I love Vizualize.me as a new way of thinking about my resume and experience. Check it out. 

Out with the Old 

A little over a year ago, I lost a good friend. She’s not literally gone, but we parted ways for reasons that don’t need to be disclosed in a blog. Needless to say, I miss that friendship. An obvious point considering I’m writing about it over a year later. I should do a lot of things regarding this friendship— I should move on, I should forget, I should not spend my time thinking about things I cannot change … but should is easy to say and hard to do.

The idea of “should” has struck me lately in my role as a technology integrator. Technology integration often lends itself to the expectation of “should.” Teachers should be up on cloud computing. Teachers should be a part of a PLN to find their own ideas and resources. Teachers should be working on keeping up with the “latest and greatest.” Teachers should be willing to try new technologies and should not be afraid to fail. And yes, they should. But “should” is the operative word. As much as I should do certain things, it doesn’t mean I do them. 

So I’ve been considering the question, “How does one change from should to a definite action?” Even when looking at grammar, these are two different types verbs- “should” is a helping verb. Its function is to aid the main verb- the action. It doesn’t have to be there. “I should do …” simply changes to “I do … ” So it’s simple right? Take out the helping verb and we’re all set. Yet, we all know change is hard— getting rid of the old- “should” and bringing in the new- “do” is where even I struggle. 

Today, we introduced new technology to the faculty in my division at my school. I must say, they did a wonderful job being open to the new. I think when introduced to the new, everyone is willing to try. It’s now my job to support them and stay away from the “should.” My role is to aid them in the transition, in a similar way as I’ve tried to move past my lost relationship. Take small steps. Not be frustrated by set backs. Be willing to meet “the new” head on, but not be mad when I need a few moments to remember the old. 

“Should” is a helping verb …it’s there when we need it, but thank goodness we can throw it away!

#EduCon Sunday Morning Panel Notes 

Disclaimer: Again, this is for my sake more than the sake of anyone who views this blog. 

Panel: How do schools sustain innovation?

Dr. Chris Emdin

Karen Tal

Wyneshia Foxworth

Chris Walsh

Pam Moran

Moderated by Kevin Hogan

Educon 2.5, January 25-27, 2013

Introductions/What is Innovation?

Chris E: to connect seemingly disperate concepts to solve a common problem; connecting the dots to meet a common need

Karen: look at not only pedagogy and social

Wyneshia: young people who serve others, wanting to do their very best and helping others to do their very best, finding the opportunity to foster the environment for people to have idea, challenges, working through ideas to help meet a need

Chris W: ideas that work, usually with other people; you must implement, you go through failure; you have to make a difference, solve a problem

Pam: evolution, revolution, form, transform, change over time not scale up or static sustainability; the spread of ideas, but those ideas can take on different shapes and different perspectives 

Kevin: invention is a follow and innovation is a weed

Moderator: (at Chris E) Can you see the innovation at your school being scaled?

Chris E: marrying hip hop culture in a science-focused school, what are the inherent tenants in each of those phenomena, then exploit those (observation for example); bureaucracy is needed for there to be a spark for innovative ideas— gives space for challenge; innovation: start at the place where there is no space for it; 

Mod: (to Pam) How would that fly with your school board in rural VA?

Pam: work an uncommon board, shift from tension on two sides of a stream (what’s dictated and what’s worth it for kids to learn), bureaucracy does exist, but it does give you a space to push the walls apart. Book: Walk Out, Walk On— if we can’t walk out of schools, our bureaucracy how do we walk out of those things that are holding us because we know it’s the right thing to do for kids? How do we take the idea for innovative work and move it across our communities. We all have to walk out, walk on in order to stay in the same space. 

