Ever been to a restaurant for a meal and realize that just a bit more salt would really add to the taste of the great meal you ordered. You have the salt passed to you. You take some time to figure out exactly where you will start with the salt and then you begin only to find that some joker has loosened the cap so you end up with the whole shaker on your plate!
How do you feel? What do you do? How do you react?
Well, that is how some of the people who I talked to at the TLt IT Summit07 seemed to be describing themselves. Well, none actually used the above image but it was the image that I came up with from their descriptions. They went in to the conference looking for something that would add to their teaching, making it that much better. However, somewhere during the confernce, the lid to the shaker came off and they were overwhelmed with the amout of seasoning they received during the course of the two days.
Now, this isn’t unusual for a conference. At least I don’t think it is for most teachers. You end up seeing so many great things that you sometimes don’t know where to start. However, in this case, there was some added stress. They weren’t sure how what to do with the meal now that it was covered in salt. They were incapable of cooking it themselves. They knew that trying to brush a little off just wouldn’t work although there will be some who try to do that and end up with a very bad taste left in their mouths and may never venture back to the restaurant or try that meal again to see how great it really might be. Some seek the assistance of a waiter to help them. However, in doing this, some are rude and impatient and do not fully enjoy the meal they finally get. Those that realize that this sometimes happens are able to relax and wait for the replacement meal to arrive. When it does, they begin to savour it, knowing that it took extra time because someone else had created this problem for them.
A whole group of people are headed back to their schools with that overwhelmed feeling. Some are willing to ask for help and patiently wait until it arrives and then they enjoy the meal, taking time to enjoy each bite as they work throught the whole meal. For those who don’t want to take the time to get the help, they end up getting through the ativities but they don’t work and the teacher is left with a bad experience.
Now, one thing that really made me sit up and take notice were the two keynote speakers. Both Ian Jukes and Michelle Noname talked about the need for teachers to begin using the technologies, the idea that students in classrooms are not the same as the students that were there even 10 years ago, that things were changing quickly and there was a need to bring our educational instruction into the new millenium. (They didn’t say it like that but that was kind of the drift.) Now, as someone who has heard this a few times, I wasn’t really too taken aback by what either said and, in discussing this with others, neither were they. However, one of the teachers from the school where I teach was with me and he had too much salt and wasn’t sure what to do about it. So, as we drove back to our community, we discussed and debriefed the various things that he had gathered. This was where some really wonderful things began to happen.
This teacher is a veteran teacher who teaches a whole host of things. As we began our drive from the city limits, coffee in hand, I asked how he liked the conference. His immediate response was
“Great. It was a great conference. But too much information for someone like me. My head is spinning. I have so many things that I only partly understand and that last session I didn’t understand anything. It was over my head. …”
This went on for about 15 minutes as he just talked about all the things that went on. And then it came.
“You know. When we get back, I’m going to do one thing from this conference and you’re going to help me until I get it right. I want to do one thing. There are so many that I can think of but I want one thing …”
The conversation switched as we discussed a few ideas, well, more than a few but one idea would create another. The goal was to do one thing that would impact his teaching. So, if you were me, what would you have suggested and why? Let me know what you’d do to help this teacher to begin the journey.
We spent the whole ride home – 2 hours – discussing the use of technology to increase students understanding and ability to create responses that demonstrate understanding. This led to a discussion of educational learning philosophy which…. It was a great ride home.
I spent the rest of the week trying to get caught up on missing two days. I think I should be there by, oh, mid-July:) But, the excitement that I witnessed as I helped this patron determine to send the meal back and savour what he received, not rushing to get it done. There would be time for dessert, after dinner drink and a nightcap later. Right now, enjoying the meal was paramount.
I’ll let you know what I told him in a few days.
5 responses so far ↓
Great reflections. I sent this off to a number from our division attending. Hopefully they’ll contribute to the discussion.
Interesting post. I gave a presentation back in January at a national conference. It was entitled “25 Ways to Integrate Technology into your Classroom.” I began my presentation by stating that I did not want to overwhelm them — I wanted them to choose just one idea to take back with them to try to implement in their classroom. I gave them resource sites to go to for each of the 25 ways so they could learn more about their topic after they left the presentation. It is easy to get overwhelmed at a conference and not do anything because of that. It was great that your colleague was excited enough to know that he could “weed” through all he took in and work on bringing one important idea into the classroom. What I would suggest is going back through the conference notes, materials, handouts, etc. and try to make sense of it and then decide what he thinks he would be able to accomplish and what would be worthwhile.
Great analogy. Too much information is just the way it is now isn’t it? The fact that your head was spinning though is a good indication that the ideas will be implemented.
Interesting question–what would that ONE thing be?
For me, it would be blogging.
Not even for his students at first, just creating a blog for his own reflections and to record new ideas or web 2.0 tools he notices.
Because I think doing that reflection then leads you down the road to wanting to try it with students and getting excited about sharing your own teaching/educational experiences.
A site I’d recommend to you–If you haven’t seen the Learning 2.0 site from the Charlotte Public Library or the one from California’s Library Association–they are great “week by week” self-training modules. I wrote more about it on my blog and the links are there.
Also, I think that Ning–classroom 2.0 might be a good place for him to join and just watch and listen to the conversation and get/share ideas.
So that’s more than one thing, but I limited myself to three
so that’s not too bad 
Thanks for the really reflective post. This whole issue of helping staff get jumpstarted is one I’ve been thinking about a lot, especially since seeing the NYTIMES article about laptops.
Find what he likes. What does he do on computers already? What looked like something he could or would want to do? Then tell him to ask us for help. He can join the classroom2.0 ning, or Ed Tech talk, and we’ll be there to help. He doesn’t have to do this alone.
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