Creating a Culture of Wonder

Photo by Samet Kurtkus on Unsplash

"SCHOOLS SHOULD BE BUILT AROUND STREAMS OF WONDER. THESE STREAMS OF WONDER SHOULD CONSTANTLY BE IN MOTION ALLOWING YOU TO DIP INTO THEM AGAIN AND AGAIN. " - Chris Fancher, Educator and Author

January 26, 2014. That's the date on the draft post I was thinking about writing. It is one of about 10 "draft" posts I have on my blog. I'm about to shift this blog over to Wordpress and away from Blogger. I have 276 blog posts altogether. Most were written over a 4 year period when I was actively writing (2011 through 2015).

So today I am cleaning up the pile of posts and I will start finishing some of the draft posts - starting with this one.

The idea for this post was brought about after attending an Educon conference. Educon conferences are one of the best conferences an educator can attend. I would recommend that you all put that on your educator bucket list.

I attended a session on "Wonder, By Design." The beauty of an Educon is that the room creates what the attendees get out of the session. In this case we were instructed to come up with a table manifesto.

I know from my notes that all of the people at my table I knew from Twitter. And, most of them I am still in contact with via Twitter 6 years later.

"Wonder By Design." 
I loved the initial brainstorming around that statement:
     Learning is an opportunity -- not a location.
     Curiosity builds on curiosity and questions lead to questions.
     Wonder and curiosity go hand in hand -- one builds on the other.
     Wonder evokes open-endedness.
     There is no limit to imagination.
     Schools should be built around wonder.
     Schools should be built around wonder and ideas of everyone.
     Wonder invites joy.
     No one has the right to steal someone else's wonder.
     Wonder is essential to learning.

You can see that we were ready to take the concepts of wonder, imagination, and curiosity and find a way to create a manifesto that could be applied to all of education. So what the heck is a manifesto? Well, it just happens to be "a written statement that describes the policies, goals, and opinions of a person or group." Therefore, we needed to take these statements and put them together for our manifesto.

What we found as we started working with these statements was that we were heading down a path that led to the idea of wonder flowing through a school. This moved us into various water analogies. Fountains of wonder. Waterfalls of wonder. Streams of wonder. Someone even brought up Herodotus and a quote of his about water (I told you these were some pretty smart educators at this conference).

And so our first group of ideas became: 
(1) We believe that wonder and curiosity work together -- you cannot have one without the other and each spurs new ideas, new possibilities, and new creativity.
(2) Wonder is essential to learning and can be reflected in our spaces, our practices, our mindset.

These were great on their own but we felt that they weren't manifesto-y enough. So that led to these two statements:
(1) Schools should be built around wonder.
and, (2) Schools must be streams of wonder that are constantlly in motion - carving new paths - which you can dip into again and again.

My take on these two give you the following as my education manifesto:

SCHOOLS SHOULD BE BUILT AROUND STREAMS OF WONDER. THESE STREAMS OF WONDER SHOULD CONSTANTLY BE IN MOTION ALLOWING YOU TO DIP INTO THEM AGAIN AND AGAIN.

How can you build streams of wonder in your school? How do you allow students to dip into their creativity and imagination as a matter of routine? We all need to pause and consider those questions for our own classroom, building, or district.

NOTE: If you like this post feel free to look through the archives (on the right side of the page). Most are about PBL and/or Math. And, stay tuned for the shift over to ChrisFancher.com. The webpage is already there but the posts need to be shifted over. Coming Spring/Summer 2020.

How Much Time For Personal Growth Do You Have?

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It's Saturday. Do you: Play 18? Visit some garage sales? Go to that winery you've read about? Do yard work? Grade papers? Other?

Everybody has the same amount of hours in the week and days in the year. And, each month has 8 weekend days.

Many (most) of the teachers I have worked with keep their weekends sacred. And, on a certain level, there isn't anything wrong with that.

If you think about the hours, after the "normal" work hours, that teachers do things like lesson planning and grading of assessments, then it's bordering on "cruel" to expect them to do school-related things on the weekend.

So, as an educational leader in your school or district what are the expectations that are placed upon your weekends? Do you attend the sporting events? Do you attend the plays/musicals and the concerts? Do you get your car washed or buy baked goods at the fundraisers?

