I love this conference more than any other for a variety of reasons, the conversations (instead of presentations), the level of understanding and “enlightenment” among the participants, the many friends who’ve I made over the years all in one place, the absence of vendors and agendas, and the emphasis on making the world of education a better one for our kids, to name just a few. But the absolute best part of this conference is being in a school where the teachers and the students and the leadership all share a common purpose and live learning every day. I know being in the moment here, still in the midst of these powerful interactions, colors my view a bit, and that some of the SLA edcrush will wear off as I head away in an hour or so. But I can honestly say that this is the one school that I know I would want my own kids to attend without reservation. Not to say there aren’t others that I don’t know about. But this is about as good as it gets right now. It’s all about kids learning, making them an important driver in the process, and supporting and celebrating their efforts at every turn.
And so this is my Educon moment, when in the middle of the stream of pictures and Tweets and blog posts and live video today, this Tweet from Kristen Hokanson ’bout knocked me over:
Whoa.
I wonder how many schools can even come close to understanding a) what that student is talking about and b) what a powerful description of a learning culture that is.
We’ve spent a lot of time these past couple of days talking about change and learning and kids and parents and schools and more. It’s been heady. In some ways, the conversation hasn’t changed that much from last year. I don’t get the sense we’re much closer to the goal or even identifying the goal or even figuring out whether there is only one goal or many. But the difference between Educon and all of the other places where these conversations happen is captured so simply in that Tweet.
Change is possible. It is real. It is happening here. It can happen and is happening elsewhere.
And most importantly, the conversations need to continue.
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I agree wholeheartedly. I am wishing I was there right now as I try to tune in virtually. But it’s just not the same. I know I am still missing so much, and your post is affirming that fact. Thanks for making me feel worse
I have to make sure that I am able to attend in the flesh next year, as virtual attendance is a poor substitute. And yes - when we live and work in virtual spaces that our own students can be a part of (transparency), they see a professional side that is often masked.
Will,
Thanks for sharing that tweet. It is exactly what any school needs to see to understand why transparency and thoughtful teaching go hand in hand — and enhance each other. I am alerting Susan Morgan to this tweet right after I finish this comment — although I am sure she is reading this post too!
Susanne
transparency and thoughtful teaching go hand in hand? I agree but what does throughtful teaching look like? What do you do in your classroom to make suer you are having thoughtful teaching?
Will,I couldn’t agree more. Just the conversations that I tuned into were so powerful and forward thinking. I wish I could have cloned myself and listened to more. For those of us educators who see the value in this shift of ideas toward learning and teaching, I think we wish that these kinds of conversations were taking place everywhere, in every school and classroom, and that teachers, administrators,parents, and students alike would see the value and make the shift. Like you, not only would I love for my kids to be able to attend SLA, but I would LOVE to teach there! Great post!
Steve said, “I have to make sure that I am able to attend in the flesh next year, as virtual attendance is a poor substitute” and I agree. I tried, with great frustration, to catch some of the Educon buzz virtually. Wasn’t the same. Isn’t that ironic? In any case, it is a reminder that the ability to see a smile in real space, to nod or clap in acknowledgment of another person, to shake a hand or perhaps even share a hug still has an important place in all human communities.
Your post actually kind of disturbs me. When you say, “In some ways, the conversation hasn’t changed that much from last year. I don’t get the sense we’re much closer to the goal or even identifying the goal or even figuring out whether there is only one goal or many,” I can’t help but wonder if we’re stuck spinning our wheels re: School 2.0 and the use of technology in education in general.
It’s great that Kristen realizes her teachers are working hard to help her succeed, but working hard and actually accomplishing something are two very different things.
So what was it that EduCon accomplished? And what is it that all of us are accomplishing with our blog chatter about school 2.0? If we spent time in a thousand random classrooms (of all ages) around the country to see what is really taking place within those walls, I think our answer would have to be: “Not much.”
School 2.0 needs to hit a tipping point, and I think we can only get there when we can identify a clearly-stated, succinct goal toward which all of us are striving.
I agree and am always a little annoyed, because I guess I am hoping to see things a little more clearly. I enjoyed the educon conference but realized that so many people were at different points in the conversation, with still no clearly defined goals. As an elementary and middle school teacher I struggle with the need to adapt a curriculum, help support the younger students learning process and still stay true to my own beleifs on education. I think we have to reach inside ourselves and come up with our own clear goals and plans, because really no body is doing “it.”
