Educational Discourse

I like to use wikis for much of the work that I do. I think that they allow me a great deal of freedom to be creative in their construction without being overwhelming, give me just enough gadgets and plug-ins to keep me busy and suit my purpose when it comes to organization and access. Right now I use one for my planning, another I used with my class last year to gather information about Medieval Europe, a third we use as a staff to organize information and I have others that I started for a book club (which didn’t go too well but I think I’ll give it another shot), another for my admin group to organize ideas about supervision and yet another for a group dealing with web2.0 tools from the summer.

Now, because I use a wiki quite a lot, I think they are one of the best things to show someone who is doing work online. There’s no pressure to post and you can make them private, which is what I have done with my planning wiki plus some others. You can upload information that is accessible from anywhere, collaborate as a group, keep track of what is going on and so much more.

My reason for discussing this is because Clay Burell has been organizing an inservice day, using a wiki to put together the different components that he thinks are essential for a teacher in today’s world. I haven’t looked at the wiki yet but I know that I will when I get some time. The great thing is that I can link from the staff wiki to Clay’s and they will then have all that information at their disposal which is an awesome thing. I now that the Horizon Project was using a wiki to organize their work and share discussions and I think it was a great tool for doing that cross-continent collaborative work.

So, as I thought about this, I wondered who was checking in on ourstaff wiki, which has a link on Clay’s blog. Well, guess what? We’ve had visitors from California, Glasgow City, West Lothian and Lombardia as well as Saskatchewan. I’ve been blogging for about 8 months and our wiki gets more hits from different locations than this blog! Pretty amazing that people from all over the world are looking at how our staff uses this tool to stay in touch, learn together and be organized. My hope is, that as we become more comfortable and grow in our familiarity with technology, we will be able to share more information such as what we are doing in our Professional Learning Teams and our School Community Council. Because of it’s ease of use, people can use it with minimal pd time and, with the save each version feature, if you mess up, you just go to the version before and start over.

Clay had a post that asked what web2.o tool people would suggest for a pd day such as he was designing. My suggestion was something like iGoogle, Pageflakes or Netvibe - a homepage type arrangement where you can add pages and widgets to keep you organized, get news, keep up with the sports or whatever you want. However, the more I thought about it, the more I suggest the use of the wiki. It gives you a chance to be putting things together, in private as I mentioned, and then to branch out. It might even be somewhere you begin to express your ideas before you go to the blog. Now, I really do suggest using a homepage aggregator to assist with organizing all the different tools that one might have online. I also suggest something like Claimid where you can gather links together so you have one stop to get a page. I’ve made it my homepage so I just click and go. Of course, one needs a RSS aggregator to keep track of all the interesting blogs out there. As I think of it, you could use a wiki page to do some of this but it wouldn’t have all the bells and whistles.

I’m not going to suggest any one wiki provider although, after visiting my wikis you’ll know which one I prefer. I suggest you try out a few and go with the one that suits you the best. Whatever you do, get wikiing!

“Who do you want me to be?”

That’s what my oldest daughter asked me today. It was a question that came during a heated discussion.

“Just tell me and I’ll do it!”

Each of us has had those moments when we wish someone would just tell us how to act or what to do so we could do it and avoid the difficult journey in discovering for ourselves who we are. As an educational leader and school administrator, I’ve had a few moments like that over the years. “If someone would just tell me, I’d do.” I’ve thought during a few rough periods. Unfortunately, there are many different ideas of what that would be and there is no way to be everything for everyone. Instead, as a leader it becomes necessary for one to be able to reflect on who we are and what it is that motivates us to be in that position.

Now, there are many different ideas of what a leader should be like and how they should act. My experience is that no one can be all things so we must be willing to accept that we have strengths and weaknesses and then go about using our strengths in ways that build community and looking for others within who have strengths in our areas of weakness, supporting them and allowing them to use their strengths in growing the community. To ignore our weaknesses or, worse yet, pretending they aren’t weaknesses, is detrimental to everyone, including oneself.

One of my biggest struggles is deciding where exactly my strengths lay and then using them. As I’ve said before, I wasn’t a great teacher, good but not great. However, I’ve worked with great teachers, those who have the knack and ability to walk along with the students and helping them to grow and learn, knowing when to step out and lead and knowing when to fade to the back and let the students lead themselves in their own pursuit of knowledge. Now, as an administrator, I’ve continued to grow and become better at what I do, accepting that there are areas that I need to improve while understanding that I will not be great in all areas and searching out those around me who have the necessary skills and abilities to lead in various ways as we build our community, supporting them in what they do.

Today, when my daughter said this, I could have told her that if she did this and that, it would be what I wanted. That, however, would caused all sorts of problems. With a house of 7 children, there are all kinds of strengths but not one child has all things. I told her she needed to be herself and, at 15, that’s a pretty tough thing to do. It didn’t make her happy but that’s a whole other discussion. It did make me reflect, however, on how I interact with my children and, in a different way,  how I interact with everyone with whom I come into contact especially at school.