Chris W: we can’t force a model on anyone, first the lightbulb has to go off; it’s a lot harder to take someone else’s innovation and implement it in a classroom without help, support needs to happen, but we don’t have the infrastructure for that

Karen: if you bring to your organization a space to encourage people to think outside of the box, you can do a lot of things; should be like haute coutre— each school should get its own identity— you can take the main ideas, but it will not be able to be the same

Chris E: tension between the idea that we want the schools to be able to develop their own identities at the same time that we want innovation spread across schools; there is a possible way to create structures across schools where there is a space for schools to develop their own uniqueness; Book: Urban Science Education for the Hip Hop Generation; co-teaching— a space where students are allowed to take the helm of the classroom, there’s so much power in that, student is always the expert as far as how to disseminate the information to other students, even while teacher may be the content expert; we are all responsible for each others learning; focus on context (the environment immediately outside of the school- where are they hanging out, buying food from)— study that sphere, what about this space is engaging the youth, replicate that in school; content- purposely last, you don’t know everything (and someone of us know that!), becoming comfortable in saying that you don’t know everything, create mutualism in the classroom; youth voice must be prominent, let that be the gear that moves innovation

Wyneshia: everyone in the school walls has a place in innovation, everyone must be a part of the evolution of innovation, sometimes in the schools walls you fight tension of scalability

Audience: What happens when practice is scaled to the point where it becomes institutionalized?

Pam: Most of what we label as innovation is actually institutionalization of programs; programs by themselves we start to think of as the fix or patch— it’s an imposed innovation; rather than trying to create programs that we institutionalize, we should be looking at asking the question, how is it that we get teachers and kids to wonder together, to observe together and then to student to apply abductive reasoning— taking great leaps to determine hypothesis

Chris E: issue is not whether or not practices are institutionalized, it’s actually a good thing— the problem is when a transformative idea gets co-opted. Example: flipping classroom: using a traditional approach to instruction and allowing it to infest a powerful idea; educators have to be really savvy, if the results remain the same, if emotions remain the same after a powerful idea, then something is wrong (My own question: How do we balance innovation with tradition in the sense of institutional and teacher control?)

Moderator: (to Wyneshia) Talk about how you bring in people from the outside.

Wyneshia: people come in with a common goal, allowing schools to have a extra set of hands

Chris W: building a culture of collaboration, massively flexible by design, ok to institutionalize if they are good ideas and are working (1. it has to be flexible, 2. it has to be collaborative, 3. define outcomes— what does that mean on a daily basis?); Culture is the glue that is the unsaid thing in the room— we don’t teach it, we need to build cultures

Pam: Difference between defining teacher places and learning spaces, shifting the concept of school from 3D to 4D, most of what we label as innovation is 1910 playing out in 2012

Chris W: I’m not a gadget guy, it has to make sense to me, I have to be able to use it for more than a couple of weeks. Not everything is a revolution.

Chris E: we often times don’t give certain tools the opportunity to develop and grow, and we don’t grow with them; big cultural gulf between teachers and students (sometimes race, sometimes SES, most often age), it’s important for us to discard tools that don’t work for us personally, but it’s important to deal with the tension, ambiguity of certain tool if it’s something that students are deeply connected to

Moderator: How to create culture

Chris W: we have the opportunity to talk with people around the country who actually buy into the vision, but they don’t know how to execute it. Students receive scores on particular learning outcome— might change what reports look like for normally “high-flying kids”

Chris E: “habits of mind and college readiness” —help parents define those constructs and help them see where their child is lacking in that, every parent wants to believe their child is the most brilliant person ever, parents must know what it requires to be that

Karen: normally we think about innovation and success, we don’t think about how we act if there is failure

Chris W: F is the new A in a lot of ways; if the teacher knows the process so well that they can manufacture the kid failing so it becomes a teachable moment

Chris E: I play the fool on a regular basis, you make them comfortable with failing by playing up your ignorance about something

Wyneshia: how do we convert the unconverted— shedding a little light, how do we take back the fact we’re about to lose a whole generation

Chris W: thinking about urgency, dedication to urgency, we can’t wait till a next school year we don’t have time to let that failure play up too long

Chris E: how about the fact we’ve already failed a bunch of students? Parents and teachers have been conditioned that school has to be a certain way— but if you think back to the effects of this convention then that has an effect.

Pam: State of tension in the country right now with multiple cultures trying to find dominance. Helping this go viral.

All you need for Sunday morning at #EduCon

#educon Three Friday Take Aways 

Disclaimer: My previous post of copious notes was more for my benefit than the benefit of anyone else who may read them. (Though I hope others do benefit.) I wanted a way to get everything down without a barrage of tweets. 

