Milobo’s Musings

As I write this, I’m surrounded by boxes. Some are full, but even more are empty as I begin preparing for a move to a new state and a new job.  Come mid-July, I’ll be joining the St. Vrain Valley School District in Longmont, Colorado as an Instructional Technologist.  It’s a move we’ve wanted to make for many years, so when the stars aligned and gave us the opportunity to finally make that dream a reality, we jumped at the chance.

You might have heard of the St. Vrain Valley School District as a result of the stories and sharing Bud Hunt does through his blog and through their annual CyberCamp.  Because of Bud and his team’s vision for opening their efforts up to the larger online community, I’ve actually had a chance to meet and interact with teachers in St. Vrain Valley through a video chat, their CyberCamp Blog, and through CyberCamp TV.  It’s made me feel a part of my new community even before I’ve set foot in the state.

However, the excitement I feel for the upcoming move is tempered by the fact that I’m leaving behind a wonderful community of educators who’ve helped me grow and become the teacher I am today.  This week, I was able to take part in the fifth annual Digital Learning Summer Institute, a week-long professional development opportunity for private schools in the area.  When co-worker Colleen Glaude and I began the institute 5 years ago, we envisioned giving teachers access to new tools and techniques that would improve classroom instruction.  Little did we know just how wildly successful and popular it would be.

During the DLSI wrapup session yesterday, teachers shared the the projects they’ll be implementing next year and gave a summary of how the institute has helped them become a better teacher.  The lessons that came out of that sharing session are ones I think can benefit us all.

Lesson #1: It’s not just about the infusion, it’s about the diffusion.  In the two years I’ve been a part of the PCHS faculty, I’ve worked to bring teachers the tools and skills they needed to transform their traditional classroom instruction.  For the first year, what I saw was mostly an infusion of skills. I’d work individually with a teacher to incorporate a new technique or tool such as a classroom wiki and they’d soak it up to the benefit of their own classroom.  But that’s as far as it would go. Now, I’m starting to see more diffusion of best practices throughout the faculty. In fact, each and every one of the teachers who presented yesterday gave credit to at least one other faculty member who had helped them achieve their goals. Instead of professional growth being a personal, private thing, they’re starting to open up and share with one another.  They’re starting to turn to one another for advice and ideas.  They’re working across departments to build cross-curricular units. They’re building a community of practice that will sustain their efforts for many years to come and realizing that there’s value in sharing not just with one another but with teachers around the globe. It’s what will make the biggest difference as the 1:1 program moves forward.

Lesson #2: Failure is OK if you use it as an opportunity to reflect and revamp. During the sharing session, one teacher told a story about a project she’d done in her class last year that had fallen flat.  However instead of using that failure as a justification for falling back on traditional teaching, she used it as an opportunity to reflect on why the lesson didn’t work and what she could do differently that would meet her goals in a way that was more engaging for students.  Turning that reflection back on your own instructional practices rather than always blaming a lesson’s failure on the students isn’t easy to do.  But it’s an important part of continually growing as a teacher and I’m proud to see it’s becoming a part of everyday planning.

Lesson #3: Force feeding information to kids and expecting them to regurgitate it on a test isn’t learning. That statement came from an AP History teacher who understands that it’s imperative to cover the content required by the Advanced Placement test. However, he’s working to move away from the lecture-homework-test cycle and into a cycle where students use primary sources along with the skills of the historian and archeologist to build an understanding of the past. In addition, the science department is building a curriculum that moves away from the textbook as a primary source to using authentic projects, online resources, and teacher created materials to support learning.  They’ve embraced the fact that there’s more to teaching and learning than turning to the next page in the book.

And so, as I continue packing for my new adventures in Colorado, I want to say how proud I am of the work being done here.  I hope the spark I’ve seen ignited is one that will burn brightly for many years to come.

To all of them, I offer this advice:

Keep questioning.

Keep learning.

Keep creating.

Keep connecting.

And keep in touch.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 8:16 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.