The Carnival of Education is up for the week on the blog of the highly entertaining Steve Spangler. I wish I had a dime for every time a fellow science teacher asked me how he did something. I feel honored to have my recent post about the importance and power of teacher leaders highlighted a blog I respect so much.
Check it out!
I was intrigued by Scott McLeod’s (of Dangerously Irrelevant) challenge for edubloggers to use July 4th as an opportunity to blog about educational technology leadership. I have had some interesting experiences over the past two years in regard to technology and the leaders within my school, and I think that they are relevant to any discussion about EdTech Leadership in the 21st Century.
My school has suffered from high turnover of administrators over the past five years. We have not been able to keep qualified assistant principals, as they often leave to pursue principalships elsewhere. The result is a culture of instability and a lack of personal connection between the staff and their leaders. Two years ago, a group of teacher leaders joined together to make a pact: we will make a grassroots effort to lead from below.
This effort has been very successful, and it is beginning to reap benefits. We are beginning a new year with an empty assistant principal office, and yet I am not worried. I know that there will be a network of highly skilled and motivated teachers ready to help the new hire to adjust to our school culture and assimilate into our community.
The connection with school technology is less obvious. It is difficult to pursue a multi-year process of updating hardware and training staff without consistency at the administrative level. We have found that a collection of confident teachers with a common vision and the will to improve the educational technology in the school can provide that coherence, even in the face of high turnover. The lesson here is directed more at teachers than at their administrators. If you feel that you do not have the support that you need, find others that share your goals and work hard to effect real change in your school building. It can be done, and it must be done.
As several Scripted Spontaneity readers have noted, I have been less than diligent about posting over the past few months. While I have found Twitter to be a great resource for sharing small bits of news (and for building my PLN), there is really no substitute for a good old-fashioned blog entry.
One of the biggest reasons for my inconsistency is that my teaching position was uncertain up until a few weeks ago. I knew that I had a spot at my current school (who would fire a ToY Boy, right?), but I also knew that my current track and grade would not have room for me. Due to a frustrating convergence of factors that included the normal delay in determining next year’s enrollment exacerbated by an ongoing court case against my district, my principal could not tell me anything until late May. Now, this may sound like plenty of time to adjust and plan for the school year, but on the year-round schedule we begin in early July. I knew that I needed to spend my last track-out break of this year planning for the first nine weeks of next year.
It might help at this point to explain that I entered this esteemed vocation via a state-supported lateral entry program, and was hired in July 2001 at my current school. I have been teaching eighth grade Science on my current track (with the same two teachers as teammates) for the past seven years. My career thus far consists of one track, one grade, and one subject (sometimes supplemented for one or two periods per day of another) at one school in one state. While this has allowed me to hone my lessons and tweak my pacing year after year, it also limits my perspective and restricts my ability to see the “Big Picture”.
Most of that will not shift for me this coming year, but a good chunk of it will. Any change can bring that strange mix of fear and anticipation that makes one simultaneously want to dance and vomit, but even more so when the very presence of change represents something new in itself. I know now that I will be on a different track with a different schedule, working with new teammates, and teaching a new science curriculum. There will be challenges and there will be moments of complete failure. I know this. But, I also know that I will learn things about myself and my strengths and weaknesses as a teacher that I would not otherwise. I welcome the feedback and advice of my many friends here in the blogosphere.
And, above all, there will be plenty to blog about.
As so often happens in our lives, a blog piece that had been sitting in my “inbox” got buried under so many end-year/start-year tasks (more on that is coming soon). When I read Bill Ferriter’s second response to the “This I Believe” meme, I figured it was about time I finish my first one. So, without any more delay…
I am humbled by the invitation that Bill Ferriter made for me to contribute to the meme created by Barry Bachenheimer:
National Public Radio does a piece called “This We Believe” where individuals share essays they have written that enumerates their philosophies. With this concept in mind in terms of curriculum ideas, (with apologies to the National Middle School Association and National Public Radio), “This I Believe.”
While I have only been blogging for a short time (< 1 year) and haven’t been teaching much longer (< 8 years), I was looking forward to this opportunity to express the reasoning and philosophy behind why I do what I do.
But, several weeks later, I am just now able to put my beliefs in words. So, here goes:
I believe that personal connections are the only way to teach middle school students. The first (and most important) step in the teaching process is engaging students, and I have found that the simplest way to do this is to know them (and let them know me). I have seen the effect and it works.
I believe that connections are also the only way that meaningful learning takes place. Students need to connect what they’ve already learned with new information if it will ever be retained. They need to connect to the school community. They need to connect to the wealth of knowledge in their families and circles of friends. Connections are the key.
This I believe.
This one doesn’t even need an explanation. Just read and enjoy the simple fact that I get one of these every month as part of the “All-Electronic Program”.
