Learning attached to music

My kids and I decided we would embrace the Corona message by incorporating it in to songs and remaking lyrics.  We challenge anyone to share your ideas and create your own. 

We dug deep, used My Sharona, My Adidas and Stitches.  Enjoy and please share your videos.  #coronamusicchallenge

What is truly needed for "School"?

As the country deals with the ramifications of the current pandemic and schools are facing new challenges, Never Waste a Crisis, I am left pondering what is needed for school to happen.

The idea of school is quit simple.  

Let's ponder some initial questions.

1. Does it have to be physical location?

         I would argue, not anymore.  We need space but not necessarily assigned classrooms.  We need places to share an experience, an experiment or an activity.

2. Where does content come from?
        Everywhere, we just need to harness.

3. Can assessments still be the measuring stick?
       Yes, but more universal and can allow students to show mastery when ready, not when class gets there.

4. Can parents be more involved?
       This a chance for parents to be the lead in helping their students learn.  By empowering parents we can help students excel.  Think in a medical example for a minute.  Doctors prescribe treatment and parents administer those treatments, whether medicine, foods or exercise.   Teachers can be much more prescriptive with parents while customizing to the needs of children.

5. Can we invest more in learning and less in schools?
       The big question...to be answered.


There will be obstacles but how do we move education forward?

Never waste a crisis, the Covid - 19 change to education.

Winston Churchill is credited with the statement, "never waste a good crisis" and we are living through a crisis  period today.

Homeschooling, virtual education and alternative ways to educate our students has been talked about forever and more fervently in the last 10 years.  Today is different from any day in the past.  We have all seen the meme's about parent's schooling their children since the pandemic has shut down schools across the country and globe.
 

These make teachers smile and feel a sense of security but we should all remember, never waste a good crisis!

School & education will look different after this historic event.  Schools, very well, might be more focused on competence and understanding versus seat time.  School budgets will reduce positions and take savings to improve technology and events for learning.  Parents will question educators more, not less, after the pandemic subsides. 

This is a great opportunity to really look at what education is, and what it should be! 

Expect more businesses to allow more flexibility in working away from the office from this moment forward.   Expect parents to see the value in spending more time with their kids. as well. 

How will we react as educators? 
How will we morph into what educators are needed to be, not what we have been?
How will we provide the support that parents don't know about?

There are lots of questions, but I think we would be foolish to think that education will ever look the same after this event. 

"Never waste a good crisis!"  Winston Churchill.

Robotic teachers

Working with a group of elementary students recently, I asked what jobs will be gone in the next ten years. One answer resonated with me for obvious reasons, teachers will be gone was their reply. Upon further investigation they did not believe schools would be gone, just teachers. Teachers would be replaced by robots.

When I think of the technology usage seen in a multitude of schools, there is always a sense of frustration. Is the technology being used for a good educational purposes? Or Is it being used for substitution, digital pacifying or behavior management? We want it to be taking students to places they can't possibly go without it.

Back to the students comments, what does this say about their opinion of educators? Think about it from this perspective, the robots students know today are very mechanical. They perform specific programed tasks. A robot vacuum is simple example, C3PO brings a more life-like sample to mind. Teachers are mechanical, in some students minds, they deliver content, they monitor them and than they test us. Is that what a teacher really is?

Teachers are continually striving to use technology better but we can't beat a computer at what it is best at. My continued conversations with teachers help highlight this idea. Technology is a tool and tools don't replace the operator, if used correctly. What is correctly? If the classroom is about delivering content in order to pass a test, than technology can replace us. Teachers need to start pondering if using technology is as important as questioning it? Why does my search on Google return these results? Why does my page generate these possible ads? Why does it say these people might be worth following? Using technology is becoming more and more ubiquitous and children are being more conditioned, as all of us are, to simply do what technology tells without questioning how that happened. A good example is navigation systems. Have you ever gone to the wrong location, when your instincts were telling you it was wrong, simply because that's where the digital navigation system told you to go? Next time you are headed home from work or a store, get directions from your digital device. Does it take you the way you would go? Does it take you a way that you hadn't thought of? These are the questions we need students to understand instead of the simpleness of using technology?