During this past week as many different situations were played out, there were times I wanted someone to give me the easy out and just tell me which direction to go. That didn’t happen. Instead, I had to reflect on what I do well and then, with this reflection, seek out others in the school who had the skills that were needed. It took time to do this which, I have learned, is well worth it as it avoids having to deal with the fallout from trying to do things which I are not in my  areas of strength.  I don’t always do this, which is why I have more gray hair than I had when I started in the administrator’s position but I have become much better at taking the time to decide if it were better for another person to be involved.

Leading, like parenting, doesn’t come with a How To manual. What works with one will not always work with another but a shotgun approach to leading doesn’t work either. Instead, it is necessary for those of us who lead to be aware of our own strengths and weaknesses and then, when needed, seek others who have strengths and support them. Many parents and teachers think that, because I am the principal, I have all the answers and find it surprising when I tell them that I don’t. I do assure them, though, that I will support them and help them to find the resources so that they can develop themselves in whatever ways they need.

As a father of girls who are 15, 14, 12 & 10, I know that I don’t have all the answers nor do I know it all and there are times when I would like someone to tell ME what to do just as my 15 year old wanted this morning. It doesn’t work like that no matter how much we wish for it. Instead, I did what I do at school, I went to someone who has strengths in those areas that I don’t. I now wondering if I should have just faked it and boldly struck on  but I’m sure my wife will talk to me sometime this week;)

Leading is more than just being the person at the top. It is learning how to see the strengths of those around you and turn to them when you know that they will do a much better job than you will but being responsible, no matter what, for the final outcome because, like it or not, you are the leader.

Today is a day which we should be showing our appreciation for those people who work so hard finding resources and helping our students to meet the demands of the various assignments teachers assign. I’d especially like to thank those blogging librarians who give me all kinds of great insights and links to various  informative sights.

Rob Darrow

Hey Jude

Donna Desroches

The Shifted Librarian

Voices from Inglenook 

Steve 

To all these people who help make our schools a better place, I hope you had a great day!

I returned from our yearly administrator’s seminar yesterday a bit tired but with a host of ideas for creating a better climate for our school. While we were there, we were given two new tools that I feel are really going to help our staff to focus their efforts and move us forward.

Now, to be honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to these two days. Not because of the content but one of my staff members had had a stroke on the weekend and I was still trying to figure out how we were going to organize ourselves during the recovery. I know that recovery from a stroke is really determined by a number of factors and, right now, there is no telling how long this could last. So, there I was Monday morning trying to get things organized for the sub that was coming in not really knowing what was going on in the classes. After some searching, we were able to piece together some ideas and get things going. I then had a number of other “administrative things” to deal with and really thought it would be easier to stay home. I’m glad I didn’t.

Our school division has been working on Professional Learning Teams - fashioned after the Dufour’s PLC’s. We’ve been going through this process for about a year now. The staff with which I work has really been trying to work together to build these teams and develop a greater sense of community within the school that focuses on their own professional growth and the improvement of teaching and learning. Our trouble has been we haven’t been really clear on the focus and the use of the SMART goals as outlined in The Handbook for SMART School Teams by Conzemius & O’Neil. I didn’t want the enthusiasm to be lost but still wasn’t sure how to move the teams along. The two days in seminar really helped.

The one tool that I was happy to learn was something called the Turbo Meeting +. Now I know that this type of meeting has been around for a long time but I hadn’t heard of it. Why I like it is that it will give our PLT’s focus and direction, something that they have not had so far.  It also will give those teachers who have been hesitant something with which to work that isn’t threatening to them. The whole focus will be on data we collect as a school. Now, one of my focuses the past year has been figuring out how to build community while bringing new tools, particularly web2.0 tools, into the school. What I see as being possible is for our teachers to see ways to use technology to help students in areas in which they are having trouble. Through data collection, we can see areas where we may need to look at new strategies and some of these can be linked to technology tools.

The other area that I found very helpful was the clarification of how SMART goals will drive what we teach. Now I know that some people are not fond of these type of goals. What I like about them is that they can increase our understanding of what we need to do, identify ways to do it and then provide us with strategies that will impact what students are doing. Again, I see us being able to examine what we are doing and then looking at a variety of strategies, some including technology, that will assist us with achieving our goals.

I don’t think that, as schools, we can move from where we are to someplace where technology is helping to influence our schools and teaching until we begin to take a serious look at what we are doing. As I mentioned in my last post, I believe we have spent enough time discussing and talking. Some educators will continue to do this but it isn’t bringing about the change that I feel is needed. With these tools to guide us, I believe we can begin to examine our objectives and see, through the data we collect, that there are areas that indeed need some changing in order to have our students prepared for the transition from school to whatever it is they choose to do.  We need to have some place to begin and taking a closer look at the present and what we are doing with an eye on what we might change and might do differently is definitely better than the insistent talk about what could be. As I mentioned, Barbara Barreda’s post at Leadertalk really got me thinking about our need as educational leaders to use the tools we have and work within the mandate that we have to look more closely at what our objectives. These two tools, combined with the PLC format, I believe, will give those teachers with whom I work the opportunity to do just that. As we begin to ask questions about what we have been doing and what we might be doing, there will be an opportunity to also look at the objectives and how they can be used to meet student needs now and in the future.

