1. Children are adaptable.
2. G00d [muppets] take time to evolve.
3. Change is unavoidable.
4. “C” is for competition (not just cookie).
5. Freshen up.
6. Learn from your mistakes.
7. Keep it simple.
8. Push the envelope.

I am not going to make this a long narrative, but just simply want to quickly reflect on each of these lessons.

Children are adaptable: The certainly are. What comes to mind here though, is that children both adapt to good things in their environment as well as to not so good things. In schools, my concern is that children have adapted all too much to our didactic, passive, rote methods of teaching. I see this when they arrive at the college/university level. Many are struggling to battle this all-too familiar adaptation they have masterfully undergone for 12 or so years. Although, I must say many gladly rise to the challenge and move from the “feed me” “hoop jumping” and “minimum criteria” types of environments when relevant opportunities are placed before them, but it can be a struggle, nonetheless.

Good [muppets] take time to evolve: The evolutionary process can be indeed slow. Many of us get frustrated with the lack of evolutionary speed in schools. However, one key principle of evolution is that of natural selection. Wikipedia defines this as “is the process by which heritable traits that make it more likely for an organism to survive and successfully reproduce become more common in a population over successive generations.” So, what are those traits (often influenced by environment, not just heredity) in education that seem most dominant and lead to their survival, while others just don’t seem to gain a significant foothold? Why is it that the progressive vision for education conceptualized by the likes of John Dewey, Johann Pestalozzi, Friedrich Froebel, Jerome Bruner… and their contemporaries like Herb Kohl, Deborah Meier, Ted Sizer, and others… seem so hard to achieve?

Change is unavoidable: So why does education spend so much of its efforts on avoiding change, not the superficial window dressing kind of change, but substantial, revolutionary change? It seems that we are living the axiom, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Coming back to evolution, what are those most dominant traits that keep us from substantial change?

“C” is for competition: We have moved to this very competitive model of education over the past years. We are competing and ranking internationally on assessments like TIMSS. We rank and compete internally (NAEP)with one another for the top districts, top schools, top scores, quickest to meet AYP, top students,… We are competing for federal dollars that get dangled like carrots in front of hungry rabbits (Race to the Top, NCLB,…). (If you haven’t watched this lecture given by Yong Zhao, especially the first part of it, it is worth your time.) Competition often serves to make us better. But it is in defining “better” and “success” that we have become lost. As with Faust, have we make a bargain with the devil that has robbed us of what Dewey and other progressives understood as being most valuable?

“Jefferson told us where to look to see if a nation is a success. He did not say to look at test scores. Instead, he said to look at ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ ” (Keith Baker, 2007)

And then, Alfie Kohn and  Dean Shareski remind us all of the importance of joy in learning, both for teachers and students. Is that one of those traits that will selectively be extinguished if we let it?

Freshen Up: Who can argue with giving things a fresh look. However, too often we have giving things in education a “fresh look” in the name of meaningful change. Many folks see the addition of the interactive white board, for example, as a symbol of the 21st century classroom – a needed facelift to the aging chalkboard. They are nice and the technology is impressive. However, when major budget dollars are allocated to “fresh look” kinds of changes without any meaningful change or innovation ever happening, the result can often be no more than expensive window dressing. And then there are the schools that really need freshen up… paint, roof, air conditioning, pencil sharpeners that work, desks that aren’t broken, computers that run, physical education, art, and music equipment,… What are we doing?

Learn from your mistakes: In education, and elsewhere, we love to report on mistakes, humiliate and criticize those who make mistakes, and grade mistakes as a form of punishment rather than constructive feedback. Many have learned to avoid taking risks for fear of the consequences of making mistakes. The fact is, we learn best through our mistakes when a grade is not the end of the learning cycle. Programers understand this. Debugging is a powerful and critical part of the programming process, as it is in the learning process. Seymour Papert, Gary Stager, and others have been and continue to be passionate proponents of children learning through programming, through meaningful projects, and learning by doing meaningful, relevant, and therefore engaging things. Somehow, with current educational policy, we are not learning from our mistakes. Instead, we seem to be making the same ones over and over again. This brings me back to evolution and natural selection. What’s driving this perpetuation of the same?

