Thinking About Learning

As I have been catching up on my professional development blog reading, I have noticed a common thread. First I read David Warlick’s excellent post, “A Path to Becoming a Literate Educator.” It was affirming to realize that my own personal professional growth matched up well with his suggestions. As I continued to read through my Google Reader, I noticed a transition from personal growth to a collective consciousness.

Weblogg-ed » Changing Ourselves, Changing our Culture
I think Will hit it right on the head. For several years, the question for me has been, “How can I get more teachers interested in using Web 2.0 tools with their students?” Now I’m beginning to see that the question needs to be much larger. In order for real change to occur, there needs to be a buy-in from a larger audience such as a school or district.

My friend, Ron, recently attended 2008 Learning Summit: Learning By Doing. In his latest blog post, A Real Shift is Happening, he says, “Since that time as a school we have started to have some really good conversations about the purpose of our school and the direction we want the school to go and some action has started to take place. One of the best things that has happened is that teachers are starting to truly collaborate and use each other as a valuable resource….It is funny how all of us have come to the realization (it seems so obvious now!) that working together makes us more effective teachers and holds great potential for impacting the learning of ALL students.”

As I sort through all these thoughts, I have come to the conclusion that it will take both components: a personal commitment to continued professional development and a collaborative environment where teachers hold a common vision, share, grow together, and support one another. We CAN make a difference, and I think it’s well worth a long-term investment.

Last night was PTO Literacy night. Teachers from each grade were conducting sessions on different aspects of balanced literacy. I had been asked to share some online literacy activities that parents could access at home. After a little thought, I decided to take the opportunity to do a little educating about the changing definition of literacy. I went back and revisited David Warlick’s awesome Redefining Literacy presentation and also read “The New Literacies” from District Administration. I also found some great TeacherTube videos on Internet safety from Mike King. Ultimately I ended up doing a brief overview of digital literacy, cyber safety, the value of blogging and social bookmarking. We had a small parent turnout, but my sessions went well…20 minutes of exposure to digital literacy and 20 minutes to explore the literacy games bookmarked on our school Diigo page. Very basic stuff, but I think it was just what my audience needed.

In the midst of my personal PD in preparing for Literacy Night, I came across a really cool global writing project. I first heard it mentioned on twitter!

Curriculum Connections:
Literacy: 1001 Tales is a global writing project. Students work online together to tell stories, edit, and improve their writing skills. I would love to get a class involved with this!

I had the privilege Friday of attending a Panel of Peers workshop sponsored by NCR. It was a gathering of people from the business world who share and discuss best practices for eCommerce. As an educator, I was interested to see how the business world is utilizing Web 2.0 tools. I have concerns about the fact that the education establishment is not changing quickly enough to keep up the the rapidly changing digital world. NCLB has reduced the educational focus of lawmakers to test results and national rankings. This narrowness generally precludes a creative educational environment with an ability to adapt itself to the challenges of a global digital market.

I believe that the only way this will change is for there to be a stronger partnership between businesses and schools. Let’s face it…money talks. Lawmakers don’t listen to teachers about what’s best for education, but the business world has the clout to be heard. Business leaders need to see first-hand what’s going on in our schools. In spite of our poor reputation in this state, some amazing things are happening. But are we doing enough to prepare our students for this century?

Some benefits of a stronger bond between businesses and schools:

• Two-way communication about the skills future workers need and what is being taught would strengthen the curriculum.
• The presence of business leaders in schools provides good role models for students and illustrates the value of a good education.
• As business leaders become informed about the needs of schools and students, they will be better prepared to communicate with lawmakers as a supportive voice for education and the changes that need to be made.
• Career education can be greatly enhanced by a variety of business partners regularly interacting with schools.
• Businesses have resources to meet some of the needs of students and teachers. (I currently need a digital video camera to use for a variety of purposes at school.)
• As businesses invest in schools with both human and capital resources, the return that will be reaped will be a stronger educational system and a better-prepared workforce.

Curriculum Connections:
Uses of digital video:  record Readers’ Theater presentations to share online, record oral student presentations to enable students to do self-evaluations of communication skills, record book talks for vodcasts, record students demonstrating math processes to post online for students to access at home, record “You Were There” news reports of events studied in social studies, record student skits acting out favorite scenes from books.