Not So Distant Future

One of the things I puzzle over when I see schools like the Science Leadership Academy’s strong culture, is how other schools with pre-existing faculties can build a culture of their own that is innovative and unified. So many competing interests are already at play within existing institutions, particularly the larger they get.

I’ve been reading Clicks and Mortar by David S. Pottruck and Terry Pearce, about Pottruck’s experiences at Schwab. Pottruck has many meaningful suggestions about culture building that I’ll explore in the next post or two.

He begins with a wonderful anecdote about leadership, which made me stop and wonder.

“British statesman Benjamin Disraeli put it this way: ‘There go my people. I must follow them. Am I not their leader?’”

How often when working with teachers are we “following” them in terms of their needs, and how many times trying to lead more directly( and possibly overwhelmingly?)

Pottruck writes about the importance of building a cultural vision that aligns a whole group, but building it with everyone’s input. No surprise there, as we all know how mission statements done well, can work, but he does point out how resistant people are to participating in these sorts of vision building work, yet in the end, how much it makes work more fulfilling and streamlined because everyone is working towards the shared goal.

(I think of Science Leadership Academy’s shared vision statements, for example, and how the school aligns to those statements and how significant a part of their school that is, as opposed to many mission statements, decided at district level, and sort of “tacked on” in each building).

Pottruck then talks about ways to build that culture or shared vision. One way is story. As he puts it:

“Stories are the living proof of the culture. They sustain it by reinforcing the abstractions in life. They give real examples to people, new and old, and they give permission to create a story of one’s own that will, in turn, provide inspiration for others.”

Several things in this statement interest me. One is the word sustain. Not only do stories illustrate the culture and what is valued, but they sustain it. How do we use story in our schools to SUSTAIN our culture? Do we even use story at all? Do we use stories in our libraries? Do we use them in our tech programs? Does our principal or administration use them?

The second thing that interested me in this statement was that story gives people permission to create a story of their own that will inspire. I find that very interesting. And I wonder–when we blog about something our teachers do, for example, and share it, does that inspire/encourage others in our culture to try something? When we share a success story about something a student does in the library or classroom, does it inspire others to create their own success? I would guess so.

Pottruck also writes about the importance of Images and how much of what we see is retained. As he mentions in corporate culture, there are many images that are important, like logos or advertising. Pottruck talks about in-house images, and metaphors of the culture. Again, how do we use images “in house” to convey the importance of our culture. We often use them outside the building or in materials for parents. We produce videos of successes to share parents or online slide shows. But how do we use these tools in house to reinforce our own culture with our own teachers or students?

And how do we use metaphor to build the culture? I work at a high school with a long history in a one high school district. A former principal who had been in the district many years often used the analogy of a canoe–that we were all in this canoe together. While we sometimes teased about that image, it created a strong visual for all of us. And when he retired, a paddle was framed with signatures on it, and a tshirt was designed with him in a canoe and all of us crammed inside of it. That is a visual that stays with me still, though he retired four principals ago. It created a bond among the faculty–even if the bond was partly based on our jokes about the canoe. It gave us a shared language.

A final recommendation he makes is using rituals to create a shared experience. In some ways, schools do this well–we’re very ritualized tradition bound communities. But how many of the rituals have gotten lost over the years due to testing regimens or transitions in leadership or lack of time? And what do we lose as a cultural institution without those rituals–what human element is lost for the students and staff?

In the next section of the book, Pottruck focuses on leadership. More about that to come.

Flickr images:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/99107397@N00/3293223490/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/caribb/179930043/

After seeing Kim Cofino’s presentation on 21st century learning at Langwitches’s blog, I had to continue to “pass it on” and share it here.

Not only is the presentation a clear and concise summary, but Kim’s slides are also beautiful examples of how good design makes a presentation more effective and inspiringly memorable.

“We don’t have 29 users on the server. We have 29 *people* using the server. We’ve got to humanize the technology.” – Dan Maas (Twittered by budtheteacher)

It’s interesting to me that sometimes one of the greatest protests I hear from educators about technology is that it dehumanizes the classroom.   They feel that way for various reasons–they may view the technology as a barrier between themselves and students, they may feel uncomfortable with it, they may not be getting effective, friendly training, and they may not have “friendly” help with the technology/logistical end of things.  They may feel dehumanized by how they are treated when having difficulties using technology.

Dan Maas’s comment at  Learning 2.0:  The Colorado Conversation was very right on.  It’s easy for IT departments to get isolated from their campuses.  Decisions may be made for the good of the “network” but sometimes not much thought is given to how to communicate this back to the staff.  

While sometimes one sees great improvement in these matters in a district over time, there still seems to sometimes be a fundamental “disconnect” in understanding between educators on a campus and the IT staff.   Teachers like to know why.  They like to know when.  They like to be prepared for their class, and if a last minute glitch prevents that, they find it very stressful as time is short.   Teachers want their views to be respected, especially teachers with a great deal of technology experience/knowledge.  Teachers without that knowledge also want to be respected because what they do is not all about the technology–it’s about teaching and they need to be respected for their skills as teachers.

