Where’s The Food? Teachers, God love them, need someone who is in touch with the real world to push them. Far too many, as all of us who work daily with teachers know, are extraordinarily proficient in out-dated models of pedagogy.

Rock the Casbah!

Once, in a PLP Elluminate session, you said to me, “Now, I’m going to push you a little bit to think about…” I remember thinking at the time, “That has to be the gentlest push-back I’ve ever received.” And I actually warmed to the challenge (I say this knowing I can be one of those prickly, over-sensitive teachers at times).

You have always challenged me in a kind and respectful way, and I thank you for that. I also think of your “web-side manner” as cajoling, yes, but respectfully so. Not a bad thing.

I have two things to add to this discussion. First, I think that when we find ourselves saying the same things in 2010 that we were saying in 2000-whatever, a sense of urgency sometimes creeps into our voices. Some will hear that sense of urgency and prick up their ears. Others will hear it and crawl into their caves.

Second, I think there is something in the air this year. Maybe it’s that our new teachers are just one year more familiar with the things that tend to unsettle the rest. The numbers have shifted; the tone of the discourse is different somehow. But even in my little school in the middle-of-nowhere Texas, there’s a shift in the force. Some of the cave-dwellers are beginning to come out of hiding. I have some hope where I have despaired in the past.

Keep challenging us. We need you.

Susan

Canada’s own David Suzuki takes the same approach of being almost angry at people for their attitudes toward the environment. He certainly gets people’s backs up. So what?

Point: I have been inspired by Will Richardson and some people may have been offended.

But, here’s the kicker question: Did people get cajoled to join facebook or get an email account or join the next social media Diaspora? There is also a ground swelling that teachers and students can and will ride because it is where western society is heading. You can help lead it or you get get on board, but you can’t get your back up and expect to be a part of it.

I’m well aware of not having been in a classroom, teaching, for two years now. But the world needs both: we need people who taught in a classroom last week, and have the urgency of “you can do this tomorrow”, and we need people who’ve spent time not teaching, but thinking about learning and teaching for longer, deeper than we can allow ourselves when we’re otherwise embroiled in the daily speed, hubbub and routine of the classroom.

The problem lies in the fact that there are plenty of people in the latter camp who fail to show the depth of thought that the time out of the classroom permits – this editorial betrays that. It’s either that they waste their precious out-of-classroom time or that they have trouble communicating what it is they think they’ve uncovered.

Whatever the reason, the beauty of writing on a blog rather than in print, is that we’re not provoked into writing a piece for a deadline. If it’s not any good, or needs more work, we can let it simmer. And, as you say, when we get it wrong we find out pretty sharpish.

I’m going to be very happy, for one, to continue pushing and provoking. Given most people will go 20% of the way one might suggest, we have to push at 100% to achieve any form of movement.

Every classroom at my K-6 school now has an Activeboard and a teacher laptop connected to a fairly robust network. We have digital cameras, scanners, printers are easily available and access is open to just about everything other than YouTube and FaceBook. There are classrooms where the teacher has never used their laptop, or used their ActivBoard except to run their Lumens as an overhead projector on. Some, to increase the amount of display space in their classrooms tape student work, artwork, vocab lists and so on to their Activeboard. Training on using this tech is available in the school district at $20 a class, but teachers are frankly overwhelmed by the reading, writing, math … and now, Edusoft and Infinite Campus trainings that are mandatory, AND they are and will be held accountable on. The university ed department is still mostly locked in the overhead projector era and doesn’t have a clue about wikis, blogs, etc. outside of hearing about them at conferences. No admin or curriculum staff mention or promote anything to do with educational technology or pedagogy outside of our required programs, no one wins awards or is singled out by admin for doing a great job with technology or a different pedagogy and in fact we are supposed to be following the “approved pedagogy.” (I’ve never even had the head of educational technology for our district – who designated our classroom the district model tech class (or any other administrator visit our classroom), and we are the model ed tech class for the district – the only one in a district of 63,000 students – a class that wins awards almost every year and the district puts in its report as one of the highlights.