But, there still is conversation so I think that is better than silence.
Thanks, Will, you summed up my thoughts so articulately. This was my first time here and look forward to next year! I enjoyed the conversations that were about what matters to me and as you said, it was wonderful not to get caught up in presentations, agendas and vendor distractions.
Kudos to Chris, the SLA students and all the attendees who VOLUNTEERED their time to participate! This is an exciting professional learning community.
Mark.. My comment was from a session where the students were talking about how the teachers and students forge relationships. The comment, in context was we were talking about how when the kids are connected to their teachers on facebook, and twitter that they can actually see what goes into how they plan and what they do to ensure that their kids can succeed. They see their teachers, their principal in the context of their lives and vice versa.
I wrote before I got here that SLA is a place that people come to learn. So if like you say… we spent time in a thousand random classrooms (of all ages) around the country to see what is really taking place within those walls, I think our answer would have to be: “Not much.” then I think the challenge is think about one thing from this conference…one take away…one thing you care about and over the course of the next year, make a plan to do something to make it happen. The other thing I think we NEED do is to bring one person next year so that these ideas can grow. Let’s stop admiring the problem, and come up with a solution. I am eager to hear yours…next year
Twitter is blocked in our school, but Plurk is not. My computer is hooked up to our SMARTboard and I introduced them to Plurk last semester. They enjoy taking a peek at my timeline before class and often comment and question about what’s happening.
Mark,
As a student of SLA “School 2.0″, I am going to go ahead and say that I disagree with your comment. In your third paragraph when you wrote, wondering if EduCon and school 2.0 were actually getting things done, my response to you is that change has to start somewhere. If we do not get people excited about it now, when will it happen? Is our school not a good idea, something not worth getting excited about? I think that if people want to spread the word and ideas of what we do at SLA then they should be able to freely speak, blog and tweet about it. Maybe through that we can create something that will really change education around the world. People come and look at my school and say things that I have never heard about any school I have ever been too. I think that this is great that others look, see and feel the way that I do about my school, the school that changes the way that students learn, creates an environment that people enjoy and want to belong in, and teaches me to be leader and not a follower, and also to have the knowledge to follow those who are heading in the right direction.
Sarah,
Thanks for your comment! If by chance you return to this page, my question for you is this: I get that technology can help students become more excited about learning. But what do you do at SLA that actually helps students to learn more material? Does technology help students to learn math more quickly, to become better writers, or to understand science topics more deeply? If so, how?
I’m not being cynical and saying that it doesn’t, but I just hear a lot about excitement and “newness,” and less commentary like, “I was able to learn math more deeply because of such-and-such things that can only be done online using 1-to-1 technology.”
I ask as a very interested observer, too, because I am trying to get my district to pilot a classroom where every child gets a laptop for the first time ever. So it’s not like I’m an unbeliever — I just want to make sure the reason for adopting such a laptop program is academic achievement and not just learning technology for technology’s sake. (I learned how to program in Pascal in high school — how beneficial was that?!)
All thoughts are welcomed!
Technology is one tool for learning and certainly not the only one. Good teachers use whatever tools necessary to help their kids learn. SLA has first found a way to reach kids because there is genuine respect and love and a commitment to valuing everyone who lives and works there. Secondly, SLA works because it recognizes that kids are the architects of their own learning and our kids don’t need technology “integrated” into their curriculums because it already runs their lives. Schools need to harness these tools to allow kids to get beyond facts and figures to apply and create. SLA seems to be a place where a lot of this is happening. I was highly impressed with the students and parents and faculty at SLA not because of their technology implementation, but because of the way they genuinely care and respect for one another. Most schools get this backwards because in the pursuit of “learning” they make it more about finding answers quickly than they do about the joy of doing it together. I’m sure if I spent more than 3 days at SLA I might find a few things I didn’t like or agree with, but in the end, they aren’t about technology there, they are about learning TOGETHER.
Chad, I think you wrote something very important here:
“Most schools get this backwards because in the pursuit of “learning” they make it more about finding answers quickly than they do about the joy of doing it together.”
