Not So Distant Future

Seen on my 4th grade nephew’s Science Fair trifold acknowledgments–

“I would like to acknowledge Wikipedia. . . and my mom and dad…”

This morning and yesterday morning both I had the honor of attending the Flat Classroom Conference in Qatar and the Educon 2.1 conference in Philadelphia, both remotely.   What was funny was that I felt such a sense of community in the chat rooms talking to students and to other wired educators, sometimes more of a sense of community than I feel where I work, even though we were half a world apart, and many of us had never met in person.   The sense of community was formed by a shared sense of purpose.

This led me to ask all sorts of questions of myself about what I want in an educational community, what fulfills me (and perhaps fulfills some students?) and which is perhaps another post.  But echoing in my thoughts after Educon were questions Will Richardson asked in his presentation yesterday and ones that were brought up by Andy Carvin and the panel this morning.

Questions like “What should we leave behind” and “What should we keep” as we make changes,  and questions like “How scalable is change?”  In the chat room this morning while listening to the Educon panel, we had a lively debate about this.

Is it different when talking about an existing school versus a brand new school?  I wonder how one creates a new sense of community in an existing school?     How do you invite people into the vision and ward off skepticism and get buy-in and really build a community of common purpose.

I also wonder if you have a vision for a school district, how do you scale that–or if you have something that works at one school, how replicable is it across a district?

So much of education is in the art of it–which really depends on the skill and talent of individual educators, (who are unique individuals and not replaceable) and the skill of leaders in particular.  But the culture of a school, which is so critical to change–how can that be conveyed across a district or across multiple districts?  Is that excitement of an environment that works scalable?  Or is it just kismet, a happy “accident,” a magical blending of time and people and place?

Does the business world have something to help us in terms of these questions?  How does a business like Apple or Toyota or Google sustain their corporate culture throughout their business?   What strategies do they use?    And how do you reach beyond a core group of teachers to create this new climate when perhaps people like the status quo?–status quo being something that seems pretty entrenched in education sometimes.

I left Educon this year(having only participated online in a few sessions) just as engaged and awed by the interactivity and excitement going on in the school for those kids as I did a year ago.   And also  awed by the enthusiasm, vision, and dedication of educators from all over the country(and world) who attended, either in person or remotely.   How do we spread/share this sort of enthusiasm, innovation, and energy with others–the kind of energy that brought the Flat Classroom Project to life?  If only we could harness that energy it could light up so many of our schools, and shine light for so many of our students.

(hint: Maybe Chris Lehmann should start a “leadership” academy at SLA to train/encourage/mentor future leaders?)

Okay, I’ve asked lots of questions, as is my habit in a post….but I really would love to hear your thoughts, musings, writings, and readings that you want to share.

Ironically, the quote on the sidebar of my blog today is:  “After all is said and done, more is said than done.  Aesop”     So, how do we harness all of this and bring it into some sustainable form?

Paul Wood tagged me for this “meme” (7 things you don’t know about me) but I’d actually like to answer it both personally and professionally.

As a librarian, I think there are lots of things people don’t know about librarians.  And since I have readers all over the spectrum, I thought it’d be fun to share a few of those.

You may not know that:

1.   Librarians like people to ask them questions.  It doesn’t bother us.  It’s our job.  So never feel like you have to apologize for interrupting or for “bothering” us when you go up to a librarian and ask a question.

2.  We have interests in many fields–many of us are generalists–we rarely meet an idea we aren’t interested in.

3.  We like to share.  But we also like it if people share back.  We want to be a two-way street.

4.  Some of us like loud libraries.  It means people are learning.

5.  Librarians are mechanics.  We fix things constantly.  They never mention this much in library school.

6.  A librarian has a collective memory of a place.  So it’s not always so easy to just replace one, or transfer librarians around.   We often hold the collective memory for an entire workplace.

7.  We serve everyone.   But we’re the only people in the school that serve every single student and staff member “instructionally” and intellectually.   Teachers do this as well, but primarily for their own students.

and a few other things about me you may not know?

8.  Hm, should I even admit this?  I guess I will after Paul Wood’s confessions.  After I read the book the Nun’s Story, (which my mother was reading for a class in college), I thought I might become a nun, a nursing nun in particular.   Short-lived idea but formative one.

9.  I based my life particularly on the book Little Women which I read twenty times over growing up.  My sister’s copy which I purloined.   Sometimes I regret this–as perhaps a gothic, romantic novel might not be the best basis for one’s life.  But the best advice in the book–not to let the sun set on your anger–is a notion I have always abided by.  I also always wanted to write in a window seat in an attic, publish a book and have a houseful of children.