Suddenly you feel the pull of these "expectations." And this pull is, often, diametrically opposed to your own personal "expectations." Personal expectations can be from your kid's sporting events, your involvement in youth (and adult) organizations, or your spouse or other family members.

You can't possibly give up any of your weekend time - because you don't have much of "your time" left!  But what about improving yourself mentally? Do you take weekend time to make yourself smarter? When do you fit that in?

This weekend I was lucky because my diametrically opposed "expectations" didn't affect each other. Yesterday I was at my school helping to run an Academic Competition. I left home at 6:30 AM and got home just after 6 PM. My wife was out of town on business. My son? He had plans for the entire afternoon and didn't get home until right before I walked into the door. Only my cats were upset with my day away from home.

But my personal growth WAS impacted by yesterday. Yesterday was the Saturday session at Educon 2.6. It started Friday night and I wasn't around to keep track of my Twitter feed to see what I was missing (we were prepping for the academic competition that night). And yesterday I wasn't able to look at my phone (never mind my laptop) the entire day so I missed that feed. And so, most importantly, I missed the live streams from yesterday's sessions.

Ever since Educon 2.2 I have virtually (or physically) attended this conference.  In my opinion it is the one conference you shouldn't miss virtually (every year) and you shouldn't miss going to - at least once in your lifetime. It's that good!  I repeat - it's that good!

Today I wasn't able to get connected to the conference until Session 4 which went from 9:30 to 11:00 (my time). But I jumped online; selected the session I wanted to attend; checked the Twitter stream to see who else was attending virtually: and, found two of my friends, who were not only talking about the conference, but they had selected the same session I had opened!

Before you knew it, we had a Google Doc open and we were discussing the topics being presented and we even were able to submit our conversations to the session facilitators because they were prepared and had a Google Form to fill out with any discussions that were going on at the session (physically there and virtually).

Now I'm (kind of) attending a session while I write this post. There wasn't anything on the list that totally blew me away so I took the opportunity to start the feed and then work while listening. I even opened a google doc and shared with one of my earlier friends so she and I could add things we heard during this session (and all three of us will be back together for the next session).

And what is this costing me, in terms of time? I'll be hyper focused for 90 minutes for each of the sessions I tune into mentally.  This is something every educator can do. And I'm not talking about doing this every weekend. Just pick one weekend a month to focus on being a better educator.

You could select an Edcamp to attend and that will be the one day you devote to improving yourself for that month. You could select a conference to either attend physically or virtually and that could be another month's learning moment. If you can string together 12 of these (one for each month) then you can carve out the time so that everyone - your school, school district, and family - will know that this is important to you.

What do you have planned for February? Pick something now. I'll be attending TCEA in Austin TX. In March I'll be attending SXSWEdu, again in Austin. Starting the year with Educon, TCEA, and SXSWEdu each year really gets the year started in the right direction.

Remember you do NOT have to book a flight and a hotel for every conference you see on a calendar. Attend virtually. Many provide livestreams and most provide twitter feeds. And all of them will have connected educators tweeting, facebooking, snapchatting, or somehow connecting with their friends and followers.

Just dedicate one day a month to be totally involved in your own professional development. Your students and colleagues deserve this from you. Getting your family to agree to this, on the other hand, is your problem. But worth the potential headache - I promise.

Professional Development Planners Need Our Help

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On Wednesday I was able to sit through (survive) the first day of a three day professional development about literacy.

Thursday morning, prior to walking to the PD,  I put up a post about not being negative and helping teachers instead of being angry with them.

How are these two events connected? Well, I really wanted to write an entire blog post about just how bad the day's PD was. Then I was reconnected with one of my favorite Depeche Mode songs, Blasphemous Rumours, and the line about God having a sick sense of humor.

Oh sure, I could have talked about the exchange that had us all shaking our heads: "Have any of you ever heard of Prezi? It's a way to do presentations. This particular Prezi will be riveting." But I won't.

I could have talked about "sitting and getting" for over 3 hours. But I won't. Nope. Not me. I want to analyze what was done to us today and offer other ways that this PD could have happened. Because I don't complain without offering a solution.

First, whenever you have a 3 hour block of time to present topics, especially dry but important topics, you have to deliver the information in chunks.  And, in between the chunks, there should be time for activity and movement. Just like in working with our students we need to have cooperative group activities that enhance the learning.

