Co-Creating Solutions. A CTL-sponsored blog to foster and encourage professional conversation about teaching and learning.

I attended the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) conference last month at the Denver Convention Center. I was one of 12,000+ people in attendance. Being able to attend the conference was a wonderful opportunity and an energizing experience.  I am not a technology wizard, as my colleagues will attest.  I often felt like a neophyte among the tech savvy attendees and presenters.  But I have an enthusiastic curiosity and keen interest in learning and this was the perfect venue for total technology immersion.

ISTE was a remarkable experience and kept my brain humming and feet moving as I ran from session to session, from conversation to conversation.  I know I’ve never seen so much digital equipment in one place. There were iPads, iPods, netbooks, notebooks, airliners, hundreds of Smart boards and 1282 exhibitors anxious to showcase their wares across an exhibit area that was the equivalent of five football fields. The entrance to the Google exhibit was flanked by two enormous faux Greek columns festooned with GOOGLE in bright primary colors.  According to the iste DailyLeader, the conference newsletter, here are a few staggering facts:  there were 19,000 concurrent users on the WIFI network; 57 countries represented, with the contingent from New Zealand travelling the furthest- 7,700 miles; 998 sessions and 1,561 presenters.

The message was clear, it is critical for students to be producers of technology, not just consumers.  Leslie Connery, ISTE’s deputy CEO writes, “ISTE’s mission is to advance excellence in learning and teaching. Our vision is focused on creating a future in which all learners can achieve their creative and intellectual potential.  We focus on this through innovative and effective uses of technology”

The poster sessions, student showcases, keynote addresses, model lessons, etc. all provided opportunities to experience and discuss the ways in which the tools of technology are used in education and the potential they have to produce 21^st century thinkers and problem solvers.

I am anxious to incorporate some of my learning into the work I do with coaches and schools. In future blogs I will share how the ISTE experience has unfolded in my work with schools and in my own creative life.

Two news events of the past week inspire this post, converging in the world of mass media and provoking thoughts about the way we consume information in this era of instantaneous reporting and viral communication.  The first was information posted, and later widely disputed, about Shirley Sherrod, U.S. Department of Agriculture Director of Rural Development for Georgia, which began with an online post and accompanying video by conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart.  The second was the death of veteran broadcast journalist Daniel Schorr at age 93. 

The contrast between the two individuals responsible for disseminating information is notable:  Breitbart, 41, gained his experience as a purveyor of information working with online personalities Matt Drudge and Arianna Huffington; Schorr started his career covering foreign and domestic politics at CBS News with Edward R. Murrow, concluding some five decades later as Senior News Analyst for National Public Radio (NPR).  Schorr came of age at a time when “film at 11,” advertised at 6, denoted prompt coverage of breaking events.  There was relatively ample time for reporters to ascertain and verify facts, and for listeners, viewers and readers to absorb and analyze the resulting stories from a few different news outlets. 

In contrast, Breitbart and many other bloggers from across the political spectrum live and work in a world of quick digital editing, instant uploads and mobile apps.  The wonders of 21st century communications don’t preclude the opportunity for thorough investigation and analysis, but they make a lack of critical thought on both the reporting and consuming ends infinitely more likely.

All of which leads me to this question:  As educators, how can we simultaneously take advantage of the immediacy of today’s news coverage, encouraging our students to contribute to as well as consume the vast array of information that’s available, while also ensuring that they take the time to thoroughly and reliably research and analyze both what they communicate to others and what they absorb?  CTL’s Adolescent Literacy Model emphasizes reading, writing, speaking and listening across the content areas, applying rigor to the production and consumption of communications of all types.  Do you view the digital information age with its deluge of instantaneous messages as a teaching opportunity, a teaching challenge, or both–and how? 

Let’s explore the implications for education of the world of information in 2010.  Please share your anecdotes and approaches, and I will post some of the most intriguing and informative here in the near future.