This past week I’ve had time to get back into reading some and commenting some. I really wish I could do more but I have decided that being connected in a variety of ways in my f2f world is more important that my being connected on the web. I had always imagined that, as I learned more about the tools and became better at discussing the implementation of the tools, my readership would grow and, eventually, I’d get to do some presenting on the topics, at least in my home division and maybe even get some time to develop workshops for within the division. Well, that hasn’t happened. As summer began, I wanted to was hoping to do some reading and write more. That didn’t happen either. In fact, as summer moved along, I read very little and blogged even less. Was I losing the desire after only 6 months? What was going wrong?

I found out that nothing was going wrong and I hadn’t lost my enthusiasm for using technology but I was, in fact, needing to move past the hype discussions to really begin to examine and explore how the tools could improve education for the students. To continue discussing how great things were and how it might be if more teachers used the tools and how other teachers needed to get online was, well, becoming boring as was the discussion of the latest and greatest new tool. Some I’d check out but, for the most part, I’m still working on getting my teaching centered around those that I am getting comfortable with and unless something outstanding comes along, I’ll stick with what I have for now. So, I would scan my RSS and read the occasional post. I quit the whole SL adventure because, well, it is a nice place to visit but, if I have that time, I’d rather play games than be in SL. I spent the summer following this pattern, school started and there wasn’t much time for anything except getting things in order at school.

This week has seen a slight shift in the work in school, I’ve a bit more time to read and write. More importantly, I happened on a few discussions forums that really sparked me. The first was a discussion about digital natives/immigrants. I’ve discussed this before (so far back I can’t find the thread) and to see it crop up again was rather interesting. Most of the people in the discussion were new to me. However, Sylvia Martin, someone who has been doing a lot of work on web2.0 tools, commented that:

All this brings up important questions - Does labeling teachers as digital immigrants give them an excuse not to participate? Does labeling kids as digital natives give us an excuse not to teach them? If the label is used as an excuse, maybe it’s not so handy.

I think a lot of people are coming to the conclusion that although DN/DI is a convenient slogan, it falls apart as part of a deeper analysis. And worse, it may actually be a roadblock to solutions.

I agree completely with this. I know that it will continue to crop up as people enter the blogosphere but for those who have been working within the domain for a bit, it appears to have entered a new stage.

Barbara Barreda, one of my fellow writers over at Leadertalk, posted an interesting topic just the other day. What tool? What learning? What objectives? is a piece that looks at going past the native/immigrant discussion to look more deeply at the philosophical aspect of changes that these new tools might bring.

What is it we really want the students to learn and be able to do at the end of the month, the quarter, the semester, the year? I am discovering that the school year, for the teachers and myself, is a living breathing example of Newton’s law of motion. “A body in motion stays in motion unless it is acted upon.” So it is time to not only shake up our general concept of what learning is important but to shake up the concrete objectives and goals we set for our lessons. When those objectives change then we will be well on the way to transforming the educational process.

This last statement is getting to the essence of what I see as being the next step in bringing around reform in the educational systems we work in. Until we can reflect on what we are doing and question what it is that is being taught, we will continue to do what we have been doing, maybe with some new tools, and the results won’t be that much different.

Teachers like mscofino, Dan Myers,  Clarence Fisher and Coolcatteacher who are demonstrating that there is a way to examine the objectives that will allow us to manage what we are doing in a much better fashion. Now, these teachers are examples of people who are evaluating what is happening in their classrooms and doing things a bit different. Not all of them are using new web tools to achieve their goals but they are using these tools to share with others their successes and to ask probing questions of the rest of us.

It is no longer good enough to continue the discussions about native/immigrant status. Things have kept moving since these terms surfaced a while back. As Sylvia Martinez says

I think a lot of people are coming to the conclusion that although DN/DI is a convenient slogan, it falls apart as part of a deeper analysis. And worse, it may actually be a roadblock to solutions.

I know that people that just learning with the new tools will continue to have this discussion but it is maybe time for others to push the envelope forward and ask about objectives with a new set of lenses. Dean Shareski, one of my more favourite Saskatchewan educational bloggers, continues to do this on his site. I appreciate Dean’s insights and analysis and his persistence to demonstrate to teachers that the change isn’t that overwhelming, objectives can be met and, whether we like or not, society is changing.

We have the ability, the knowledge and the tools but we are frozen by our indecision, continue to follow what has gone before us. Until we shake off these bonds, schools will continue to be places where students come to power down.