Learning is Change

The Stephen Johnson work I am describing is partly here. I believe deeply in expanding what is possible for our own learning and the learning of others.

This is the entire point for me: conferences can “give me the time and space to try new things and to discuss new ideas.” The way you are articulating this here is potent, and I do believe that until you have had some of these hallway or session moments, you don’t see professional learning (at conferences or anywhere else) for what it can be: transformational.

I believe in what Stephen Johnson talks about with “the adjacent possible”. Essentially, he says that new things are only possible because of what the last set of innovations has opened up. I think that effective PD is much the same way. While we might not immediately see the direct effect of attending a session or having an engaging conversation with a colleague, we should trust that new outcomes are now possible because they are now adjacent to our thinking. It is the “time and space” that allows us to expand what is adjacent to us.

via The Joy of PD | BOO YAH Education.

A principal that is making some really great moves:

This post is brilliant. You are providing so much in the way of student ownership for learning and I really respect the way in which you have laid out the priorities for schools. The one thing that resonated with me most, however, was this statement:

“As a principal, I had to non-reelect several teachers over the years. None of them were released because of lack of proficiency in technology, standards, assessment, or curriculum, but rather because they ultimately could not connect with students.”

I believe that it is this connection that we are striving for each day, and without which, students will not learn. It is the re-imagined role of the student that is somehow elusive in the conversations about standards or technology integration. And yet, it cannot be written off. It is the whole of what we are trying to build.

So, let’s connect with our kids and let’s make those connections authentic enough to support them through some really difficult and important learning tasks. If you are doing these things at your school, you are doing right by your students. I thank you for it.

via Edu Change & Advocacy: New Tech, New Standards, New Everything….Won’t Matter Unless We Change Old Mindsets.

I like this dissection of what makes a great superintendent, but I think the team is just as important as the single person at the helm:

I love that you have based this upon research and empathy interviews. I believe that you have looked at many different facets of leadership and you have done it by asking the people most affected by that leadership.

In my role within a large urban school district, I have seen the power of a strong superintendent to move a large system forward. However, I only believe that this works when you have a distributed leadership, where the many layers below the superintendent feel empowered to move the district as well. It doesn’t work if every decision has to be pushed back to the executive leadership team in order to change something.

The real question for me is, “How can we create superstars where there are none?” I do believe that any district team must be collectively a “superstar” and that it isn’t enough to have a single person at the helm doing this. We must get to a place where there is a system and a structure of leadership that can do the things you mentioned. If it is left up to a single individual, the whole things falls apart when they leave.

via creativeStir: The Myth of the Superstar Superintendent… really?.

How can we recognize more biases of our teaching practice:

Recognizing your bias against images as text is wonderful and will serve as an important point of reflection. While I too struggle with media as text, I believe that there are so many new types of media that blur the lines and make for a much richer world of analysis than only choosing to look at what can have it etymology dissected.

The rich texts being created in video form are no longer simply off the cuff video blogs. Rather, many are carefully written and shot and can be analyzed as such. Even the texts of Animated Gifs and/or Memes are ripe for discussion. These moving images are combined with words to make meaning. While these are not the great american novel, they do hold a place in our discourse and should hold a place in our classrooms.

Thank you for providing your perspective on this important topic, and especially for being introspective and calling out a specific bias.

Shanahan on Literacy: Teaching Visual Literacy Makes a Big Difference.

The way that we make writers is to make writing more authentic:

I love the way in which you have mixed memes into your writing and brought out the most salient points for others to take and share. I agree with you that we should stop the artificiality of on-demand writing, but as I think about my own writing, I am struck that much of it is on-demand.

When I reply to an email, it is on-demand. When I write up a new document explaining something we are working on, it is on-demand. When someone asks a question and I feel compelled to write a blog post in response, this is on-demand. I don’t think the way we create a community of writers is to deny that on-demand writing can be valuable, but rather that on-demand writing must be authentic (a real audience and a real purpose) for it to make an impact.

The writing ritual itself is fairly on-demand, but this demand of writing is one of the most satisfying and fulfilling ones I know.

via Stop teaching on-demand writing, make writers instead | Metawriting.

What a wonderful example of shared student work:

I love how transparent you are being about your children’s work. By including all of their responses, as well as the analysis you have done upon them, you are allowing us to draw our own conclusions and see them in the context of your own.

I haven’t spent as much time in thinking about thick vs. thin questions for adults, but I think that is the next logical step. I wonder what kinds of thick questions we can ask of one another about teaching and learning. What isn’t in the “text” or “data” of our students? What helps us to dig deeper and strive for meaning and understanding?

Reederama: Assessing the fifth graders’ understanding of thick and thin questions.

Trusting teachers is essential. How we get there is still up for debate.

I really like the ways in which you have dissected the building of trust. The Vulnerability and Accountability sections are particularly spot on when I look at the biggest shifts that we might be driving toward in creating more trust.

However, I am really struggling with the idea that we can’t simply look at our current actions and ask if they are building or destroying trust. If they are building trust, we should do more of them. If they are destroying trust, we should stop them. Do we need it to be more complicated than that?

While I would agree that we cannot create a blanket unquestioning trust, I do believe that trusting teachers can be a default stance rather than a default stance of distrust. We can build from here, rather than starting from scratch with every teacher.

More Trust is NOT the Answer: A Co-Blog with Ann Rose Santoro (@Arsant10) — Medium.

The people that you are at the PD buffet with matter. Those who support you in making better choices are better than those that keep you going back for the same items again and again.

I think the most important aspect of what you have identified is that you do have a passionate community that is supporting you through your PD. The LeadWild Voxer group (and other extensions of your PLN) is something that allows you to learn in any environment. You are able to take what you have learned and go back to them and ask more questions or go deeper with your learning.

I think it is that many folks do not have this community that they turn to PD gluttony (or whatever you might call going back to the same buffet of PD opportunities again and again). Without having the right community of support, you are unlikely to move forward. Without folks who are constantly pushing your thinking (between events), you are very likely to stick with the same conferences and sessions you know.

The real question for me is “how do we create more opportunities for community within PD?” If we can solve for that problem, I don’t think we would need to have the same conferences year after year.

via Professional: Development vs. Learning | Outside the Education Box.

The people that you are at the PD buffet with matter. Those who support you in making better choices are better than those that keep you going back for the same items again and again.

I think the most important aspect of what you have identified is that you do have a passionate community that is supporting you through your PD. The LeadWild Voxer group (and other extensions of your PLN) is something that allows you to learn in any environment. You are able to take what you have learned and go back to them and ask more questions or go deeper with your learning.

I think it is that many folks do not have this community that they turn to PD gluttony (or whatever you might call going back to the same buffet of PD opportunities again and again). Without having the right community of support, you are unlikely to move forward. Without folks who are constantly pushing your thinking (between events), you are very likely to stick with the same conferences and sessions you know.

The real question for me is “how do we create more opportunities for community within PD?” If we can solve for that problem, I don’t think we would need to have the same conferences year after year.

via Professional: Development vs. Learning | Outside the Education Box.