I used to end my classes with this message to my students: Be nice to those people different than you. Since no two people are the same, the message was to be kind to every single person. I committed to this mission because of the lack of empathy toward one another I witnessed day after day and student after student.

More globally, schools are adopting anti-bullying campaigns to attack the harassment outbreak that is polluting playgrounds, classrooms, and schools. Media attention has been brought to the issue with cases like the 1999 Columbine High School shootings where the violent shooters claimed to be retaliating in response to the harassment they experienced by schoolmates.

More recently a number of youth suicides, like the death of 13-year old Megan Meier who was the prey of cyber bullying on a social networking site, have resulted. The face of bullying is extending beyond face to face altercations to include screen to screen media bullying. Bullies are using media technology like cell phones and the Internet to facilitate the harassment. In response, anti-bullying messages are being delivered to students of all ages and through a variety of methods.

The Cartoon Network, Inc. is launching an anti-bullying campaign this fall after polling their viewing audience and learning children identify bullying as a danger they are facing. The campaign will embed the anti-bullying messages in cartoons, public service ads, and online curriculum.

The US Department of Health and Human Resources (HSS) and Maternal Child and Health Bureau (MCHB) has partnered with members of a youth expert panel to launch the Stop Bullying Now! website campaign http://stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/kids/to send the message “Take a Stand. Lend a Hand.” The website has a section for both students and parents to provide bullying awareness, prevention and intervention information.

As educators, we can be a part of the awareness, prevention and intervention because we are responsible for educating the victims, the abusers, and the witnesses. We are in a unique position because we have access to all parties. If we send the message that bullying is not tolerated in our classrooms, we can begin to block injurious interferences that stand in the way of student self-esteem and performance. In preparing for the start of the new school year, consider how you might construct a safe and civil environment for all learners.

On Sunday night I had a lovely evening with 5 delicious NYC friends. And so it goes, when we had chatted long enough about everything else there is to say, someone brought up the impossible question:

“Sherri, what is it again that you do?”

Sigh. We’ve been through this a hundred times.

“I’m a coach…A consultant. I work mostly in schools…literacy, leadership, the arts. Y’know, teaching and learning.”

There are stares. Silence. They smile. Nobody knows what to say. Everybody else at the table has a very clearly defined job with a title that even a baby would understand:  fashion photographer, pediatrician, pharmacist, scientist, businessman. Three of them hold doctoral degrees, the rest masters degrees, and together we are fluent in Italian, Spanish, Japanese, French, and Chinese. We are not stupid people. I think to myself, “Why is this so hard to explain?” I leave that night resolving to keep track of what exactly it is that I do. I’m determined to have a better answer next time.

And so today I start Part I of the series: What Do You Do?

I’m going to capture my work in short spurts at differing times throughout the coming months. Today’s installment is representative of the second morning back after a long break. This day is atypical in that I’m working from NYC- my home office away from home, but quite typical in the switcheroo thinking and multiple strands I attend to on any given day. It’s July 13, 2010, 11:00 am and here’s what I’ve done so far:

• Checked email.

I have an iPhone so I do this constantly starting the minute I wake up until I close my eyes at night. I am one of the addicted ones, I’ll admit, which works to CTL’s advantage I suppose but also saves me the headache of being surprised. I don’t like surprises. A general overview and filing of messages is how I usually start each day.

• Clarified instructions.

In my inbox was a message pertaining to a large shipment that is heading to one of my districts. One of the things I’m learning about project management is the importance of being impeccable with my word. It’s an odd line to walk because I’m the kind of leader who likes to provide a vision and then get out of the way and let people do their own good thinking. Sometimes, however, vision isn’t sufficient. I’m working on figuring out when to be specific and when general direction is enough. I’ll let you know when I figure that out.

• Panicked.

Another inbox message; this one pertaining to one of my project budgets. I’m still panting from this and trusting the issue will be resolved before day’s end. After a few back-and-forth email exchanges with my business manager, I’ll have to just ride this one out. I trust her and know that however it unravels, we’ll figure it out. Ambiguity tolerance is essential for a project manager.

