating classroom culture --- growing a community for learning

2009-05-16T21:19:00.007-04:00

An invitation to an open house celebrating a college graduation accompanied by an email of thanks for setting her on the road to teaching as she excitedly shares the good news of her very “own classroom” in Philadelphia in the fall— (so proud of Jackie!)

And a subsequent flood of memories-- of the first cohort of the Teaching Professions program of which she was an priceless member— of my efforts to grow a community for learning, cultivating a classroom culture foreign to students whose mastery of the skills of playing the game of school were extraordinary and exceptional--consciously and with great care, selecting strategies to encourage and enhance community, collaboration---recognizing now my intuitive and novice attempt at culture making that Andy Crouch so eloquently describes:

“All culture making requires a choice, conscious or unconscious, to take our place in a cultural tradition. We cannot make culture without culture. And this means creation begins with cultivation—taking care of the good things that culture has already handed on to us.”
“One who cultivates tries to create the most fertile conditions for good things to survive and thrive. Cultivating also requires weeding—sorting out what does and does not belong, what will bear fruit and what will choke it out.”--from educationinnovation quoting Andy Crouch

Finding it not only far more difficult but also requiring far more weeding, far more nurturing than I had imagined -- now realizing so much more fully the need, more than that how vital such a culture is to learning in our connected, networked world -- thinking these few perspectives and pieces would have been of great value—- wanting to pass them forward to Jackie and any whose passion for cultivating a community classroom culture draws them here—

First, it seems to me that personal beliefs regarding learning directly correlate to the culture of a classroom. When Jackie and I learned together, my evolving pedagogy had reached the constructivist stage and I prided myself as being a guide on the side, an expert learner who sometimes attempted to model and demonstrate and at other times created opportunities for discovery and exploration. Perhaps more appropriate for this connected, networked world in which we now live and more aligned with my current connectivist approach is the perspective of teacher as “meddler in the middle” (my sincerest thanks to Keith for introducing me to the work of Erica McWilliam; I love the term “meddler” when thinking about learning).

"Meddler-in-the middle" positions the teacher and student as mutually involved in assembling and dis-assembling cultural products. It re-positions teacher and student as co-directors and co-editors of their social world. "Meddler-in-the-middle" challenges more long-term notions of "good" teaching in a number of ways. Specifically, it means: (1) less time giving instructions and more time spent being a usefully ignorant co-worker in the thick of the action; (2) less time spent being a custodial risk minimiser and more time spent being an experimenter and risk-taker; (3) less time spent being a forensic classroom auditor and more time spent being a designer, editor and assembler; (4) less time spent being a counsellor and "best buddy" and more time spent being a collaborative critic and authentic evaluator."--–source ERIC

From Keith’s post:

“In her discussion of the teacher as meddler in the middle, Erica identified three sets of 21st Century Skills:academic functional, aesthetic digital and dynamic interactive.
She suggested that intellectual clout was needed in this work to become ‘usefully ignorant’ as the meddler in the middle. We must be pedagogical experts but not knowledge experts. The 21st century classroom will need to be: Seriously playful, Epistemologically agile, and Low threat high challenge.
Erica explored the skill set of the meddler and her fascination with design, disassembly and rediscovery. She illustrated her point with the story of her as a young child cutting up a tennis ball to find the bounce in(side) the ball. The meddler’s classroom is: Respect rich, Structure rich, Conversation rich, Information rich, Challenge rich.
The classroom is in design mode: what is the idea good for; what does it do and fail to do; does it have a future; how could it be improved; what is the value add? The design classroom is characterised by: Knowledge more than facts, Deeply understand what is being built upon, Social processes.
In the design mode disassembly creates space for thinking. It welcomes error, strategy, instructive complication, and interesting ideas. Meddlers accept and create space for co-designing and are clear about looking for ideas and when error is welcomed. The classroom celebrates wonder, imagination, and step outside held views.”

Imagine the learning! I’d love to be a meddler—a “meddler” cultivating community and a growth mindset.