Too often we are too busy trying to get students to learn when we should be getting students to be learners themselves. Yes, this means equipping them with necessary skills, but it also means making learning meaningful, authentic, and relevant. Technologies are just logical learning appendages in such contexts.
Mark,
I agree with Chad. Technology is a helpful part in my learning process, but not at all the only one. Last night, when I noticed your response, I tried to think about what you said. All night I could not think of one way that technology had helped me learn math. I have never sat down and learned math in that fashion, math has always been taught to me through teacher-student interaction. But through that, technology has been used to help me grasp math. When I see the things that I learned in my math classes put to practical use, I understand it more.
As for my other classes, technology has been used as something that can further the teachings, not supply them all along. Every teacher at my school knows when to and when not to put technology to use. We do not use it in my math class because it simply is not needed, but in my history class when we can pull up current events and interactive visuals that people have designed and put on the web, we see the use of technology in schools.
The way that SLA incorporates technology in the learning process accentuates the depth of our learning - seeing how friction affects a different moving objects through simulations that are on the computer, seeing how people react to the work we post to our school blogs, and watching movies made during the Franco regime in Spain. All these expose us to subjects that were not so easily grasped before.
Sure, it is possible to set up experiments to see the difference in friction between two different objects on the same surface, but that takes time, more time than to just download a simulation that has already been created. And it is not always enough too read about what the Spanish culture was like when Fransisco Franco ran Spain and changed the way they lived. It is beneficial to see how things were, watch the movies that came out during that time period.
Overall, technology does not teach me as much as others assume, but helps the teaching by making things easier to grasp and understand.
Mark,
Just curious, of all the myriad stuff in schools, why is it that the value of computers are so worthy of suspicion and inspection?
What was the last time you questioned the investment in Algebra II or D.A.R.E. or football or health class?
As someone who was there at the beginning of laptops in education, I implore you and your colleagues to stop referring to 1:1 program. What is the program? Does your school have a desk program or a bus program or an annoying public address system program?
Thanks for sharing this Will. As I was leaving SLA today, I hung out for a few more moments with six or students in the hallway. And I asked them about being at SLA, about the difference-makers for each of them. And you know what it was? It was about the community of care, the relationships,the respect the teachers had for the students and their interest in their opinions and beliefs (and the challenges to those they offered!) and the fact that people worked hard and believed them. They said that they were volunteering their weekend to be there because they loved it and cared that much.
When I came home tonight, I was hanging out with my kids- a high school senior and freshman. They know I’ve been to SLA several times now, and they know how much I love this conference. But, when I described for them what the kids were like (the diversity!), what they felt about school, and then described what was happening in VK’s class on Friday (students were working in teams to design and construct reflectors to extend the capacity of a single solar panel so they could purchase a smaller amount of solar panels to go on the SLA roof to generate heat–and then share their solution with homeowners who want to reduce costs and energy dependency) my son looked at me and said “That is what I would love for school to look like.”
Amen. Me too. And therefore, with all the luxuries that I have working with an independent school, I say shame on us if we cannot shift enough to make a difference. And, I say “applause, applause” to Chris and all the folks at SLA for showing us how it might be done.
Totally missed out on Educon, which makes me sad, but for good reason (serious birthday happenings for my son all weekend). I look forward to reading reflections of those who attending F2F or virtually. Perhaps next year! Will, glad to hear you made it to St. Louis…I am headed there tomorrow AM..here’s hoping the weather holds up!
The feeling that using technologies in schools has to be justified….
This is one discussion that we just need to let go of. It’s not necessary anymore. I believe SLA folks, lots of them, are there now.
Mark was suggesting we need a web 2.0 tipping point. Here’s mine: refuse to engage in the debate over justifying tech use in schools.
Kristin’s Tweet was a great example of student engagement/amazement with teachers who have moved past that old debate.
I have the utmost respect for Chris Lehmann and his colleagues at SLA and yet, I have no earthly idea what they do with computers.
It doesn’t matter to me and paradoxically I don’t think what they do even begins to approach the potential of computers in education.
Perhaps the greatest compliment I can pay SLA is that it is an institution capable of self-correction and open to not only growth, but criticism.
Another strength of SLA is that it is a childlike institution, not a childish one (a distinction offered by John Taylor Gatto).