Teachers  on a campus need to understand decisions better as well, and they might be willing to if there were better communication.

So much of this boils down to telling your story–the IT department needs to tell its story–the positives, the challenges, at every opportunity so that teachers know it is a partnership and that the IT department is working hard to solve problems.   The teachers need to tell their story back to the IT department–both the good and the bad (too often do we just tell the bad?  How often do we tell the IT department what worked well?)   

How about an internal newsletter from the IT department?  How about a sit and chat session now and then?  How about the IT department members being invited into classrooms and labs to see what is going on in them so they can better support things?  The more transparent the process on either side, the better.   The more understanding that goes both ways, the more human the process–the more we don’t objectify one another but actually begin to understand one another.  And the more that happens, the more effective all of us become in our mission–which is to educate our students.

An art group I participate in has been working on creating “artist trading cards” which are small decorated cards that artists trade, like baseball cards.  Here’s a sample:

It struck me that there is an assignment there for helping students with image design.

As Anne Lamott reminds us, breaking things into short assignments allows them to be tackled more easily.

So I wondered about the idea of having students make ONE powerpoint slide (or image) as “art,”  creating a collage, mixing different textures and fonts, and adhering to principles of good visual design.  Breaking design down to that elemental a level would aid students in transferring it to a larger assignment.

The images could be “traded,” posted in the classroom, judged by outside judges(like the Four Slide Contest)  or analyzed for design effectiveness by the class.  Dan Meyer’s Four Slide contest would be an excellent source of images to talk with students about design choices, originality of voice, and effectiveness, by the way.

And by keeping the assignment small and incremental, it would let students really focus in on the design rather than the content, but also see how design contributes to the effective delivery of content, which is of course, what we really want them to “get.”

By the way, Dan, any hopes of another contest?

As I continue reading Bird by Bird, I continue to be amazed by how much Anne Lamott’s advice about writing applies to well both to working with teachers and to living our lives in general.

She talks at length about breaking things into “short assignments.”  How often we get discouraged trying to bite off everything at once–whether it’s teaching someone, learning a new skill ourselves, or making a change in a paradigm.  She even keeps a small frame on her desk to remind her to focus in on one thing at a time.

She also encourages us to expect and embrace bad first drafts.  To just silence the critics in our head, make an attempt, and then weed out what is not needed.  This is excellent advice for us in working with teachers on technology (and some students for that matter).  I think all these voices that come up–I don’t have time, I can’t do it, I don’t understand, this isn’t for me, I don’t know how, what will people think if I can’t do it–come up and interfere with learning.  Just allowing yourself to know that the “first draft” might be crummy and giving yourself permission for that as a learner will make it easier to take the leap into trying something new.

She also writes about the enemy of perfectionism, which in a related way doesn’t allow us to try something because we think it has to be perfect.  But she points out that “clutter and mess show us that live is being lived.”  She sees it as part of a process of learning and something we need to be very compassionate with ourselves about.   Again, I think this is something we can take into our work with teachers as we ask them to blog, create, learn new technologies, shake up the classroom paradigm, and it’s certainly something we can talk about with students in this age of ‘college prep,’ testing and the pressures they face.

Play can open up so much of our creativity if we allow the messes, learning, and first drafts.  Easier said than done, probably, but it does lend insights into our work with other educators, doesn’t it?

Sometimes as a librarian (or technology teacher) it’s easy to get discouraged. Despite how much outreach you do or how good you are, you wonder if teachers really need you or realize that they can call on your support and services? They are so used to working independently and doing things themselves.

How do you bring teachers into the program or get them to collaborate in their planning process? Or get them to utilize the richness that is there in a library or with the technology, when they are busy and doing grades and coaching and all the various things teachers are asked to do. How do you become partners in the truest sense of the word? Is it a paradigm shift, and if so, how do you get there?

There are so many ways to draw them in, of course, but an essay I read last night really encapsulated it for me.

In her collection, Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott writes about her brother, who is struggling to complete a research project on birds that he has totally neglected doing. He had three weeks to do the project, she relates, and yet procrastinated until the last night. As he was sitting head in hands, their father speaks to him–reminding him the way to get it finished is just “Bird by bird.” That’s how you do something, bird by bird, one at a time.

(Our “bird by bird” effort of late is hosting “creative Fridays”–we are having different right brained creativity activities in the library every Friday for whoever wants to come.  Not only is it relaxing for the staff, it’s a fun way to bring together teachers who might normally not see one another.  The tasks can be anything, like today we made Valentine’s, next week we’re doing a techie creative time.  But there’s something about sitting around a table together in a small communal group of adults that we don’t get enough of in schools.)

So perhaps it is a challenge sometimes but when we remember to celebrate each connection we make, each teacher or student we touch, each success we have, then maybe we begin to understand how to do it “bird by bird.”