• Diverted attention to new work.

Can’t obsess over what I can’t control, so I decided to do some online research regarding leadership team development. I’m particularly interested in teacher leadership and it’s my default research mode when I have moments to spare. This particular work is directed toward 4 schools I’ll be engaging with this September when we kick off the year with the development of a literacy team. After some time online with general searching, I returned to an old stand-by: the Reinventing Education website. The Change Toolkit was developed in collaboration with IBM and is a virtual storehouse of resources, diagnostic tools, planning devices and even videos to assist schools and districts with the sticky planning associated with change initiatives. This morning I found a fabulous diagnostic tool about communicating a clear vision. I sent it to my project counterpoint for a review. We’ll plan later for how this gets folded into the work.

• Skyped.

Skype has changed my life. I can honestly say I don’t know what I did without it. This morning I simply used the chat function but have set up a time for later to discuss technology plans in one of my Year 5 Striving Readers Schools.

• Followed Up.

We’ve been struggling for over a week to get confirmation about an order shipped to one of my districts. I’ve sent a second follow-up email (with a red exclamation mark) asking for someone to please confirm whether they received the shipment.

• Bragged a little.

A bit belated but due nonetheless, I sent congratulatory notes of appreciation to my co-facilitators from Penn High School who presented with me at the SLC conference the last week of June. I also sent notes to their administrators because I think it’s important they know what great folks they have working for them.

• Made some tea.

In my yet-to-be-written memoir, I will list hot tea in the credits. It is how I survive most days. It’s my little bit of peace in a mug. Today’s tea: a chamomile, ginger, mint, cinnamon concoction.

• Networked.

Several people from the conference requested copies of the power point we used. I’ve sent that off to interested parties with info about how they can work with CTL. This is a rather new facet of my work. I’m getting better at it the more I do it. But I don’t plan to win the salesperson of the year award any time soon. Selling is very difficult for me. I’d rather be doing, not talking about, the work.

• Blogged.

And so here we are. I’m blogging. I’ll finish my post, upload for review and move on with my to-do list which includes perusing the writing of a colleague and providing feedback, fleshing out a proposal for the 2011 IRA conference, and looking ahead to the 2010-11 school year to plan out my time for my 3 Striving Readers schools. Not a bad day.

I realize there’s no fascination in reading about the minutia of my day. But the act of recording the minutes in this way has been enlightening for me. I trust that at the end of this series I’ll have something profound to share, so please stay tuned.  In the meantime, if you are a coach with a good answer to the question, “What do you do?” please send me your response. I’ve got another dinner party scheduled for Friday and I doubt I’ll have a good response formulated by then.

I just had the opportunity to spend three great days with a group of high school mathematics teachers preparing to implement a blended approach to instruction into their classroom. These teachers will be developing their students as independent learners, so these students are able to go online to learn some of their algebra. It sounds different and really is.

It is probably not what you think though, the teachers don’t just turn the students loose two days a week. The teachers are spending the summer thinking about how they prepare their students to be able to go online, interact with the content (I’ll explain the use of the term interact below), and then come back together to share what they found and create group understanding. It is radically different for the teachers because they have to not only be able to do the math, they have to be able to let the students do the math and let the students share what they find with each other.

Because of this change in approach, roles in these math classes are different than in most. Students can’t just sit back and passively receive the information from the teachers because the teacher isn’t dispensing it from the front of the classroom. In addition, these ninth graders are in a crucial year of learning as they switch from middle to high school. Iit is incredibly powerful to expose them to this kind of learning situation. They are empowered with exposure to rigorous material, opportunities to manipulate and model algebraic concepts, provided tools for organizing what they learn, and then expected to share it with the rest of the class and the teacher.