As I was walking back to my hotel from the Franklin Institute, there was an ease I felt walking down the street. I feel very comfortable in Philadelphia because I was born here. Oddly enough, I left at 5. Yet, I still feel comfortable. I’m staying across from my mom’s old office building. Immediately upon walking into the Franklin Institute, it felt like I never left. Today, when SLA rolled out the soft pretzels, I headed to the table in the middle of a conversation. 

Take Away #1: There is a confidence in comfort. 

Tonight at the panel discussion at EduCon, CJ Taylor said “embrace the process, fail successfully.” It reflect back to our semester-long integrated 7th grade project Sustainable World Investigations (SWI). Students tackle a hard problem, are asked to come up with a solution, yet the product isn’t the point. The process is the point. Learning how to search, question, revise, fail, revise, get stuck, revise again. More importantly, they are learning the process of learning. You have to take critique; be held accountable.

Our sixth graders recently spent the week exploring the city in lieu of midterm exams. They toured historic sites. Visited the Museum of Industry. Met with an urban planner. They built models of what they felt the city would look like in 2085 keeping things like transportation, innovation and sustainability in mind. The mayor and other city officials came to view their work and give them honest and interesting feedback. In tonight’s panel, Alex Gilliam mentioned the fact that “it’s almost easier to get information about another country than two blocks away— we need to start with the blocks around us.” He’s right— and that’s one small moment working toward change.

Take Away #2: We’re doing something right.

My own head is still spinning with the words: shift, innovation, grass roots, systematic and change. Yet panelist Phoenix Wang spoke to the need for “more cross-disciplinary conversations, innovations can’t aggregate to a higher level, need to be networked and socially-oriented.” Obviously, I cannot muse alone— and fortunately, aside from a hotel room in Philadelphia on a Friday night— I often don’t. But, I wonder how can I reflect this energy and hopeful feeling of possibility when I go back to a “normal” Monday. When we complain about time— being pulled in multiple directions— when the dishes need to be done and the work never ends. 

Take Away #3: There’s a lot to be done.

Friday’s panel

#EduCon Friday Night Panel Musings 

EduCon 2.4 Moderated Panel
Alex Gilliam
Zoe Strauss
Dr. CJ Taylor
Phoenix Wang
Daniel Barcay

Past questions:
What should school look like?

What is smart?

Why does innovation matter?
- You can’t innovate by yourself
- Innovation when done to its fullest can lead to significant change rather quickly.

This year’s question:
How do you sustain innovation?

- Think Rome, mySpace, Netscape, the auto industry (almost), Kodak… They could not sustain.

First question- What does innovation mean?

Alex: able to adapt to meet needs, hands on, collaboration, you need to be able to break dance (to be in the center, to be in the circle and to be on the periphery), innovation responds to need and analysis of strengths, weaknesses and opportunities
Zoe: being compelled to search, to search for an answer, innovation stems from the need to find out
CJ: moment when problem meets its solution, allows us to solve problems that didn’t seem solvable
Phoenix: to create meaning and to change the world, emotional and psychological element, find solutions that are going to change people’s lives, innovation is not a super power because technology has made it more accessible and participatory
Dan: “I have no idea”— it means more to use the adjective than the noun, focus on the process that gets you there, “chasing the adjacent possible”

How do we sustain innovation?
Alex: the role of making design and learning visible, visibility allows others to organically influence the system, breaks down barriers, “make the city the classroom”
If we do that perfectly, how do we sustain that?
Alex: we don’t built cultures of greatness, essential to growing and allowing great things to happen, build the culture of what’s possible— figure it out— then tackle the hard problems

Phoenix: What’s the difference between trendy and innovative?
- change behavior— requires institutional change, how much are we willing to change? “we’re cool hunting”

Zoe: civic engagement is imperative, the importance of being civic-minded and connected

CJ: change the culture, lost the ability or willingness to think deeply about science and technology, you must be willing to gather the skills, innovation is cultural

Where did the wheels fall off? How did society migrate from the culture of digging deep to trendy?
CJ: Sputnik, innovation was recognized as a need

Daniel: what separates creativity from innovation— innovation is a mixing of domains, you can’t be a innovator in a vacuum.

