Educational Discourse

It’s been a very busy week and the basketball team went 0 - 3 at our tournament this weekend. We were missing 5 of which 3 are starters so the rookies ran alot. They were really tired Saturday on the drive home but the improvement in everyone’s game was very noticeable. We go into playoffs next weekend so we could be busy for the next 3 weekends or I could have some life back next weekend. I’m undecided about how I feel.

While driving home, I was able to do some thinking and reflecting about some of the things I’ve been reading this past week on different blogs. Today, I ran across two very good articles on Kimberly Moritz’s blog G-Town Talks . Her post Does Blogging Lead to Other Opportunities? covers some things that I have been wondering about myself. As I have also noticed in the last little while, there are some opportunties being offered that would not have been if I wan’t blogging.

Something interesting is starting to occur and I’m not sure how to handle it. I’m beginning to receive invitations to participate in things outside of my normal realm. For example, I’ve been invited to present at an upcoming technology conference, to participate in teacher candidate development at a local university, to write monthly on another blog, and to participate in a couple of surveys and studies. These invitations have all come about because someone noticed me through this blog.

Now, I don’t have presentation engagements but a few of the others are happening. She goes on to discuss the full life she already has and wonders about where it all fits, how does one say “NO” and the implications down the road of these sort of things. I guess I coul give you a take on this but you can read my comment on her blog. Her next post, Are We There Yet? goes on from there regarding her take on where she is. What caught my attention was

The only other direction I can imagine traveling is one that can impact even greater numbers of kids. But I don’t know what that would be and maybe that’s back to the readers’ comments on the previous post. Perhaps accepting invitations outside of my normal, comfortable work life leads in those directions.

Exactly! The greatest impact on students!

But how do we do that? Where is “There”?

I’m guessing that each of us will have a different take on that, to some degree but, from my reading and the conversations that I have had, there seems to be a serious divide between what some people are seeing in relation to the impact of technology tools (me included) and what we are still seeing in other areas (like teacher inservices and school improvement planning). We really do seem to be going in a few different directions at one time. Being Canadian, I only know about NCLB from what I read but it seems to create a serious divide among many groups involved in education.

Here in Saskatchewan, we are very involved in Assessment for Learning, using Data Driven Decision making where we are focusing most of our energies. Still adjusting to almalgamation, we are trying to find our way in many areas. Where I am an administrator, our division is also focusing on building Learning Communities and within our community, our new School Community Council is trying to decide on a direction to focus upon. So, really, my information and discussion regarding the impact and need for change in our view of technology is very much a personal endeavour although I am beginning to spread the word through afterschool pd sessions. The focus is not on what is happening around us but on looking inwards. This is where, I think, we will find our weaknesses lie. We spend so much time trying to find out what is happening internally that we aren’t aware of what is happening around us and when we look up, we find that many things have passed us by so we scramble to catch up, looking internally again and the whole sorry pictures begins anew.
I know that my blog and the blogs of others are the places that take me outside of the actions that make up my day. I reflect, discuss ideas, talk about apps or what I’ve read and how I respond to it. Some of these are directly related to what I do as an administrator. Some affect how my view of the world is changing which does not always have a direct impact on how I administrate. Having some teaching responsibilities does allow me the opportunity to work with new ideas, try them on for size and begin to invision their impact on school. It also allows me to see if what people are saying in their blogs might have a place in the classroom of regular teachers. I say “regular” because they are more likely to take a “wait until this passes” view of things given the serious amount of things that are piled on their plates. Their plate of responsibilities is so full at the moment and they are feeling overwhelmed by all that is going on. As an administrator, I have to step back and ask “What is best for students?” at junctures such as these, planning direction so that what takes place inside the school is best for the students and doesn’t overwhelm teachers into states of non-effectiveness.

This is where I wonder where “there” is located. Is there a “there”? Or are we now at a junture in society and education when there is no “there” but a continuous evolution of thinking, doing and creating? Do we even worry about getting to a “there”? Do we need to adjust our view and expectations - not a destination but a set of experiences that will be affected by how we react to the next change. Is “there” a place that no longer can be gained with change occurring faster and faster? Do we need to shorten our timelines from 5 years to 1 or 2 years even though we know that some changes seem to take FOREVER?

Really, we, as educators, live in a world of dichotomy - where one part of our world is moving so quickly it takes our breath away while the other side hardly seems to move at all. There we are, stuck in the middle trying to somehow bring these two together. Some people are doing a fantastic job while others are so overwhelmed that they stick with what they know, which, we are finding, doesn’t fit with our present students which is causing some serious problems.

So, where is “there”? Does it even exist anymore? How do we help our colleagues to process and handle the serious amount of different, and sometimes contradictory, information that they need to process?