What makes some teachers take the time to grow?
by Langwitches ~ November 1st, 2008. Filed under: 21st Century Skills, Professional Development.
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One of the strands of the K12 Online Conference this year is Kicking it Up a Notch. Vicki Davis from the USA and Julie Lindsay from Qatar delivered a superb keynote presentation. It took me almost an entire day to get through, due to typical weekend interruptions, but I returned every time.
Please find my notes below from the presentation as I was watching and listening to the video , then scroll down further to find out what makes some teachers take the time to grow?
Time to Grow
Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay
We are building bridges that students of tomorrow will walk across.
Food for Thought
- Why do we ban tools in schools?
- Let’s not “punish” the tool, but deal with the bad behavior that uses the tool
- Connecting yourself to a PLN (Personal Learning Network)
- The role of digital citizenship in schools
- Digital Pedagogy
- Communication
- Collaboration
- Content Creation
- Student Leadership
- Being a DigiTeacher
- Research Technology and connect yourself
- Monitor and be engaged
- Avoid the Fear Factor- Make a Difference
- The role of educational networks at school
- Changing role of outside experts in schools
- Changing role of peer review in schools
- Improving collaborative creativity in school
- Students with different learning styles
- Students have a “whole” brain, not half a brain (ref. to Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind)
- Students want to create, connect, invent. Our future is designing “If we have our kids just memorizing, we are missing the point”!!!!
- Ex. Kids teaching Kids Model: Mathtrain Project: Empowering Students Through Screencasting.
- New tools on the Horizon
- Professional Development becomes embedded it what we do
- Research that is relevant
- Making IT work
Time to Think
- Finding the time to grow-
- Small steps with small chunks of time to get you moving forward, stopping to rest, looking back on what you have achieved.
- 10 minutes a day to start
Encouragement
- Persist and laugh sometime
Mentorship
- Build your circle of wise
Goal Setting
So going back to asking myself “Why do some teachers take the time to grow while others are content or don’t see the reason behind changing?” spins off immediately many other questions:
- What traits does a teacher have, that seems to “get it”?
- Why are some teachers starting to embrace technology integration in their classrooms while others still cannot seem to “get off the ground”?
- Why does one lesson, planned together with all teachers of a grade level, work like magic with one class while another completely flops leaving students uninterested or with nothing to take away?
- Why do some teachers still think that asking their students to type up a paragraph in Word means “technology integration”, while others allow their students to learn to express themselves and communicate in many different media?
What struck a cord with me while listening to Vicki and Julie’s presentation?
Monitor and be engaged as a professional and learner yourself!
As a professional and a learner yourself, you can’t afford to be stagnant. Monitor what is happening in the educational arena:
- read journals
- attend conferences
- participate in social network places geared towards educators
- listen to podcasts
- participate in the conversation by reading and commenting on blogs
- listen in on micro conversation on Twitter
Be engaged and get involved by not letting the action pass you by:
- start your own blog
- get a twitter account
- connect yourself with colleagues from around the world
- collaborate with other teachers
- share and mentor in your own building, community, state
Monitor and be engaged with your students!
In my opinion, students will only be as engaged and as enthusiastic as their teacher is. When the teacher spreads a feeling: “I don’t have time for this” , “Let’s get this over with” or “I don’t really get this”, their class picks up on these vibes.
If the teacher is not engaged and invested in the lesson, the students won’t be either. If a teacher goes through the motion of asking students to comment on a class blog, but does not monitor their responses, what kind of learning took place?
What makes a teacher take the time to grow? What do you think? Please share.
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November 2nd, 2008 at 9:55 am
Thank you for this great reflection and outline. I’m glad to see that you made it through the video that took us almost 100 hours to make between us!!! Your presentation from last year is still one of my all time favorites!
I think we all struggle with this – -how do we grow and help others grow.
I always come back to this — the only person I can do anything about is MYSELF!!! I cannot make anyone else grow or even care.
However, teaching the tips to help people grow IS something that will work. That, and stripping away the tech-jargon to make things understandable also will make a difference. I enjoyed reading your thoughts — and, as with all of this sort of thing, I’m thinking on it also.
November 2nd, 2008 at 1:20 pm
unfortunately I think the true answers are too systemic to cover as a comment. Older teachers are typically too invested I’m the system they took years to develop, and newer teachers are either overwhelmed or have blunt and sterile curriculum forced on them. I enjoyed your post and summary of the flat classroom’s dynamic duo. All the best. I’m subscribed.
November 2nd, 2008 at 1:22 pm
replace I’m with “in”. Stupid iPhone!
November 2nd, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Silvia, great notes and reflection. Thanks for taking the time to write about our keynote!
You know, everything you and Vicki have said here already is so true….however I cannot help thinking that essentially teachers are so undervalued in our society (as a generalisation) that they are not always encouraged to take that extra step to grow. A teacher with a full class load is often so stressed, busy, exhausted it takes a certain will power to even think about moving forward rather than merely surviving. Having said this of course I find it inexcusable still for educators in general to continue to ‘teach’ the same courses in the same way, year after year. Change starts from within, and continues through creativity and innovation. As you say, engagement is the key, and excitement about change. When these 2 key ingredients are evident magical things can happen in education.
November 2nd, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Julie, you are great with words. That makes a lot of sense and yes, engagement is what needs to happen with all of us!
It can be overwhelming for the non-techie, I think.
November 3rd, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Sylvia, I wanted to let you know how much I enjoy reading your blog. I like the mix of topics you write about – new tools, ed leadership, and tech PD (like this entry). I look up to you as I strive for personal and professional improvement.
November 3rd, 2008 at 9:43 pm
@Vicki
I agree that we are the only ones that can change ourselves. That being said, how do we “encourage” others to “want” to change for themselves then?
Show them the possibilities…share resources with them… present with contagious enthusiasm… until we break them down and they will want to move forward
@Micheal
Older teachers are clinging to what they have taught for years… and new teachers are too overwhelmed… that sounds too familiar. So, who is left to take the time to grow? Do we need to focus on the middle crowd, pre-service group or policy makers/administrators only? Do we not “waste our time” with the ones who choose not to grow?
@Julie
You are adding the feeling of being undervalued, under appreciated, over extended and exhausted to “having taught the same thing too long” and overwhelmed from Micheal. How can we model and motivate a change from within? I like your combination of creativity and innovation. Can we add that to feeling valued, appreciated, and supported. Let’s make magic…
@Pam
Thank you so much! Do we mix variety too into the magic potion that will make someone take time to grow?