Some suggestions: What if tables were given certain parts of the learning and we held a jigsaw with tables presenting what they learned? What if there was a simulation of exploring standards and we used a socrative discussion or a fishbowl of the  process? There are dozens of possibilities for handling this part of the session.

Alternatively, we could have been assigned a reading to have been completed prior to the first day and we could have immediately gotten into groups to discuss what we read and to come up with questions that we still need answered.

What if, instead of not providing wifi, there was a purposeful use of internet sites to help us better understand the point of the learning. And, instead of asking us to share the information we got with our fellow teachers and then asking us to not use our technology, we were given a hashtag and were asked to share our favorite links that we found.

More and more of our teachers are entering classrooms that are 1:1 with chrome books, iPads, or other technology. We are expecting our teachers to use the technology to help our students go deeper with the information provided. We want our classrooms filled with activities and to no longer have our desks in rows. We want instruction differentiated and engaging. We use rules of thumb like "lecture for no more than the the equivalent number of minutes that coincide with the age of the student."

Why then would we expect less of the educators who are presenting material in professional development?  Presenters should be asking us to use technology to help us go deeper with the material. There should be activities and ways to differentiate. And the "sit and git" portion should never be more than 15 or 20 minutes.

In the past 2 years I have been to many professional developments and many conferences and un-conferences. In order of "amount learned" I would put them like this: Educon Philly, NTAC, Edcamps (at multiple sites), Margaret Kilgo's Unpacking the Standard's training, my own district's PD sessions, ISTE, TCEA, and SXSWEdu. Somewhere after that would be the other PD's I have had to attend.

What keeps the first three (Educon, NTAC, Edcamps) above the rest? First, at all three, I can choose what I want to learn. And, if there are multiple sessions at the same time, I can ask someone else to go to the other one and let me know what they learned.  Second, all three of those have a large on line presence. If I'm not in a session I can hear about it by checking my Twitter feed on the hashtag for the event. And the bigger/better known conferences will even have teachers who can't be there, with their own hashtag, such as #noneducon, where information is also flowing. The information is being shared instantaneously.

Where should these larger PD's start? They need to look at the "standards" that they want us to learn. Unpack them and do some backward design. Plan for activities and workshops where teachers can go deeper with the content. Think of ways to provide reflection at various points during the day. Give the teachers an opportunity to teach or lead a discussion on what they've learned. Oh, and make it fun...with food and coffee if possible.

Professional development needs to be done by people who understand proper facilitation of training.  It needs to be handled by people who understand how to teach in the 21st century. It needs to be handled by teachers. 21st century teachers. Because that's what we are, teachers in the 21st century.

We Need To Avoid the Calculus Syndrome, Thoughts After ISTE 13

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The post-ISTE13 comments and blog posts I've been seeing have me worried.  There are many educators who are now questioning how basic some of the sessions were and how we need to ensure there are discussions and not just presentations in the sessions.  I think it's time for a quick reminder of where we have come from and how, extremely, far we need to go with conferences and educational "events" like edcamps.

When I hear some of the brightest education stars making these comments I am reminded about how most schools treat their calculus teacher. The best and most experienced math teacher on campus earns the right to teach calculus. And, because of this, the students who need to have the best teachers miss out on quality instruction. What needs to happen is that the best teachers need to be teaching Algebra 1 so that the foundation of math for the high school years is set.

Similarly I see the best educators, with the greatest ideas on ways to improve education, hanging around with the other best educators. Those teachers who need to hear great ideas and might be wavering on staying in the profession aren't hearing from these great teachers. We need to be increasing the number of edcamp-style events, shifting professional developments to a more conference or edcamp feel, and we need to be creating financial incentives to get teachers to the more expensive conferences.

ISTE13 was my first ISTE conference. I have been to NCTM conferences (both national and regional), I have been to a FETC conference when I was living in Florida, I have been to TCEA conferences,  I have been to an EDUCON in Philadelphia, and I have both put on and attended edcamps.  In addition, as a teacher in the New Tech Network I have attended their annual conference, NTAC, each year.