And isn’t that true of any real tremendous challenge in life? that we figure it out, bird by bird.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/monkeyc/128255887/

Ever since I heard Konrad Glogowski speak at Educon 2.0 last year about blogging and the teacher’s role, I’ve found that a fascinating subject.  How do we encourage and support our students into following their own muse in their own blog?

And I wonder how do we encourage them to do this when they ask research questions as well?

In chapter five of her book The Writing Life, Annie Dillard inspires with a beautiful challenge. She writes about the “strange seizures” of fascination that are unique to each of us.  She asks:

“Why do you never find anything written about that idiosyncratic thought you advert to, about your fascination with something no one else understands?  Because it is up to you.  There is something you find interesting, for a reason hard to explain. . . .You were made and set here to give voice to this, your own astonishment. . . .

How do we convince students how unique their voice is?   and how uniquely they approach the world?

So often when confronted with the idea of writing a blog of their own(as Clay Burrell grappled with in his classes last year) or when confronted with a research assignment, students freeze up and don’t believe they have anything meaningful to add.

In fact, how many of us do that or other educators we know who feel reluctant to blog (or to write)? We sell ourselves short and we sell the world short when we allow that belief to take hold of us.

Dillard’s invocation is a call for each of us to recognize how unique and personal our own voice is;  how uniquely us our own interests are.

As Owen Wilson calls it in “You, Me, and Dupree,”  it is our “-ness” that is who we are.

And our role in this as educators?  In an eloquent and must-read post, Konrad Glogowski writes,

“This isn’t just about granting them leave to learn from and with somebody else in some online community that we’ve approved. This is also about traveling with them, not to supervise or hold their hand, but to advise as more experienced peers – to explore, learn alongside them, and help them reflect on what they are learning.”

And by writing about the learning we do with our students, which is uniquely, passionately ours, we fulfill the reason we are here in the first place–to, as Dillard writes, give voice to our own astonishment.

Following up on my post on research and play a few days ago, this experiment described in a New York Times article today, “Powerhouse School District Reaches Beyond the Elite” is a perfect example of how authentic research can also incorporate play.

At the middle school, the entire seventh grade is taking part in the science of sports project to fulfill the new research requirement. The students are creating a database of their individual running times, first in sneakers and then in alternate footwear, and evaluating how variables like height, gender, birth date and shoe type affect speed. They will present their findings in a research paper or PowerPoint presentation.

“I learned that I move faster without my shoes,” said Jermaine Brown, 13. “This is really fun, and it’s better than sitting in class.”

David Katz, the science teacher who came up with the running experiment, said that when he first asked students if they wanted to do original scientific research, 2 of 23 raised their hands. When they found out the research would involve sports, they all jumped up.

“They think research is more work, more papers,” he said. “But if you teach them in a way they can relate to, they grow to love it.”

That’s what making research play-filled is all about.

A little post about whimsy for a springtime Friday–

Another way to add to a sense of play in the library is by using play in your library decor.

You aren’t always in the position to remodel a library, but there are lots of ways to add whimsy to your library space. And especially at the high school level, there aren’t many places in the building that are whimsical, so it is something students really appreciate and it makes it feel more like their space.

Some ideas for adding fun to your space:

1. Tactile things–

We have a number of these puzzles on our front desk and the students absolutely cannot keep their hands off of them(nor can the teachers!) The other item which kids are constantly asking to take home are our life size cutouts of Orlando Bloom.

2. Fun lighting

IKEA has lots of whimsical items for a library, like this fun rolling bag lamp. The students are also enthralled by touch lamps….who woulda thought!

3. Magnetic things

Use magnet bars to provide students areas to post their art or flyers. (These are from IKEA). Post magnetic poetry (I found a magnetic poetry calendar on sale for 90% off from the previous year, but the magnets are still useable!) My assistant found the large ones pictured below for our front circulation desk.

4. Transparent things

If you have windows, use window clings–DezignwithAZ has some really cool window clings, but you can make your own with window decals from Office Depot.

We are also hoping to have a display later in the spring by projecting art onto the glass windows of the library with our lcd projectors–a transparent display so to speak, where the light will spill out into the hallway.

5. Student art–sculptures, pottery, digital prints and photography are all a way to add humor, whimsy and life to a library space.

Next up–Designing a new space with spaces for play

e.e. cummings ”in Just spring.”   

A puddle-wonderful trend has been rising up in blogs lately about playfulness in libraries, which is so serendipitously-excellent!   Unbeknownst to me when I wrote my own post about play, the Unquiet Librarian and Helene Blowers have both done inspiring work on this as well.  (far better than my post). 

So I had to link back to both the Unquiet Librarian’s post, which includes some really thoughtful questions about using play in our work, and  to also include Helene Blower’s awesome Slideshare presentation here, as well.   (Not wanting to steal but to highlight their fine work that I never would have found without their sharing it!)

More to follow with a post on “adding play” to your physical space. 

BPL: Libraries, Learning & Play

View more presentations from hblowers. (tags: bubbles learning)