Keep it simple (stupid): Embrace and keep what works. There is no need to make things overly complicated. Some of the most effective pedagogies and learning principles are not all that complicated when it comes down to it. Often, it is the limiting structures, policies, roadblocks, and other expectations that over-complicate things.

Push the envelope: To me, this is my daily challenge when it comes to growth. I try to convey this to my students ad nauseum. The opposite of this is status quo. Don’t rock the boat. Do what’s familiar. Keep things comfortable… all the enemies of business… and education. It’s about growth – becoming and remaining a professional. I am so appreciative of the countless people in my personal learning network (PLN) that share evidence of this every day. One thing that my learning network has done for me is that it has broken down the walls of isolation and has connected me to educators and experts who are truly doing great things around the globe with their students. We do not have to feel (and be) limited by those within our physical circles of influence. Too often, teachers feel isolated and become tunnel-visioned, thinking that what they see and experience around them is indeed reality on a larger scale. I am thankful to say that it isn’t. My students are beginning to understand this – that they don’t have to limit their imagination – that they can connect with inspiring, passionate and excellent teachers and experts in so many ways never before possible – that they indeed have a voice that can make a difference.

As I conclude, what has struck me in writing this morning is that many of these lessons are interrelated, making meaningful and substantial change difficult. As such, I have certainly not done each justice in my narrative here. Are we really learning from these lessons? How do these lessons resonate with you? I’d love to hear what you think.

Who would your Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster, Ernie, Bert, or Snuffleupagus of education be?

Well, last week both of my graduate classes enrolled in Introduction to Computers in Education experienced an “aha” moment that I feel compelled to share. For a while now I have shown my students a video of Kathy Cassidy that I found on YouTube, recorded by Dean Shareski. I liked it because it portrayed a teacher who began a lifelong quest of making learning exciting and meaningful for her students. Kathy began small and slowly, but continually progressed, challenging both herself and her students. That is what I am continually suggesting that my students do when the feel overwhelmed by so many new possibilities that technologies afford. They are overwhelmed. Where does one begin? Kathy’s story is one that helps paint a doable picture.

So, after talking about developing one’s personal learning network, I thought that it would be important to find an experience that pulled many things that we had read about, discussed, and tinkered with. Since my own virtual network has grown so much over the past few years, and since Kathy Cassidy and I were mutual followers on Twitter and members of some of the same professional learning networks, I thought that I would “tweet” her and see if she would be willing to talk to my classes about her experiences. Kathy was quite willing and

made herself available to my classes in spite of the 2 hour time difference between Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and Rochester, NY. Via email and Twitter, we arranged everything, including the logistics of using Skype for this purpose.

Kathy sent on ahead a list of Internet links representing online learning opportunities that she and her students had embarked on so that my students could pull them up as she was talking about them. Although there were other possible technology setups that we could have used, we kept it simple. Surprisingly, many of my students had never used Skype before and some had never even heard of it. So it was also a great way to demonstrate this free and powerful tool.

The time came and the conversation began. Kathy spoke for a while and then opened it up to some questions. My students seemed particularly concerned with issues of equity, access, time, and safety. Kathy was able to offer her perspective on all of those. Below are some questions that were asked that include Kathy’s response.

But the final question seemed to pull everything together. It was a question seeking advice on how to enhance one’s knowledge about all of this beyond the classroom. This led to a follow-up question about one’s learning network and the importance of a virtual learning network… many of the ideas that we had been discussing and students had been wrestling with.

It was fun to watch the gears turn and the eyes light up in the students as they heard Kathy share her perspective on the importance of her own personal learning community in her own professional life. I think at that point many students became suddenly more responsive to the ideas that had been tossed around in class. Some students blogged about finally giving Twitter a try and being energized at how teachers were using these tools in real ways with their students. Others blogged about the “aha” moment of seeing how technology does not have to be an “extra”, but an integral part of curriculum and learning.