10.  I imagine none of you know that I have a 90 year old friend and neighbor named Bill.  He doesn’t have the internet, though he was interested in the level app on my iphone.   But what he does have is a long memory, reminding me that though we go through patches of life where life seems long and difficult and daunting, that time passes, and friends are still there, and the birds still come to the feeder, and the tomatoes still grow in the garden and that we meet new friends and that there is always a friend standing at the fence waiting for you to come out to visit.

The last thing you may not know is that today is my birthday.  So, to all of you, my gift is a reminder–that although we all ‘do’ a lot–remember that it is who you ‘are’ that is most significant and important.  Take a moment to just revel in who you are.  Give yourself a hug, even.

“Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.“ Harriet Braiker

In our Artist’s Way group today we talked about perfectionism and how it can block us artistically.

This can be extended to our students as well.  How often have we seen students really struggle with their research paper topics or their writing? (or their singing, sports playing, etc. etc.)  Could it be that sometimes that sense of what “it should be” is preventing them from moving forward?

How do we move forward when we are blocked?  And how can we apply that knowledge to help our students move forward?

I think first, understanding this might be a problem is part of it.  Too often, when students are “stuck,” people think they are simply procrastinating.  Granted, sometimes they are.  But sometimes they are truly frustrated, don’t know where to start, don’t know what to do next.   And sometimes that’s because they think everyone else knows what to do “perfectly” and they are just the only clueless one.

How do we support them, teach them to be charitable to themselves and their own best supporter?  How do we help them stop comparing themselves to others and to just give themselves a chance?

Perhaps that is a tall order, but I think it’s worth considering when we approach students who are starting a complex writing assignment or research paper.  I’ve written before about scaffolding our students during research assignments. I think one of the keys to helping students is understanding what some of their obstacles might be.

As we all know, we are our own worst critics.   Since we are evaluating student work, how do we also convey to them that everyone is a learner, that it’s a process, that we don’t expect perfection but growth, and that it’s in the trying that the learning happens?   That the process is sometimes as important as the product?  That’s a tough task in the age of standardized testing, college admittance pressures, etc.   Yet, looking beyond those immediate pressures, and helping students become real “learners” is a significantly important part of what we do.

I also think those of us who work with teachers or provide training have to remember that teachers are students too–and often were students accustomed to doing well in school.  So when they face new technologies or the idea of changing their teaching, it may be accompanied by feelings of being “imperfect” and faulty because they are comparing themselves to others(or to you as the presenter).

What are your strategies for helping move students(or teachers) move forward and to help them be supportive of their own learning process rather than self-critical?   How does your approach demonstrate the value of the learning process over the product?

As Wayne Dyer says, “Everything is perfect in the universe — even your desire to improve it.”

Recently, I’ve been involved in a group studying Julie Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way.  One of the tenets of her book is writing what she calls “morning pages”–several pages of uncensored, stream of consciousness writing that is done first thing in the morning.

The idea is to clear your head of other thoughts which interfere with your creativity.  She includes a number of other tasks in the book as well, and one that seems most applicable to educators is the “artist date.”  The idea is to take yourself on a date somewhere to do something artful–you have to go alone, and you can’t break your date with yourself–it is something you schedule.  You can go to a museum, take photographs, browse for art supplies, write in the park, but the idea is to do something relating to art.

It strikes me that this is such an excellent activity for both teachers and their students.  In this age of AP testing, standardized testing, college prep, etc., both students and teachers are under much pressure and a barrage of reading/homework/grading, etc.   As many of our staff and my colleagues online have commented, how do we get students to be creative or innovative when they are exhausted and overloaded?

I would posit that the same goes for us as educators.

I suggest that an artist’s date is an excellent assignment for both students and for ourselves–to carve out time for exploration and nothing else, to make it a way to treat yourself, indulge yourself in seeing the world in a different way.

When we model for students that spending time nurturing themselves isn’t frivolous or unnecessary, but that it is a key to supporting themselves intellectually and creatively, then we have done them a great favor.

Blogging, too, I believe, is enhanced by spending that time seeing in a new way.  It has made such a difference to me as a photographer, for example, knowing I have an audience at flickr or that I’ll post a photograph on my blog.  I think for our students, writing online for an audience also enhances their “vision” so to speak.

So I challenge you to try taking an artist’s date for yourself for the next couple of weeks.  See how it feels, what it leads you to, and what it feels like to dedicate that time to yourself.