The teacher on the other hand is tasked with providing students support as they experience (for many of them the first time) material without the buffer of the teacher (which is as scary for the teacher as it is for the students). Teachers have to be confident that their students can and will learn at high levels, if provided the opportunity, and more importantly teachers have to teach students how to do that. A teacher’s ability to create structures in the classroom that enable students to share what they learn during a lesson is a crucial skill. It’s important for students know what kinds of observations to make, know how to communicate using the language of mathematics, know why the lessons use the examples they use or know when to ask questions of the teacher when they can’t figure it out on their own.

It’s not a fine line it’s a deep chasm between a traditional face to face setting and a blended instructional setting. I applaud these teachers for being willing to take on the challenge and especially their thinking when it comes to understanding how they are going to do this with their students.

I used the term interact earlier in the post, and I think it is an apt description of what students can do with online content rather than being receivers of information. In an online setting students listen (and read) some lessons, watch videos of connections to real-life applications or examples of how to work problemsl, create graphical data displays or tables of data, manipulate models, tiles, and diagrams, and in many lessons they do several of these kinds of activities. It is the dynamic nature of what the computer can provide that makes the learning different in the online environment than in a traditional one. It is, also, one of the challenges that teachers tackling this kind of task face. Students have to be taught how to interact with these tools, they have to be supported in recording their interactions, and they have to be allowed to share their experiences.

I am looking forward to the coming school year to see how these teaches blossom and more importantly how they manage the processes they are tasked with. I’m sure that I’ll be sharing more of what they are doing soon.

Images:
“088/365 More maths today” by stuartpilbrow;
“Math Steeplechase 2010-94″ by Inkyhack

The research has been out there for 20+ years now. We know what high performing schools have that others do not – highly skilled and professional teachers, current resources and technologies, involved families, and exceptional instructional leadership.

We can provide the tools and the training necessary to create the possibility of positive change. But external supports and tools alone cannot make change happen, and cannot sustain change over time.

So what makes it happen and keep happening in some places and not in others? It is the intangibles, the things no paperwork, training or tool can own.

It is professional commitment, persistence, and accountability. Teachers and principals must view their jobs as a community mission, they must meet barriers not as stopping points, but instead as just the next problem-solving situation. Adminstrators must commit to their role as the principal teacher in the community and lend both their expert and positional power to the daily task of both supporting teacher improvement and insisting on daily excellence on behalf of their clients – the students.

Only when the culture of a school refuses to tolerate complacency will we see schools and teachers using the lessons of instructional research to their greatest benefits. Those of us working from the outside in can continue to provide the critical lessons and hope for the ongoing professionalization of the profession.

Photo: Bryan Adams High School Hallway, by Dean Terry

If we think about our earliest experiences with language, we first developed spoken language by listening to others, trying to name objects and ask for things you wanted, and eventually engaging in short conversations while you built some command over the spoken word.  Reading and writing followed but were built on a strong foundation of verbal fluency.

This same pattern holds true for English Language Learners.  Their first step in learning English is through speaking, and of course listening to others who are fluent.  While learning vocabulary and recitation have a role in language development, equally important is the opportunity for English Language Learners to hear English spoken naturally in academic conversations, and to respond as they build their English knowledge and skills.

What does this mean for the school principal?  When you are observing classrooms, pre- and post-conferencing with teachers or talking informally about instruction and learning, you want to emphasize for your faculty that English Language Learners must have significant daily opportunities to practice and increase verbal fluency.  This can only happen when students are engaged in active learning where student-to-student and student-to-teacher interaction are encouraged.

You might ask your teachers some reflective questions, such as how much time each day is allocated to student academic conversation, in what ways do lessons allow students to share ideas and solve problems together, how frequently students are asked to generate questions and look for answers together, and how student self-assessment, not just written but verbal is built into learning activities.  You also want to ask teachers to examine the balance of teacher and student talk in the classroom; your observations can provide teachers with data to make that determination.  Finally, you want to assure teachers that you are not expecting quiet classrooms with only the teacher’s voice and students quietly working on assignments.  You understand that for English Language Learners to develop verbal fluency they must have the chance to practice spoken language in meaningful ways.