Almost all of those conferences, with the exception of the NTAC's, I have had to pay the bill or have had to sneak into the event to be able to be around what was going on.  Yes, I have found ways to get around the entrance fee at some of these events. I'm not really proud of that but I do what I have to do to be able to afford the conferences. Once inside, I am able to stay in the areas where people hangout and I can be a part of the conversations.

For me, the conversations at conferences and edcamps are where I get the biggest bang for my buck.  There are many educators who are discovering this and are finding great value in the discussions going on in areas set up as Blogger Lounges or some other catchy name.  There are usually comfortable chairs, good wifi, and power plugs. And the people who congregate here will usually have interesting things to talk about.

But that is exactly the problem and the reason for me writing this post. The most "famous" and knowledgeable educators are hanging out together in the blogger lounge. New teachers can feel intimidated by the number of people and the feeling that everybody knows everybody else "in there." Believe me, I am just as guilty as everyone else. At ISTE13 I stayed in the blogger cafe almost throughout but I was also at the conference on my own dime and so I was in on a free vendor-area badge.

We need to remember that the majority of teachers have not heard of ISTE, or FETC, or Educon. And a majority of those who have heard of the conferences, I just mentioned, won't attempt to go unless it is nearby to where they live. The cost is too much or they just have better things to do like spend time with their families. So we get down to the small percentage of educators who are, not only, familiar with the conferences but they have ways to fund attending the conferences. Again, we are talking about a very tiny percentage of educators attending these events.

So, when someone attends their first ISTE, FETC, or Educon we need to have plans in place to make them feel as comfortable as possible. ISTE has the Newbie area and they start the conference with an overview of what will be going on each day.  That is a huge help. Then we need to have more of the power hitters attending some of the basic sessions to help with the discussions. Of course some of the presenters in these sessions might be presenting for the first time. They may not be comfortable, yet, in this setting and the last thing they need is someone hijacking their session.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but I think conferences and edcamps need to start thinking about having a nice blend of both basic level sessions and "advanced" sessions which are more discussion-like with the session leader being more of a facilitator than a presenter. I know I hope to do a session at the next Edcamp on PBL with the discussion topic of "So PBL is the answer to all of our needs.  Is it really?" Or I'll come up with something better by then. But I know that someone will come up to me and ask me to do a "PBL Session" and I know that what they mean is I need to go through what the PBL process looks like. It will be very basic and it will be Standing Room Only - guaranteed.

Edcamps Don't Have to be Techy

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This weekend there was Edcamp Houston but I had to miss it even though it was right down the road (about a 4 hour drive but in Texas that's almost neighbors!).

As I was looking through the Twitter stream coming out of there I was envious of those in attendance but I was also hit by the fact that nearly every tweet coming out was about some app that was being shared or some software or hardware that teachers were using in their classrooms.

Now I've been to a few edcamps, I've presented at edcamps, and I've hosted an edcamp. I'm also going to be attending Edcamp Waller at the end of this month. So I feel like I know what I'm talking about when it comes to having an opinion on these things. And what I see is that there are too many presentations at edcamps based upon the use of technology.

Many of you reading this might disagree. And many of you who have hosted or are about to host an edcamp might feel that the only way to ensure large numbers of participants is to guarantee that there will be some fun tech experiences to be had by attending. But I'm not saying that there can't be a large number of presentations based upon technology. What I am saying is that hosts need to encourage more people to present on meaningful topics in education.

We need to have discussions and conversations about all things education. We need to have people with opinions and points of view about interesting topics that spur others, in attendance, to agree or argue or just think. Edcamps need to be more like Educon Philly or the upcoming NOVANOW in Michigan.  Those conferences are all about conversations. Presenters are not standing in front of their audience delivering a message for an hour. They are presenting ideas or concepts where the audience takes ownership of where the conversation heads from there.

It's time for educators to think outside of their classrooms. As I tweeted this weekend we need to have meat and not just dessert at these edcamps. Finding a cool new app to use in your classroom is fun. Sharing apps or links in a smackdown is fun. Discussing how to keep students engaged in the classroom is a bit more dry but, I would say, incredibly more important. Maybe using that new app will help with the engagement. But are there low-tech alternatives to bells and whistles?