When thinking about what we do, how do you answer these questions?

Could you be replaced by a robot in your class today, this week, the year?

              Do your students think so?

How can you be what technology and computers aren't?

Are you helping students understand the world they live in and the technology around them? Are you helping them create questions about it?

If you feel like commenting that would be awesome....if you feel like tweeting, be brave and lets use #Notrobotteach for the tag.


Be what we are...people and use the passion that brought you into education to make it the remarkable experience are kids deserve.

Reflection and looking forward

It has been a little over two years since my last blog post.  One of  the cool parts of a blog is that it also acts like a journal.  In five years of blogging as inspiration hit, I posted thoughts on various topics.  Looking back over those post, there is both disappointment and excitement.

Educationally, the world moves slowly. Some things have changed but so much has barely moved.

In the last few years, I  had the opportunity to lead change from the district office level.  Leading a district to be more open with communication was rewarding.  Using social media to open up conversations with some of our more vocal and hidden shareholders led to greater transparency.  School board member now actively reach out to all stake holders.  Schools regularly share daily happening and parents are interested.

We had the chance to step back from a 1:1 movement of one size fit all to a purposeful technology deployment.  Opening up our network so student devices could more easily be used was a beginning step.  Working with teachers to find out what students needed to be able to be a great student changed the view that technology was being done to them.

Was any part of change easy?  No.  It was amazing to see how fast technology used in very basic ways can become acceptable.  Technology that makes classroom management easier but takes the classroom no further than traditional means is not a great use of educational dollars for sure.

As I look back, I reflect on the changes that can be made and the changes we choose not to make.

Moving forward:

I will strive to find and share posts and thoughts that keep challenging us all.  I hope you go back and read some previous post, go to your favorite blogs and look at some of their early post and see just how much your classroom, school or district has changed.

I hope we all find renewed motivation to keep our children in mind.  They are calling from the future and hoping we fight for improvements to better help them prepare for a very exciting future.

If not now.....when

Episode 1-Technology Integration

Episode 1-Technology Integration

We are all busy but...

As the school year is winding down, I have been reminded of just how much educators care about their students.  #Wyoedchat, just passed its two year  anniversary a few months back. In that time, the conversation has encompassed more and more of Wyoming's educational leaders.

What this chat represents, is an unparalleled excitement for continual learning and growing as a group.  I would be remiss if I didn't point out a few examples of just how dedicated this group is.

#Wyoedchat takes place on Sundays at 8pm.  Educators take the time, out of the weekend, to  recharge their batteries and get fired up for the coming week.  They feed off of each others ideas and challenges. As a result, our students benefit.

As year two has rolled on, we have multiple teachers, administrators, students and parent groups not only joining in, but leading, or co-hosting chats.  This group isn't just about participating, its about leading from within.

A few specific examples that speak to this group representing all that is good about education:

The #wyoedchat Tweetup started in Casper at the Spring School Improvement conference.

 Lets first define a tweetup, this is simply a get face-to-face get together of people who either want to learn about how to do a an #edchat or who want to connect real people with the conversations they already have had.  This tweetup led to Park 6 hosting tweetups from their board room.

Each one had new teachers and administrators, taking time on their weekend to learn and share.  Next up was the Cheyenne teachers taking the reigns and hosing their own tweetup from the library of Anderson Elementary.  Each of these events has been small, educator organized chances to get together and learn and share with each other.

Often leaders lead with "do as i say not as I do" but I am proud to say the leader for the Wyoming Department of Education doesn't act that way.  Jillian Balow, the Superintendent of Education for the State of Wyoming, not only regularly attends and participates in #wyoedchat, she chose to attend a tweetup.  After what can only be described as a very busy week, (it included a quick trip to China to visit their schools, get back and give an address at the University of Wyoming commencement), Jillian still found time to tuck her kiddos in and attend a tweetup at Anderson Elementary in Cheyenne.

So what does this tell us about educators and leaders.  We are all busy but the great ones seem to find time, in many ways, to keep learning and growing.