Alex: we don’t ask people to come together around tough issues and ask them to deal with them, deep need for people to come together and solve things, not a simulation but real world, don’t belittle people— ask them to step up and they will

How do we maintain innovative things in the educational landscape?
Phoenix: to sustain educational innovation there must be systemic changes, we are not measuring the right things— do we have the right set of measures?, the institutional constraints are so rigid that it loses all possibility for innovation to sustain itself, innovation gap— tools are allowing us to solve the problems ourselves, yet we are looking to the outside, learning doesn’t only happen inside a school building (evidenceframework.sri.com)

Daniel: metrics— you can only change what you can measure, what you measure effects how you change— recognize that we have to start measuring things, but we have to be able to abandon them as needed, if you’re too tied to the output you can’t keep pushing

Alex: young people want to have control over the world around them— give it to them.

CJ: this is a great time to be alive and students have taken advantage to take advantage of the wealth of tools available but on the flip side students who haven’t been able to take advantage are drowning — education, early and often to allow students to take advantage of the wealth

Daniel: Move from information scarcity to information overload, education becomes a navigation problem now

How does one sustain innovation— how does it survive and grow?
Phoenix: level of specificity— works for you but not for the whole— moving from a market of one to the whole system— need more cross-disciplinary conversations, innovations can’t aggregate to a higher level, need to be networked and socially oriented

Zoe: People have to be invested

What is the role of failure in innovation?
Zoe: failure is spectacular, young people should experience failure and be able to move forward

Alex: must be in reflection— if you don’t build in reflection then failure is useless

What would you want me to do Monday? Teaching in 20 years?
Daniel: no advice for Monday, in 20 years— be careful not to throw baby out with bath water, don’t lose touch with more subtle human aspects, teachers will get to spend their time with the subtle misunderstandings

Alex: technology is an idea until it becomes adapted to the local situation, it may not fit you as a teacher, but that’s not a bad thing, what is your comfort zone? Can you push that comfort zone any further?

CJ: Monday morning— universities are looking for students who have learned how to learn

Phoenix: what is it going to take to get you to the epitome of your progression? What is out own motivation and passion? What is it going to take to get you there?

Zoe: Teach Latin

Happy accidents?
Phoenix: we are in the business to minimize accidents— not the way the system is designed— how do we embrace accidents as not being a liability

Alex: attitudes of risk— how far is a child at the age of 8 allowed to walk from home?

Thoughts about design learning
Phoenix: we don’t teach design thinking— if you peel it back, it’s thinking about solutions tailored to the way people live, we don’t learn by sitting in a classroom at a desk

Alex: being able to take a step back and looking at the world around you, it’s ok if a kid fails a test— cuts his knee

How do you sustain innovation without spreading too thin or cutting ideas out?
Zoe: culture of respect, critical thinking is the end result

Phoenix: being a community builder, requires institutional change

Daniel: flip the question- what should we not do? Having one simple idea and executing cleanly

What is the role of domain knowledge (knowledge of content/subject knowledge) in critical thinking?
Phoenix: Can’t be innovative without content knowledge, deep appreciation of the discipline, only when you have mastery can you push beyond it

Alex: are our assumptions of what our students know and don’t know correct?

How do we begin to celebrate failure?
CJ: Edison, you get rewarded for the tip of the iceberg, but the rest of the iceberg is still important, embrace the process, “fail successfully”

Daniel: recognition of failure as a step in the process

Phoenix: performance-based measures instead of proficiency-driven models

How do you balance with mastery of content?
CJ: difference between mastery and willingness to engage with ideas, need someone who knows where to go to solve problems

Alex: tenacity, grit, resilience, we need to show our students that we are failing too

What about play? Can innovation exist without play?
Phoenix: Tech Shop— movement around intentional creative play. It’s coming, grass roots push to get it into the system

How do I get students passed the fear? (quiet student)
Audience member: good idea/bad idea— ask students to give a bad idea (it’s ok to fail because no inhibitions)

How important is understanding the past to prepare for the future? How do you teach the past?
Phoenix: importance of precedence, innovation has a long incubation period

Alex: history is one of the most ill-taught subjects, history is just about stories, make it relevant and meaningful

Zoe: history is imperative, it needs to be discussed that history matters

Alex: it’s almost easier to get information about another country than two blocks away— we need to start with the blocks around us

Daniel: sense of surrealism in history— you must be connected and immersed, we need to connect history to our lives, need to develop tools

(Whats your favorite color?) How can we bring more life into the classroom?
Alex: try to create opportunities for kids to impact the design of the world around them

Zoe: orange (also Frank Sinatra’s)

CJ: blue, poised for a seismic shift in higher ed— role of edu to take risks and engage in problems society faces

Phoenix: red, re-imagine— do we need to have a classroom? Schools have a custodial function. So room for change. Learning happens everywhere.