Encourage your fellow teachers to attend edcamps.  Encourage your curriculum leaders in your district to provide professional development in an edcamp-style setting.  But also encourage teachers who are really good at what they do to present their secrets. Encourage teachers to discuss issues your school or district is facing. And encourage discussions on topics that are in the news about the education profession. Edcamps can, and should, be education camps first and barcamps second.

It's All About the Conversations

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Anyone who has ever attended an Educon event knows that conversations are the key to having successful learning experiences at conferences.

In the standard conference we attend sessions where people talk to us, in a lecture format, and there may, or may not be time for questions. To truly have time to discuss what you just heard you have to join up (virtually or face-to-face) with others who attended that session or who have knowledge of the subject.

SXSWEdu is starting to have less lecturers and more facilitators of discussion and it is a welcomed change.  There are many things that are different, this year, from that first disappointingly bad conference two years ago. But, unfortunately, there is still too much emphasis on the business of education rather than the art of education.

So, if you want to have conversations about topics of interest, it is the hallways, restaurants, bars, and lounges where you will have the best and deepest discussions.  While in the hallways of SXSW you hear teachers talking with edtech people; startups talking with venture capitalists; and IT folks talking with school administrators.

Unfortunately, you don't hear many conversations between teachers and other teachers at SXSWEdu.  As a friend of mine said to me this morning, when I asked him how his week was, "They should call it an Education Industry conference.  It really isn't an education conference."

And this week was frustrating because of the huge emphasis on data.  There were startups who could give you a better dashboard for your data.  Edtech companies who could put all of your data from the various programs you are using into one data file.  There were companies who could do more meaningful data management.

Analyzing data can help teachers provide better and more meaningful instruction for their students. That is a true statement. God knows I spend hours upon hours of spreadsheet analysis of student scores related to various data points.  But with this much emphasis on data I felt like I was attending a math conference instead of an education conference.

SXSWEdu has grown in size and in scope.  It is immensely better than the poor excuse for a conference in 2011 that I had to attend - at my own cost even though I was a speaker. [Side Note: speakers at the other SXSW events get a pass to the conference]  But if we're going to call this an educator conference, let's bring in the educators in large numbers.  Let's have the break down be 70% educators and 30% industry folks instead of the current 70%(or more?) industry and 30% educators.

As I said two years ago and last year: Let's put together educators in the Central Texas area to sit on a panel and select key educators from around the globe and truly make this the "Can't Miss" education conference on the planet. Then we can discuss the data of its success.

That Left Out Feeling

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     Ah, summer.  That time when teachers pack up their classrooms and move to the pool or the beach.  They are out there hiking, fly fishing, and sailing.  Isn't it great only working about 40 weeks of the year!  That's 12 weeks of kicking back and doing nothing.

     If only that were true.  Yes, there are some teachers who will take an elaborate (and well-deserved) vacation during the summer.  But most will find time to relax and reload with their immediate families.  They will do some much needed yard work or house repairs.  They will work on that one project that they've been meaning to do since last summer.  It really isn't that glamorous.  And, more and more, teachers are spending a huge part of their summer getting smarter.

     Many are taking graduate classes.  Many are taking part in conferences and professional development (PD).  Some of this training is required by their district.  And some are just teachers wanting to be the best they can be and recognizing that learning the latest techniques or being involved in conversations about the latest in educational topics will help them attain that goal.

     And, that's where this post is coming from - I'm envious of many of those educators who have been able to attend really great conferences or PD's and have shared what they have experienced on twitter (got to follow that hashtag!), on Google+ (gosh I wish they hadn't shared that with me - wish I were there too), or in a Blog Post (Wow!  They really brought that conference to life.  That must have been awesome!)

     Wouldn't it be great if airlines gave away "tickets to anywhere" for educators to use during the summer to attend these events?  All we would have to do is show our teacher ID and the attendance confirmation and "poof" we were on the next flight out.

     This summer's big sigh, for me, was ISTE12.  It seemed like everyone I know was there.  And, they were all romping around in my old stomping grounds - San Diego.   They were kayaking, visiting the zoo, and watching the sun set over the ocean.  And, most importantly, they were discussing the latest topics and learning from each other.  They now have shared experiences which make them seem closer sounding in their tweets.  They sound like old buddies on Google+.  Heck, as I see it, the entire future of education was decided by these few hundred people.  And all this was happening 1300 miles from my home.  It might as well have been happening on Pluto (and, as we know, that's not even a planet any more!)