Second, Mary Ann Downey’s (Decision Bridges) suggestions for building community truly resonate with me; they take me back to my days at Earlham which profoundly influenced my world view. A few snippets:

“The perception students get from too many professors across disciplines from kindergarten to graduate school is that education is not about real discovery and continuing exploration, but is rather a game of ‘let’s see if you can say what the teacher wants you to say’.
Building community in the classroom requires that we create a “laboratory for personal disarmament”, described by Scott Peck, (1985: 69), instead of the guarded, competitive contributions we often encourage by our leadership.
If we are intentional about building community in the classroom, we must learn how to reward cooperation, rather than competition. This means engaging every student in full participation so that their life experience becomes a resource to us and to their peers. As we offer our subject matter expertise, we also need to demonstrate the truth of the saying, “If you would be a teacher, by your students you’ll be taught”. Our challenge is to model and facilitate learning as a cooperative, exciting and creative joint venture.
I’ve identified four key skills that are needed for a group to use the consensus process effectively. These are the same skills that foster true community and that develop each student’s ability and willingness to:
Speak truth as they see it; learning to appreciate the value of their life experience
Listen with respect to the truth of others
Develop an appreciative understanding of differences
Integrate differences to make new discoveries”

Envision “Learning as a cooperative, exciting and creative joint venture.” What a classroom culture! One whose potential for engaging students is unbridled, I would think, if also teamed with the cultivation of a growth mindset , as Carol Dweck describes in more detail here.

"...people's self-theories about intelligence have a profound influence on their motivation to learn. Students who hold a "fixed" theory are mainly concerned with how smart they are—they prefer tasks they can already do well and avoid ones on which they may make mistakes and not look smart. In contrast, she said, people who believe in an "expandable" or "growth" theory of intelligence want to challenge themselves to increase their abilities, even if they fail at first."

I'm thinking that too many students who "play the game of school" well have a fixed mindset and respond poorly when faced with challenges of connected, networked learning. Nurturing and cultivating a growth mindset in the clasroom, recognizing effort, can be an important component in growing a community for learning.

Meddling, nurturing and cultivation are good, hard work that never ends, that sometimes are exhausting, that sometimes take more time than we would like, that when successful illuminate our very souls– With kind nurturing and cultivation, won’t our youngsters have the opportunity to become all that they can be? And won’t we, our students and our world be the better for it? Or not?

Unique, unlikely, and compelling collaborations--

2009-03-30T10:56:00.002-04:00

Almost 2 years ago, a post---- An unlikely, unique perspective—

Today’s similar but --- Unique, unlikely, and compelling collaborations—

It’s safe to believe it’s not just a fluke---

At my feet lies Harley, an aging, wise, and loving 90 pound German Shepherd. Rescued from abuse and neglect some 6 years ago, this handsome guy has become an integral family member.. His love of life—in the past chasing deer, treeing wild turkeys, and stalking rabbits -- is still evident as his heart, his loyalty, and his love shine through despite his increasing deafness and weakened hindquarters.

And now a seasoned blogger who appears to bring love, and laughter, and learning to his audience and collaborators—those youngsters who still believe and want to believe and join in the fun as this canine speaks to them.

In 2007, I was amazed, yet thrilled by the connections, the learning and the pleasure inspired by Harley’s posts. I feared though the time spent with the Blogicians that year might have been a fluke—just a group of students who happened to like dogs. Yet I hoped – as Harley’s blog seemed to deal with an issue that had saddened me as I sensed since my retirement that the joy of learning and going to school had continued to decline. Steven Wolk addressed those same concerns in an article in Educational Leadership in the fall of 2008 when he wrote:

“from John Dewey's Experience and Education (1938): "What avail is it to win prescribed amounts of information about geography and history, to win the ability to read and write, if in the process the individual loses his own soul?" (p. 49). If the experience of "doing school" destroys children's spirit to learn, their sense of wonder, their curiosity about the world, and their willingness to care for the human condition, have we succeeded as educators, no matter how well our students do on standardized tests?”

No!