But for me, it was powerful for the students to see how this entire discussion with Kathy was facilitated because of our personal learning networks and virtual communication tools. It opened up the door to vast possibilities for my students that they had not even considered. Their perceptions of the purpose and use of these tools is so tainted by the mainstream media in how it represents their purpose and function in society… for trivial, silly, and sometimes dark purposes. They need many positive models of how new cultural tools can be used in powerful ways, both personally/professionally, and with students in the classroom.

I am thankful that my own professional learning networks have opened up the doors for such opportunities and relationships. My hope and goal is that my students find and experience doors that they never knew existed and begin to go through them and experience those opportunities they never knew they could.

———-

Technical Notes: an external DV camera was used so that I could zoom in on students who had questions and so that Kathy could see them well. an external omni-directional microphone (Blue Snowball) on a boom mic stand was used so that Kathy could hear my students when they asked questions. Kathy used Call Recorder to record the Skype chat. Kathy Cassidy’s first grade blog Read the blogs of my students Follow Kathy Cassidy on Twitter @kathycassidy Follow me on Twitter

- Special Thanks to Kathy Cassidy for sharing her time and experience with us!

-

Although ‘how things are’ make sense to me, they do not appear ‘right’ to me. I cannot for the life of me understand why teachers cannot have control over filtering and enable or unblock sites they deem professionally worthy. Just as we have consequences for poor choices that students make, we should also have the same logical consequences for the poor choices that teachers [may] make.

On one hand, we criticize and admonish teachers for not quickly adopting new tools and implementing them in innovative ways, yet in the other hand, we put so many roadblocks in their path that – for most – are just not worth the time and frustration. If the administration is not going to advocate for teachers, then who?

Perhaps scissors and other sharp objects should also be off limits to teachers. After all, they are potentially dangerous. Heck, how about just removing the power cords on those interactive whiteboards while you’re at it. Oh, and put that software on all of the teachers’ computers so that if any changes are made to the system, they will all be undone on a reboot. After all, it’s all about minimizing risk and need for intervention/support.

…of course, we could always expect and assist teachers in being the professionals that they are.

(image by Scott McLeod)

I have noticed that often my own PLN gets an intellectual shot in the arm when I have met folks face to face in various settings. So, I posed the following question. The response was what I suspected. It is far from a representative sample upon which firm conclusions can be drawn, but it does make me think that face to face connections remain critical for learning, networking, building, and sustaining a vibrant PLN. I noticed that many of this year’s NECC attendees mentioned how valuable it was that they were there physically versus simply being a virtual fly on the wall… that the face to face relationships were an essential part for them. I also recall reading some comments by folks who couldn’t attend physically and how much they missed the physical connective experience, myself included.

It is so much more than simply using the tools, isn’t it – just as being an effective teacher is so much more than the new tools one surrounds himself with.

What do you think? What has been your experience? Please contribute to the embedded poll below.

What were some of the attributes that got applicants hired?
- Passion
- Excitement & contagious enthusiasm
- Skillfulness
- Expertise
- Practice that matched the “golden résumé”

To cut costs, the school will have no deans, substitute teachers, assistants, and teachers will work longer hours, more days, as well as have more students. There will be no job security and teachers can be “fired at will”.

Teachers will be paid… wait for it … … $125,000/yr. – not to mention up to $25,000 in performance-based bonuses in the second year.

I love this quotation from one of the hired teachers though:

“This could be unsettling were it not for the excitement of working with a team of master teachers, all of whom are motivated to help every student succeed, with no excuses and no blame.”

So, would you want to work in such an environment where passion, enthusiasm, creativity, skillfulness, expertise, personal accountability, and a love of learning permeated everything that takes place?

It will be interesting to see what transpires here, but there are certainly some key ingredients here for a wonderful school. The salary is certainly eye-catching, but notice the money is not being spent on interactive white boards and other “high-tech” accoutrements… yet. The initial investment is in the teachers themselves.

I like that.

…

Are you seeing your students as an impetus for change? I’m not seeing it all that much yet with my students, but I am salivating for the day when it happens on a grand scale! Bring it [them] on!