Letting Go

We often say that if something isn't working, we should stop doing it. This is easier said than done in education. The ways we learned and the ways we learned to teach are deeply embedded in who we are as educators. Despite belief systems that have grown and changed, we often revert back to our comfort zone in our classrooms - and particularly if we are under stress - it can be difficult to implement lasting change.

Enter blended learning. As individuals, we have embraced technology for the multiple ways that it can help make our lives faster and more efficient. We text instead of calling. We post on social media to stay connected with family and friends. We use computers where we used to hand write. We have smart phones, smart TVs, smart watches, and even smart homes. But our classrooms still look like traditional, dare I say "old school," classrooms. We have smart boards that have replaced black boards, but we are using them in much the same way we used black boards (or white boards depending on your age and teaching experience). We make just as many worksheets (if not more) as teachers cranked out of mimeograph machines when I was in school (truth be told, in my first teaching job there was a mimeograph machine in the teacher's room!).

Going blended is a little scary. It's kind of like jumping in to an abyss and you are not sure where you will end up. We don't know how the use of digital content will improve state assessment scores or if it will help us get off the dreaded "list" of failing schools. But, we do know this: the world has changed. We must change our classrooms in order to provide relevance to student learning.

CLICK HERE for some great resources to support your journey into blended learning.

CLICK HERE to learn more about blended learning.

For even more information and support, visit:
www.highlanderinstitute.org
www.edelements.com
www.christenseninstitute.org

Teaching the Future

What do you see when you dream about the future? When you see your children or your grandchildren as happy, successful, and capable adults - what do you see? What are the skills that our children, our grandchildren, and beyond will need in order to keep up with the speed with which our world is changing?

These can be frightening questions because the answers point out the many ways that we are failing the future by continuing to "do school" in the ways we always have. School has always been my thing. I am a good reader, a good writer, and I was always able to use my creativity to my advantage. I liked the social interactions in school and I loved being one of the better students. When I think about the future, I realize that the skill set that I possessed that allowed me to do well in school would no longer be enough. I can manage technology, but I wouldn't consider myself confident about new technologies. I am lost with newer fluencies such as coding. I have to have correct grammar and spelling in my text messages. I keep up with many things just so I don't seem old to my kids. So, I am not the world's most techno-teacher. I am still using PowerPoint and I cannot figure out how to use LiveBinder or even upload music to my IPhone without my husband's help.  But to admit this about myself, means that I am aware that we are not teaching the future - that I know the classrooms in my school are not giving our students what they need to be 21st Century Thinkers, Learners, or Doers.

 In this video by 2Revolutions, they look to the future and ask if you are a dreamer or a dreader when thinking about the future. The dreamers look to the future and see how they can make anything possible, but it doesn't always turn out the way they planned. The dreaders look to the future and see how nothing is going to work anyway. They propose that what we actually need is a new category - designers - people who plan for and create the future.

Click here to play video on mobile device

I see the future for the students at my school. I see our responsibility in providing our students with every advantage so that they can have the skills that they see to manage the future. They must be literate, problem-solvers; they must be creative thinkers; they must see how to use technology to connect these skills and take them to the next level. Our children are the future and they must see technology as more than video games, Minecraft videos, social media, and "Googling." Our classrooms should be rich in digital access - digital portfolios, blogs, video presentations, adaptive and path-based software, and online checks for understanding are ways that we need to engage the future today. If we do not know or understand how to use technology in our classrooms, then we need to learn today because we are teaching the future. We cannot teach the future using the technology or approaches of yesterday.

Here are additional sources for blended learning and digital technologies:
http://www.knewton.com/blended-learning/

http://www.blendedlearningnow.com/

http://www.highlanderinstitute.org/

The Floor and The Ceiling

I was working with some brilliant people this week from The Highlander Institute who really challenged my thinking (which I totally love!). We were discussing standards and the way that teachers approach the standards and I was expressing that I felt that we were not pushing our higher students enough to really achieve at high levels. The response was eye opening. Are we looking at the standards as a floor or a ceiling? Wow! That was it! That summed up what I have been thinking about our approach to our higher students. When we look at the standards as a ceiling, our high students reach that ceiling and we, as practitioners, do not know necessarily what to do next or if we will have permission to do something that is outside of the standards, so we don't push too hard. If we shift our thinking and those standards become the floor - the baseline that we reach from - the possibilities are endless for us in terms of the ways we extend our students in their thinking and understanding.

What does it take for me as a practitioner to shift from the ceiling to the floor approach? I have to be able to go much deeper in my understanding of the standards and what they represent. I also have to have the autonomy (and the courage) to be able to pull away from "the script" and become more creative in my approach to the competencies in the standards. So, it goes back to having autonomy, mastery, and purpose in my work in order to feel confident enough to come "out of the box" and meet the needs of all of my students - including my higher students (Thanks, Daniel Pink!).

I am challenging myself and my teachers to re-think the way that we educate for the future. We are looking into blended approaches and more digital entry points for our students. It is scary to think about teaching reaching to children in a different way than we are used to. Blended classrooms do not look like traditional classrooms. But if we are standing on the floor and reaching up, rather than always hitting the ceiling, we have to take the risk. Our students have unlimited access to technology outside of school and the options are changing daily. When we think about the skills that our students will need in their futures - collaboration skills, the ability to access information quickly, being able to adapt to change, and communication skills - these are all embedded in a blended learning approach. Are we actually holding our students back because we are not comfortable with different approaches as adults?

 Click here to watch video on mobile device
As we move forward and change the way we think about what school should look like, we are in brand new territory. This takes courage, vision, and confidence - it may not work on our first attempt. But aren't we trying to teach our children those same things? Ralph Waldo Emerson said that a mind, once stretched by a new idea, can never return to its original dimensions. This is exactly what a turnaround school needs more of.