Should teachers be noting and becoming aware of these changes and learning about them and even using them? Absolutely! But why? Most know next to nothing about any of this, and they are not encouraged to learn it now other than in the most general way – they are pushed hard to not question what they are told to do, and media tends to reinforce that notion. I feel strongly that we need to make these changes and I frankly have to beat my head against a wall and take the chance of being reprimanded most days. This is not an environment that fosters innovation. I know this is NOT what everyone’s experience is and that there are many places that are more open … but how many aren’t? How many are worse than what teachers in my district experience? So I agree that you don’t have to be a teacher to comment, but where are we going to get a stronger, vital teacher voice? Where are the full-time classroom teachers in this community – there are not many. Will and others are right to push teachers and administrators and politicians and society in general if for no other reason, to make them cognizant of what there is and could be.

Here’s an actual working link to the search for the opening line that returns no results.

This technology stuff is hard. ISTE: I feel your pain.

For example, a search for the opening line of the article returns NO results.

ISTE: there’s this thing called Google. It helps make you relevant. Nice work leading and learning with technology.

Cheers,

Bill

I need to read “The Oz Priniciple”.

I thought that the article also had a “You aren’t in the classroom, so you don’t know” tilt, and while that is something that I know concerns you, it can’t drive you. You have a perspective that is unique to who you are and what you are doing at this time in your life right now. That’s an important viewpoint, and you should speak from what you know. You are seeing a broader picture than most folks in the classroom, and while there is nothing wrong with teachers pushing back and saying, “Yes, but here’s my view from where I sit,” that doesn’t make your vantage point any less valid.

We need robust debate. We need people who push. We should be questioning just about everything these days. That does mean people may be uncomfortable. Making people comfortable isn’t your job.

First off, I’d like to say, thanks for doing what you do–taking a conversation that is challenging, and opening it up for discussion on your blog. That furthers the learning and discussion for all of us, and that’s why I admire your mindful, thoughtful leadership. I’m not saying this as a “techno-fan-geek-groupie” but because I truly feel that you are a mindful speaker/writer/leader who will use this as an opportunity to reflect and grow.

That being said, what I find most unpleasant about the article, and what I feel threw it into ‘ugly’ mode for me, was her last sentence. I found that very off-putting — As if you aren’t conversing and listening and talking to the very people whose blog excerpts she posted(which is absurd).

And the author’s point about you being or not being in the classroom seems irrelevant to the post of yours(about parents) that she includes.

Certainly I agree, as would most of us, that there is a balance between challenging teachers and schools to move forward and providing support and encouragement for them to make that movement. There are times/moments/places where it can backfire, and if you are in the midst of being a change leader yourself and agree with the speaker, it may not resonate with you how other teachers feel. But then again sometimes we all need to be challenged and inspired and stretched.

However, your daily work with PLP is evidence of that balance you strike–it’s not just words from a podium–you and Sheryl have made it actionable and taken it to teachers in a mindful, constructive, supportive program that helps them grow and embrace change.

When you spoke at our school long ago, not only did you speak generally in a way that inspired and provoked change, but then you spent the entire day teaching my staff about blogs and wikis, and the nitty gritty of what was out there. You shared your passion and enthusiasm for what these tools could provide in terms of student understanding and how we could ramp up the learning for them. You were open to questions and conversation, and we all walked away better teachers.

I share these examples because I honestly believe you aren’t just standing at the podium challenging us with a message of passionate change, you are also ‘on the ground’ working directly with teachers to help them grow.

Last of all, your post about parents challenged my thinking. (and also had very little to do with Lee Kolbert’s excellent post, by the way).

I’d just been speaking last night with my sister whose children who are in first and sixth grades, and she was struggling with her impressions of her first grader’s teachers methods. Posts like yours have made me wish I had been more demanding of my son’s school, and so I encouraged her to talk to the teacher, to talk to the principal who she knows well and to voice her concerns.

I think you were spot on when you wrote that we sort of just “hope” and have this implicit trust that the schools know what they are doing. And as parents we do bear responsibility in this picture as well.

I digress- but lastly and most importantly I want to say, keep doing what you are doing. You rock.