I said out loud as I read his article on the Joy of Learning and pledged that Harley would continue to blog as long his audience appreciated his posts and he and they learned from each other. To this day in 2009, Harley’s posts do encourage a sense of wonder and a willingness to care for each other as he communicates and learns through connections on his blog. And happiness and learning are evidenced this year by recent posts from Reflective Voices (5^th graders in Georgia, another of Anne’s projects) who looked back on the year commenting to and hearing from Harley. Harley thanked them here and linked to each student’s post; Filemon’s is particularly revealing.

Isn’t the addition of the term “compelling” appropriate here? How is it that a shepherd can encourage multiple comments from Graciela well into the evenings? Aren’t these youngster’s reactions to Harley’s blog telling us something?

Could it be that a voice that is unique, that is joyful and thankful, that radiates love and concern for all , that shows a genuine interest in his reader’s learning can truly model and generate engaged learning in which youngsters’ eyes sparkle, in which questions abound and answers are eagerly sought, and from which a lifelong love of learning arises?

And if that is so, when might your “Harley” enter the blogosphere to contribute an additional unique perspective bringing even more joy and wonder to learning?

PLP Boot Camp for Educational Leaders

2009-03-13T13:43:00.004-04:00

It's been an honor to serve as community leader for the Illinois/Ohio Cohort of PLP. The PLP model is extraordinary-- encouragjng and enabling incredible learning and growth for all those who participate.

And now a new opportunity for educational leaders from PLP-- reposting from Will's blog:

Sheryl and I are excited to announce the inaugural Powerful Learning Practice Visioning Boot Camp for Educational Leaders to be held at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia this summer. You can get all of the details here, but the bottom line is we’ve put together a three-day event for a limited number (25) of participants that we think will help school principals and superintendents get a deep understanding of how the world is shifting, identify and articulate the challenges that we face, begin some serious conversations about long term change in personal and classroom practice, and create a foundation for long range planning.
We’re really pleased that Chris Lehmann will be our host for the three days and that he will be among a group of forward thinking leaders who will share their experiences and expertise with us. We hope you (or your school leader) will join us!

Learning--

2009-03-01T20:55:00.004-05:00

PLP, Powerful Learning Practice— Sheryl and Will have purposely a designed a professional development model for 21st century learning that is about learning, unlike so many others whose focus is tools. Throughout the life of the Illinois Ohio cohort, they have pushed, nudged, encouraged, and exhorted community members to engage in understanding the shifts inherent in 21st century learning.

Despite incredible growth on the part of so many members, a testing of the waters of “the shift”, some "I get it"s, there has been resistance, push back, notes about all of the “tech activities” and “technology” currently in place, calls for “tools”— Enamored by tools, captivated by technology--

My own personal journey causes me to wonder if community members personal deep beliefs in how people learn have yet been objects of exploration (although there have been many and varied opportunities), resulting in their reluctance to embrace “shifts” that characterize 21st century learning.

Some 11 years ago, having had an incredible opportunity to participate in 40 hours of professional development on unique and compelling uses (publishing, real time data, communication, collaboration) of the Internet in education, I found my students learning skyrocketed when we participated in collaborative projects. At that time, I decided that learning was the result of using the Internet and I wanted to share that with other teachers. I was wrapped up with the use of the tool. I left the classroom to become a resource teacher in the Instructional Technology Office of a large urban district. Over my three years in that position, I reflected upon all I’d done in my classroom and learned as much as I could about learning. I spent hours designing professional development for teachers that modeled good learning with unique and compelling uses of the Internet, realizing that it wasn’t about technology at all, it was about learning and what I believed about how people learn. I returned to the classroom, humbled and eager to design learning experiences with and for my students.

So I know well that understanding the new science of learning is important and hard work, yet it’s not new.

From How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition 1990

An emphasis on understanding leads to one of the primary characteristics of the new science of learning: its focus on the processes of knowing (e.g., Piaget, 1978; Vygotsky, 1978). 10

Asking which teaching technique is best is analogous to asking which tool is best—a hammer, a screwdriver, a knife, or pliers. In teaching as in carpentry, the selection of tools depends on the task at hand and the materials one is working with
If, instead, the point of departure is a core set of learning principles, then the selection of teaching strategies (mediated, of course, by subject matter, grade level, and desired outcome) can be purposeful. The many possibilities then become a rich set of opportunities from which a teacher constructs an instructional program rather than a chaos of competing alternatives. 23

Learning is influenced in fundamental ways by the context in which it takes place. A community-centered approach requires the development of norms for the classroom and school, as well as connections to the outside world, that support core learning values.

