What educators really do...

Public debates, state budgets, APPR, union battles, and many others have really put public education in the news.  This blog post is not a political statement in any way, it is my thoughts on the amazing things that our teachers do each and every day.

For the past 20 years, I have been a classroom teacher, science department supervisor, Middle School Assistant Principal, and Director of Technology.  On an every day basis I see the great things that teachers do...here are just a few.

Teachers... make children think about the world they live in, make them question how and why, and most importantly our teachers provide opportunities for our children to learn each and every day.  Our teachers make our children smile, laugh, and chuckle.  They provide them with opportunities to socialize in a nurturing learning environment.  They teach the skills that they will need to be successful in life today, as well as prepare them for an unknown world they will live in.  Teachers not only teach the "written curriculum" that they have carefully and thoughtfully developed, they also teach much of the "unwritten curriculum", such as empathy, compassion, morals, digital citizenship, leadership, creativity, humanity, and much much more.

In our buildings today, we have many different kids of teachers...unique in every way.  We have teachers of music and the arts, teachers of dance and drama, teachers of physical education and health, teachers of computers, information literacy, library media, and digital literacy.  We have teachers of Languages other than English and teachers of English as a Second Language (or English as a New Language).  We have literacy coaches, instructional specialists, reading teachers,  common branch teachers, resource room teachers, special education teachers, school counselors, school psychologists, speech teachers, technology teachers, science teachers, mathematics teachers, English teachers, social studies teachers, business teachers, teachers of trades, and many, many more.

Our teachers give of themselves each and every day.  They share with their students their love of learning, their passion for discoveries, and their thirst for understanding.  They provide opportunities for all students to be challenged intellectually.  They help guide students towards their lifelong dreams.  They set them in motion, whether they are a five year old kindergartner, or an eighteen year old senior.  Teachers inspire the leaders of tomorrow.  They encourage all of our students to try their best, work hard, and do what it takes to be successful.  Unfortunately, our teachers also teach our students how to deal with disappointment, lack of success, fear, stress, anxiety, depression, and much, much more.

Teaching is not a 9-3 job, Monday to Friday, with weekends and summers off.  Teachers work outside of the school day to make sure that what they do during the school day can make a difference in the lives of all the children they serve.  They plan lessons and activities at night and on the weekend and take in-service courses all summer to improve their craft and be better at what they do.

I am probably preaching to the choir, since most of you reading this are teachers, but for those of you that are not, take a closer look at what our teachers do everyday for all the children in the world.  Where would we be without the great teachers we have today?  If you know a teacher, thank them for their service.  Pass this along to anyone who doesn't respect the work our teachers do...I know that I do!

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What our children are learning...in a digital world

I often watch my children (ages 3, 6, 9, and 15) interact with technology in our home in utter amazement.  While sitting in my office, I happen to be be looking at the ISTE-student learning standards and made an astonishing connection.  First, here are the general skills associated with the standards:

1.  Creativity and innovation
2.  Communication and collaboration
3.  Research and information fluency
4.  Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making
5.  Digital citizenship
6.  Technology operations and concepts

The connection I made had to do with how many of these skills my children possess and how little they are "tested" to see how much progress they have made towards achieving mastery of those skills.  They don't need a test.  I know they have mastered these skills by observing their interactions, watching them create in the digital world, and seeing how easily they transfer their skills from one device to the next.  I see them grow each day.  I see them learn by doing, by creating, by asking questions and searching for solutions.  In my home, they are independent thinkers, but at the same time, without being told, they can switch to being collaborative thinkers as they help one another out in solving a wide array of problems.

My children are like many others.  They have access to a world that we didn't have 20 years ago, and they are better for it.  My hope is that when my 3 year old goes to kindergarten in 2 years that she is allowed to continue to learn in the ways that makes sense for her.  I hope that we create classrooms that tap into the limitless potentials of our youngest generation Z students.  I hope that our schools continue to evolve and that we ensure the success of our younger generations yet to be born.

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but you're the Director of Technology

I am the Director of Technology for a suburban school district in Westchester County NY.   I meet with school administrators and teachers all day long discussing innovative uses of technology for their classrooms and schools.  There are 2 questions I get all the time.  Here they are with my answers:

1.  How do I do "x, y, or z"...?

I get this one all the time.  I get the question on how to use a form of technology by everyone I talk to.  As a former teacher, I have quickly learned that if I supply the answers to all the questions, I am doing them all a disservice.  I often point my colleagues in the right direction, maybe to Youtube or to Google to do some research.  I also very often just tell them, "I don't know."  "But you're the Director of Technology?", they exclaim!  Yes I am.  

2.  You're the Director of Technology and you are using paper and pen to take notes?

I often take notes at meetings with a small notebook.  While I do have a laptop, as well as a tablet, which I use all the time, I like to take notes in my notebook.  In the 8 years I have been in my current district, I have accumulated 18 notebooks.  They are numbered and dated so I can use my calendar of appointments to look for any notes from any meeting I attended.  While I could use Google Docs, take notes and share them, I find that writing helps me process what I am listening to and hearing.  This is more of a personal preference than a statement on the use of Technology.  For example, I also don't like to read books on my iPad.  I prefer the actual book.  Again, no statement here on the use of technology, I just have a preference.  

I will add a caveat to this response.  I don't use technology for certain parts of my job and certain aspects of my life, but I certainly know which tools I could use, and how to use them.  My choice to not use technology is a conscious one.  This is an important skill to have and to teach others...when to use technology, which technology to use, how to know when and which, and why.

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Back to school...spring and visions for the future

A while back, I posted a link to an article written by Lolly Daskal for Inc.com.  You can see the original post and the link to the article here.  In the article, Lolly writes about the 13 personality traits to avoid.  I wrote about many of them on my blog.  You can read about them here:  the privileged, the pessimist, the distracted, the loafer, and the dreamer.  

Today, as I returned to work from a very relaxing and stress free week off, I decided to write about avoiding the visionless.  I don't want to be visionless, instead, I want to seek to have a vision, a vision for the future that our teachers will embrace and that serves our students well.

In Lolly Daskal's article, she explains, "the visionless doesn't have a clue what he wants to achieve; he just keeps trying things and hopes something will work. It makes for a hard road to success."

Tomorrow is the start of our work in creating the vision for how we will use technology in a BYOD environment.  Tomorrow a group of teachers and administrators will work together to dream a little.  We will come together to discuss what the future might look like, and how technology will ultimately play a vital role.  

In my last post, I wrote the questions that we will pose to the group tomorrow.  Here are my thoughts:

1.  What are your personal beliefs/vision for BYOD in your school in the next 5 years?  What do you want to see?  I want to see a school where we stop talking about how to integrate technology.  I want to see it used when and if it is necessary, like students use pens or calculators today.  I want to see all students have access to information, any time, and know how to make sense of it, how to question it and how to know whether or not the information is accurate or trustworthy.  I want to see students broaden their reach to connect to peers in other communities.  I want to see this happen without students being told that they should do this.

2.  What 21st century habits/skills do we want to continue to teach regardless of how technology changes in the next 5 years?  In my opinion, the most important "21st century" skills or habits that students will need to master are collaboration, critical thinking and being creative.  I see these as integral parts of the BYOD implementation, specifically with Google Docs and the Google Classroom.  

How would you answer these questions?  What would you want to see in a BYOD school?

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