     So, I will re-tweet their hash tags with a smile.  I will give them a + on a well written account of what they discussed at their silly conference.  And I will leave a pleasant comment on their very descriptive blog post; thanking them for telling us all about it and telling them how much I enjoyed the post.  Even though I want to tell them that I hate them!  What right do they have for traveling to places I can't afford to travel to?  Why do they have to enjoy themselves and then tell us about it?  

     Well, I'll show them!  I'll be there at EdcampDallas and I'll be there at TechForum Austin.  And then I'll save my pennies and I"ll head to Educon 2.5.  And, after that I'll be at TCEA 2013 and SXSWEdu 2013!  And finally, next summer, ISTE comes to San Antonio!  I'll be tweeting the heck out of those conferences.  They'll see!  Then we'll see who's envious.  Those guys will really feel left out of the loop.  I'll tell them about my speaker proposals, and my acceptance of the proposals , and my travel plans, and my parties that I accept invitations to, and my tweetups, and .......

      Hey, things are looking up already!  What a great summer....

NST12 Wrap UP

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     Whenever you can attend a conference or training and feel exhausted ( not from drinking too much but ) from thinking too much then you have gotten your monies worth.  An obvious conference for me is Educon where you spend the day discussing educational topics.  The problem is that these conversations can go from 7 AM to 2 AM the next morning!

     But this time I am talking about the New Tech Network's New Schools Training (NST12 ) and its sister conference NewTech Annual Conference (NTAC12).  This past week was NST12 which is where school districts, who are about to open New Tech schools, send their teachers and administrators for training on what it means to be a New Tech school.

     I attended as a District Trainer who will be helping a school as it becomes a New Tech Network (NTN) affiliated school.  We will be converting an existing middle school (Decker Middle School) by converting the 6th grade this year and by adding additional grades in the ensuing years.  I was not able to bring the teachers or any of the district staff with me but we will be bringing them to NTAC12 next month.

     When people hear about New Tech schools they immediately think of Project Based Learning (PBL) and therefore a significant part of the week is based around PBL.  Teachers plan their first PBL project during this week and the staff (teachers included) plan their school as they experience PBL as facilitated by NTN trainers and staff.  That is one of the most powerful parts of this week.  Not only are teachers who are new to PBL learning the framework of PBL but they are living the framework of PBL.

     But NTN schools have something else besides PBL that makes them different.  The underlying (actually much more overt than that) theme was the importance of building school culture.  The culture of NTN schools is based upon Trust, Respect, and Responsibility.  These concepts, individually as well as together, must be examined, defined, and put into the mindset of everyone's daily habits.

     As we work as a staff we must trust each other to do the right thing.   We must respect each other, the school culture, and ourselves.  And, we must take on responsibilities that other teachers never have, as we flatten the leadership.   When we work with students we must trust that the majority of students are going to do the right thing.  We must respect them, the school culture (yes I said that again), and we must teach them to respect the school culture and themselves.  Finally, as we trust and respect our students we must be willing to give them additional responsibilities.  At the same time we must encourage the students to take on more responsibility for their learning.

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     All of this requires individuals and school teams to do something that we often say and hear while being at a NTN school - take a leap of faith.  Some will joke that you must drink the cool-ade.  Others will say trust the process.   But what we all are referring to is the change in mindset that an educator must endure as they start on this adventure.  And change is hard and can be painful for some.  That is why the leadership trainers spent so much time examining change - the change we are going through and the change we must be willing to experience as we create a successful NTN school.

    The most remarkable thing about this training is the daily reflections of the facilitators.  Obviously they ask each of us to reflect each day on what we have learned and experienced.  But then they get together and reflect on what they have seen and heard from their students.  They, then, tweak the next day's plan based upon the needs of the students.  How often have you been to a training where the facilitators take the time to adjust their plan based upon your needs?  Never, I would venture.  And, this models what they want from us - to become reflective teachers who are not afraid to change where things are heading based upon the needs of the students.