Teachers must attend to designing classroom activities and helping students organize their work in ways that promote the kind of intellectual camaraderie and the attitudes toward learning that build a sense of community. In such a community, students might help one another solve problems by building on each other’s knowledge, asking questions to clarify explanations, and suggesting avenues that would move the group toward its goal (Brown and Campione, 1994). Both cooperation in problem solving (Evans, 1989; Newstead and Evans, 1995) and argumentation (Goldman, 1994; Habermas, 1990; Kuhn, 1991; Moshman, 1995a, 1995b; Salmon and Zeitz, 1995; Youniss and Damon, 1992) among students in such an intellectual community enhance cognitive development.

Teachers must be enabled and encouraged to establish a community of learners among themselves (Lave and Wegner, 1991). These communities can build a sense of comfort with questioning rather than knowing the answer and can develop a model of creating new ideas that build on the contributions of individual members. They can engender a sense of the excitement of learning that is then transferred to the classroom, conferring a sense of ownership of new ideas as they apply to theory and practice. 25

Adapting new theories of learning are even more challenging yet needed.
From George Siemens Connectivism: Learning Theory or Pastime of the Self-Amused? 2006

We are growing in our understanding of learning. Research in neuroscience, theories of social-based learning, and developments in learning psychology create new understanding of the act, and process, of learning.

As Downes (2006) stated,
Learning…occurs in communities, where the practice of learning is the participation in the community. A learning activity is, in essence, a conversation undertaken between the learner and other members of the community. This conversation, in the web 2.0 era, consists not only of words but of images, video, multimedia and more. This conversation forms a rich tapestry of resources, dynamic and interconnected, created not only by experts but by all members of the community, including learners.

Of most importance is that educators are reflecting on how learning has changed and the accompanying implications of how we design the spaces and structures of learning today.

My journey, my evolving practice and changing beliefs about learning-- from behaviorism with task based learning, to cognitivism with clear objectives and problem solving, to constructivism with social learning and knowledge construction by each learner, to conectivism with complex, open, autonomous, distributed learning -- was long, was arduous, was essential. I’d like to think that evolution reflects my ever increasing understanding of the new science of learning and the recognition of the new opportunities for learning afforded by today’s emerging technologies. Yet, today there is more urgency, a greater need to make a great leap to connected networked learning -- to provide appropriate learning experiences for our children in today's world.

Sheryl and Will, with PLP, provide the perfect environment for deep reflection, for introspection into beliefs about learning, for meaningful conversations about learning in community, for making that great leap. It is my fervent hope that reluctant community members will engage and immerse in those types of reflection and conversation, will move beyond the “tools”, will not let such an opportunity to make practice more relevant, more authentic whoosh right by—

Mindful of my own journey, mindful of the possibilities of 21st century learning, ever mindful of my role as community leader, I move beyond hope to continue to encourage, to nudge, to push--

Meeting Sheryl

2009-02-15T13:13:00.004-05:00

More than 3 years of connecting, collaborating, and acting on various projects--
K12Online, academic research, Powerful Learning Practice—
Sharing family moments, celebrating, commiserating—
And on my part growing and learning and growing and learning some more—

Constantly appreciative

of Sheryl’s generosity in sharing all she knows-
of her brilliance in creating sustainable models for professional learning-
of her expertise in 21st century learning and building communities of practice-
of her gift for sharing her passions-
of her love for children-

Never meeting, a virtual relationship, a friendship, as real as any possible—

And then an opportunity

to watch her in action urging a group of educators to move to 21st century learning and to collective action-
to actually talk and share in the same space, the same time—
to look into her eyes-

And in that instance as her eyes radiated with the depth of her passion, with her desire to make the world a far better place -- something fine and spiritual passed between two friends—a true moment worth living— one for which I’ll always be grateful--

Photo Credit