To the other Mark: I think we have to take into account that people “like us” in regards to school 2.0 constitute about 2%-5% of the teachers who are actively practicing right now (that’s my estimate… maybe 1%? 7%? Certainly no more than 10%). Because of that, refusing to talk about the merits of tech use and also not creating a clear goal/vision of 21st century schooling is not a good plan.
To the above Mark: Because for a decade they had Computer Aideed Instruction apps and approaches. The internet corrupted that, and now Google is absolutely the worst thing teachers can use - but they do, as they don’t know any better. They don’t understand Google is a commercial algorithmic taxonomy, and that 80% of people use it in preference. The don’t know that each search engine actually only shares about 35% of it’s index with the next one - they thing each is searching ‘the pot’. While we started with ICT exploring and contructing with CAIs, in the rush to get on the ’superhighway’ no one thought about a lot of things - as no one could have known. Like Stephen Heppel said recently ‘we are at the beginning of learning’ … to which I think, we need to take it all down to bare bones, admit it is a total mess and that we need to start again with ICTs. This 10%/90% thing is just going to burn people up. Start with taxonomy, create frameworks and develop teacher-understanding. This is the whole ‘build the plane as it’s flying’ approach. I agree with Will, we orbit the same issues - and these are not Web2.0, these have been here well before Berners Lee cut his first web-page. I see the issues as more foundational right now.
Huh?
To Dean: “Google is absolutely the worst thing teachers can use”?? Also, what are the foundational issues you describe?
To Gary: I agree with your premise that technology should just be assumed, like desks, but in districts where it’s simply not, I think a 1-to-1 program is the next logical step. You’re about 20 steps ahead of us down the “how to think about technology in education” learning curve.
Thank you. I think
Will,
I remember hearing a student in our “cool down” session say that last year, and just thinking what a great revelation that was for the students who attended, to really experience how much some people care about teaching.
To see people passionately engaged in their profession has to be something meaningful to their lives, to see that adults have passion for what they do.
I also slightly agree with Mark’s comment–moving this excitement into the typical schools where many of us work is difficult, though possible.
But to me, the thing is–SLA exists–the excitement is palpable, and it works. Which means other SLA’s can exist, not clones, but other places like SLA where learning is a heady, exciting, motivating experience for students. It and other innovative schools like it give us hopeful examples of what can happen with the right leadership, planning and attitude and atmosphere and goals.
Out of curiosity: Is SLA a charter school, private school, or what? Does it labor under NCLB, or is it exempt? Does it have open admissions, or selective ones?
How possible is it for SLA to seep into other traditional public schools?
My last question: Will somebody fly me over there next year?
SLA is a magnet school in the School District of Philadelphia with selective admissions. We are held accountable by NCLB like all other public schools. The admissions process is based on a number of criteria including an interview with a staff/current SLA student, grades, attendance and test scores. A massive effort is made by all members of the school community to interview over 800 prospective students during two weekends in December.
I believe there are pieces of SLA that could easily seep into traditional schools, but it would take a shift in focus. The students and teachers are empowered in their own learning here; learning matters. In addition, it is not without mentioning that SLA will max out at just under 500 students; school size matters.
Much of the success of SLA is connected to a dedicated, shared vision of teaching and learning, a small school atmosphere and student empowerment. I have been fighting against the traditional school system for a long time and forgot how effective a group of people becomes when they all pull in the same direction. It takes committed, empowered teachers engaging curious students supported by effective administrators and involved parents. The key here is developing a school that is a community focused on a shared goal. When that happens, success is not far behind.
Clay
What I find most fascinating about SLA is it is part of the School District of Philadelphia. I am sure that some of the SLA staff could better tell the story…It is part of the city’s small schools project, but they still operate under the budgetary constraints of a large urban school district. The standardized tests for PA are taken at the HS level in 11th Grade and this is the first year that they have 11th grade students on campus that will take the state mandated PSSA tests. You should for SURE try to make it over next year!
Having just spent three days at the eTech Conference in Ohio, I can understand how a good conference can fill you with enthusiasm. After talking with peers, attending sessions filled with ideas, and listening to Wesley Fryer’s keynote address, I returned to school filled with plans and the motivation to make them work. As I posted about , I realized, once again, just how much professional development makes better teachers and schools.
I just have to say that my comment was 100% true. If I could tell you how much me and my fellow students realize the amount of work these teachers do for us, you would all be amazed.