    And so from the 1st year teacher about to teach her first class to the seasoned veteran administrator who taught for 25 years before getting into administration, everyone at this training is a rookie.  They are rookies in teaching with PBL in a school with flattened leadership and a culture of trust, respect, and responsibility.  They are experiencing change and they are being told that this change will be worth it.  Those who survive the week will be changed.

     Some will go to their school, will feel the struggles, and will ultimately choose to go back to a traditional school.  The pain of change, for them, will be too much to bear. But nearly all of those teachers who complete this week will work through the pain.  They will do this because of their NTN coach, their fellow teachers, and their internal desire to make this change for the good of their students.  Because, ultimately, meaningful change is what we need in education if we want our students to succeed and be change agents for the world around them.

Life Threw Me a Curveball

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     In October of last year I submitted a job application and resume to the New Tech Network/Knowledge Works to become an instructional coach for some of the schools in the network.  I had been working on my PBL skills and knowledge for 3 years, I had spoken on PBL at conferences, and I was considered by many in the social media world as someone knowledgeable on the subject of PBL.

     Applying for the job just made sense.  I soon got an email thanking me for my application and stating that interviews would start in January (2012).  Going into the Holiday break in December I felt good about my chances and couldn't wait for my interview.  Towards the end of January I felt less positive when I started noticing the coaches in the network putting out feelers in emails and on facebook for people interested in applying for coaching positions.

     I contacted the New Tech Network and our school coach and there was a collective silence for about a week when all of a sudden there was an email requesting my application and resume again.  They had obviously lost my original but I turned it right around.  The next day, literally, I received an email asking if I was available at the end of the week for a phone interview.  I made sure I was there for that interview and I completed it feeling pretty good.  I was told that it would be 4 to 6 weeks before the next round of interviews and I went into waiting mode again.

     At the end of the 4th week I was contacted by email asking if I could make a phone interview in two days and I, again, made sure I was available.  I completed the interview and felt really positive about that interview and was pretty darn sure that I was going to get the job.

     As an aside here, between the original submission of my application and the final interview I had presented with students at Tech Forum Austin on how PBL was done at our school.  I had led a conversation at Educon Philly on how to get started with PBL.  I had done an impromptu session on PBL at the Texas Computer Educators Association (TCEA) conference.  I had also been asked to do a one day professional development for a neighboring school district on PBL for this summer and I had been asked to come to Edcamp Dallas next Fall to do a session on PBL.  Finally, I was incredibly active in a twitter chat that was started in the late Fall all about PBL (PBL Chat).

     Needless to say I was checked out in talking with educators about PBL.  Then came the blow.  That email thanking me for my interest in the job but that they had decided to go in a different direction.  For the next 2 or 3 weeks I was terribly bitter about everything New Tech - except for the PBL chat.  As a matter of fact I made sure I was as active as always during that chat.  Then came this past week...

     On Wednesday my principal called me in and told me that our superintendent wanted to see me the next day to offer me a job dealing with getting a 1:1 program going at our sister high school.  This is an incredible opportunity and I would be foolish to pass it up.  But I told him I had to think about it because, well, I need to think about it.

     If (when?) I take this new job I will be severing my PBL and New Tech life.  I already was feeling weird for the last two years moving into engineering and away from math - something I had been teaching since 1994.  In May I will be completing my fourth year of being a PBL teacher and teaching with PBL is something I just can't imagine being away from.   And, this summer when the New Tech teachers are meeting in Grand Rapids I won't be a part of this incredible conference.

    I can't even think of how to end this post because ending this post feels like it is putting the stamp on my leaving the New Tech world.  In my roughly 20 years of being in education I have said good bye to  schools in Newport News VA, in Sasebo, Japan, in Portsmouth RI, in Brunssum The Netherlands, in Gainesville FL, and in Round Rock Tx.  I have never felt such a loss as I am dealing with now and I haven't even taken the job.  But I know I need to take the job and move on and move on I will do.  I'm writing this to no one since very few ever read my posts but I wanted to put my thoughts down here so it can never be said that I just was chasing the greener grass.  There's grass over on the other side of the street but it isn't greener it's just different.

Questioning Normalcy

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Educon 2.4 came to a close but is far from finished.  The conversations started there will continue in the hallways and faculty lounges around the world and in online discussions via blogs, Facebook, and Twitter.  

