To help encourage conversations and dialogue about sharing one's learning, our topic/question of the week is: What is something you have learned lately that you would like to share with others? Sharing Learning (Week of 4/8/18) (This is an anonymous Google Form)
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I am sure that my children are not the only ones who are counting down the days until April vacation - a big topic of conversation in our house the past few days! As I look at the week that awaits us, I am excited and energized by the opportunities for sharing and collaborating as a professional staff on several levels with faculty meeting time, Site Council, #DLDMedfield this Tuesday, and meetings and conversations that will continue Wednesday-Friday. It will be a busy week and I know the time will move quickly, but I am encouraging myself to try and 'slow it down' and embrace the learning experiences with one another. To help set this stage of collaborative learning with one another, I have highlighted some of my notes from the Surviving Adolescence talk by Dr. Rob Evans this week along with three posts that espouse and promote innovation, collaboration, and the importance of process...
Take-aways/thoughts/mindsets/notes from Dr. Rob Evans...
- 21st Century America - raising kids is harder and more complex due to the layers of challenges (rate of change is high, but the rate of certainty is low)
- 3 things to be successful (citizens, parents, spouses, workers)
- Nurture: Mr. Rogers (like you just the way you are) and Julia Child (no seconds)
- Structure: Box of behavior; clarity is important
- Latitude (freedom to learn from experience; learning from non-catastrophic experiences, minor unfairnesses)
- Nurture: Mr. Rogers (like you just the way you are) and Julia Child (no seconds)
- Issue/Challenge is not the knowing - it’s the doing
- Myth of ‘high quality time’ - children need an abundance of ‘low quality time’
- Need ‘just enough time’
- Need ‘just enough time’
- 'Preparing the path for the child' vs 'Preparing the child for the path'
- Think about deep and profound lessons
- How did you learn them?
- Through loss, frustration, failure
- Through loss, frustration, failure
- How did you learn them?
- Don’t confuse simple with easy
- Try to be the best of who you are instead of trying to be the things you are not
- Make a list of strengths and do more of them with your children
- Most kids are resilient - they don’t need us to be perfect
- There is some stuff we all struggle with - that has made us stronger
- When you think you’re teaching, you are preaching; children learn more from examples we set than from our sermons
- Take-aways:
- Nurture - Need more Mr. Rogers
- Structure - Hold the line about the big stuff; ‘Let them get glad again’; How we pass culture on
- Latitude - Prepare for the path; don’t routinely do for them stuff they can do for themselves; Don’t raise to fix problems they encounter before they have had the chance
- Nurture - Need more Mr. Rogers
- 10 seconds - Think about the people who made you who you are today - who are those people?
Innovation Does Not Happen in Isolation
by George Couros (@gcouros)
In his book, The Innovator's Mindset, Couros shares the 8 characteristics of an Innovator's Mindset: Empathetic, Problem Finders, Risk-takers, Networked, Observant, Creators, Resilient, Reflective. Within this brief post Couros touches on the interconnectedness of these characteristics and the importance of finding and actively using and participating in a network to foster innovation.
What is important to understand regarding these characteristics is that none of them make you innovative in isolation. It is their combinations that lead to new and better solutions. If I am “observant” and understand the world around me, yet “create” nothing, what would be solved? Flip it though; if I am “creating” without understanding the context of where I work and who I serve (observant), you might be creating solutions to things that is helpful to no one.
...the reality is that there are still too many teachers that are not taking advantage of those “networks.” The notion that young teachers are innovative and more experienced teachers are not, is unbelievably false. I have seen some new teachers as the most “traditional”, and some veteran teachers as the most innovative. The difference is the mindset, not skill set. The craving to get better This is not to say that some traditional practices do not work with students. It is just that no traditional practice works with all students. Never has and never will.
To be “networked” does not make you innovative. It is what you apply from learning from those networks that creates the innovation. The opportunities in front of us only matter if we take advantage of them.
The Process is the Product
by George Couros (@gcouros)
The title of Couros's post jumped out at me as 'process vs product' is an ongoing discussion we have in education. I firmly agree with Couros's assertion and believe that the process of learning is the actual product that we hope for all learners - an understanding of one's own process of learning.
In education, the process is the product. Not only should we go over the process of how we make those connections happen (amongst other things that teachers do to give students incredible opportunities for students), we should provide opportunities for our students to make those connections themselves. This is leading by example and learning by example.
Real Ways WE Can Help Inspire a Generation of Innovators
by AJ Juliani (@ajjuliani)
Juliani is one of my 'must follows' and I highly recommend his work. The action-oriented perspective he offers is important - moving beyond opinion to an adaptive state of action. His 'one-word' at the end is a good mantra for all of us, students and adults alike - 'make it happen'.
It seems after all this research I’ve done on the current state of education and all the reading I’ve done on the future of learning, that one piece of information keeps coming back to get me again and again. It’s basically screaming at me when I look at past innovations, past movements and reforms, and current changes in education. My opinion on the future of education (and learning) doesn’t matter.
Opinions tend to be reactive. And reactionary education is not effective.
So, if our opinions don’t matter, and we still want to see a better education for our students and children, then what can we do about it? We can focus our attention on two areas that matter: Our attitude and our actions...Let’s stop talking about what we can do to shape the future of education. Instead, let’s build it and inspire a generation of innovators...
#1. Be Expert Learners
#2. Stay Informed or Get Left Behind
#3. Go Beyond Connection to Collaboration
#4. Forget About Labeling Learning
#5. Focus on Building Great Relationships
#6. Don’t Just Adopt Technology, Embrace It
#7. Fight Weak Data with Better Measures
#8. Empower Your Colleagues with Solutions
#9. Take Your Classroom from a Space, to a Place, to a Home
#10. Allow For, Support, Make Time For, and Praise Creative Work
I’ve seen so many educators and leaders sharing their #oneword for 2016. I don’t have one word. I have three: Make It Happen. Innovation starts with action. It starts with being intentional about how we lead, how we learn, and how we teach.
I hope we can all channel the wisdom and perspectives of Dr. Evans, Juliani, and Couros this week and in the weeks to come. I think that Juliani's #oneword or mantra of 'make it happen' is worth exploring and embracing - by collaborating and sharing in our learning, we will hopefully be taking a few more steps on our path towards coherence.
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Take care.
Nat