Daniel: yellow, analogy to the workplace— shift in what workplace means, feeling more at home in work place, having a feeling of mentorship— comparable to school. Teaching for skills not for knowledge. Not impressed by people who know a lot of things, but those who grab world by the horns

EduCon Friday Night Panel

It’s a little like a reunion, a little like a beginning 

“Ms. Montague, thank you for my comment. The words were so fancy!”

I am in no way making this statement up. One of my 8th graders said this to me today after being able to view her report card. My words were not terribly “fancy.” I said things like, “continue to use social media to find your voice” and “make sure to narrow down your focus on your blogs” and “you have so much to say, please continue to speak up.” Fancy words …things I haven’t been doing. 

I said in the faculty room the other day that I felt as though I was having a blogging writer’s block (for about 3 years!). I’ve written about it before. I think almost every blog post I write is about how I have trouble writing blog posts. I’ve switched platforms. I’ve made it a professional goal. I’ve written post-it notes to myself. I’ve written it on my calendar. Nothing has seemed to work. I wasn’t following my own advice. Not just the advice that I gave on my report card comments, but advice I give every day in my teaching. “Tell a story! …Be the expert! … Just try…” Do as I say, not as I do, girls!

This weekend is EduCon — my very first EduCon. It’s a little like going to a combination of an exclusive club (yes, I know it’s not really exclusive) and a reunion. I’ve watched EduCon happen from far away from the comfort of my Twitter feed, where the “cool kids” have been working their magic, having life changing discussions and turning the world of education on its head. My name just wasn’t “on the list” yet. This year, in getting to go, I feel like I’m going to a great reunion. I feel as though I know the attendees personally through my Twitter feed, but there’s nothing about meeting them in person. I’m new in the world of curriculum and technology in the sense of job title, but this is a world I’ve been immersed in for a few years now. Perhaps I should add it also feels like a society debut … or perhaps I’ve watched too much Downton Abbey. Regardless, I feel like I’m ready to start fresh at this reunion and follow my own advice. Perhaps suitors will come to call! 

I plan to use this blog to really think and reflect on my narrowed focus— topics regarding technology and curriculum that have a direct impact on my (and surely other’s) day to day. This is not a “mind blowing” focus— it’s not really much of a revelation, but if I’m going to be handing out the fancy advice, I might as well follow it!

Questions I’d like to tackle … 

- my school is going 1:1— what does that really mean? for teachers? for learners? for parents? for me?

- who is this 21st century kid? she is obviously different— how? How is the same as me? as her other teachers?

- how does someone lead by example? how do you promote bottom up, grass-roots change?

Part of the mission statement of the school where I teach reads that we educate with the expectation that , ” …young women will be resilient in the face of complexity, ambiguity, and change; will become responsible and confident participants in the world; and, will lead considered and consequential lives.” Fancy words … I better I get to work if I’m going to live up to them!

Luxuriating in Nothing 

I’m bored.

My classroom has been packed and locked for about 72 hours. I’ve had maybe a half day off when you add all of the hours together. I’m sitting at home on a Saturday, and I bored. 

Yet, exhausted. 

I realized this is a great moment to not only reflect, but really get my blog up and running again. You see, during the normal school year, I feel I don’t have time to reflect on what I’m doing or learning. Or I should say, I don’t create space for this time. So here I am re-starting my blog again for the umpteenth time by complaining that I have too much free time. It was through this frustration of boredom that I realized (for probably the umpteenth time) that I need to begin luxuriating in nothing. 

There is a space between lazy and busy. This is the space I need to be in more often than I currently am. This is the space I seek to base my reflections, and through those reflections, hopefully also provide others with information they may be able to use themselves in order to save some time in the busier seasons. This summer, I plan to spend time working through various readings I have reserved for myself. This school year, I plan to write about my teaching and work with faculty as I embark on a new position as a Middle School technology coordinator.

For today though, I plan to learn to be lazy. To be ok with staying in my pjs. To not even feel like going to a movie. These are all ok … for today.