The overarching word du jour was Innovation. We heard what it was and what it wasn't. We dissected it and defined it and even used it in a drinking game.  But, most striking was the fact that we never gave up on it. 

 Innovation, it seems, was a part of us throughout the weekend.  And why not?  Those of us in those rooms or following along via streaming are education innovators.  How many of us know more people who haven't a clue what Educon is than the number of people who were envious of us in attendance?

But how do we innovate once we return to our offices or classrooms?  For me I plan on bringing up these discussions with my colleagues.  I plan on addressing things that made me question what I, or my school, is doing.  I plan on having discussions with students about these topics and how they can help bring about change in our school.

As this transformation evolves I will be posting the "aha!" moments, the "holy crap we can't do that's," and the "let's get this baby rollings."   Throughout, I would love your thoughts and encouragement.  I'll be sharing this with our students and look forward to their input as well.  And, in a few weeks I plan on linking to our class blog as my students start down this journey.

Thank you Educon, Chris Lehman, and the staff, parents, and students of the Science Leadership Academy (SLA) for providing all of us with such an enriching event.

Educon 2.4 First Day Reflection

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"Wow!  My head hurts, but in a good way."  How many times did I hear some version of that statement tonight.  Yes, it hurts your brain to question what you are doing.  It hurts your brain to question what others are saying they are doing.  And, it hurts your brain to stand firm on something you truly believe in.

All of those things happened (and more) to my brain today.  Actually this pain in my brain started Thursday night as we sat talking inside of Con Murphys, until later than I would have liked, about things related to unstructured classrooms and democratic learning.  [Confession: my brain hurt too because the singer was a little loud - I'm getting old, sigh....]

This continued on Friday as I toured the SLA and talked with their incredible students.  But the best thing about seeing the SLA is that our students are just like those students.  Our classrooms are incredibly similar to the SLA classrooms.  I saw presentations and researching with technology.  I saw hands on exploration in a Calculus class.  [Confession #2: I was told I couldn't help the students but I did give them a hint about thinking back to their Algebra 2 days and maximizing area of a fenced in pen, sorry]

Then, Friday night, there was a wonderful panel of speakers who challenged our thoughts on Innovation. This later became "the I-word" and was worked into a drinking game but the fact is we were discussing until almost midnight what it means to innovate.

The pain today started early as I had to choose between about 15 conversations for each of the three sessions.  Luckily, for me,  Michelle Baldwin had tweeted me the night before telling me I had to come to her session where we discussed finding and nurturing the next Da Vinci in our classrooms. [Confession #3: Glad I didn't have to choose and it turned out to be an awesome discussion with Kelly Tenkely.]

The second session I went to was made easy because I didn't have to change rooms.  I really wanted to hear Liz Davis and Lisa Thumann and they just happened to be in the same room.  Their conversation was on Tradition Vs. Innovation.  This was an interactive session as we had to choose to "Dig It" or "Ditch It" on some dozen topics in education that were "traditional."  Great discussions by teachers wearing their parent hats in this one.

You know, I've heard Dean Shareski speak and I abuse the other Canadian, Alec Couros a lot on twitter so I had to go see them tag team the topic of Learning in Public.  This was definitely standing room only and there were no shy people in the room when it came to discussing this topic.  Somehow this was the only session where I was content to just listen.  [Confession #4: I almost raised my hand to see if I could be selected so I could tell them that Kelly Tenkely kept raising her hand to comment and they were missing her]

The SLA then provided a dinner where we continued to talk about what we had heard during the day and then we took the train out to the meet up this evening where we discussed stuff for another hour and a half and now, finally, I am back in my room and writing this post.

Basically, I have talked about education related topics every waking hour from my arrival to now and that's about 40 of the last 54 hours.  So, yeah, my head hurts.  But you know what?  I'm heading back tomorrow morning to do it all again.

PBL With Friends

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      "To create meaningful PBL units it helps to enlist friends and colleagues.  If they are not in your area of expertise they bring a fresh perspective.  We will discuss creating a PBL unit while brainstorming with a topic and standards given to us from one of the participants."

     That is the short description of my conversation for Educon Philly 2012.  My aim is to have a discussion around what it takes to create a PBL unit and to show those thinking about working PBL into their classroom that it can be done.  And, it is much easier to be successful if you have people help you with the planning.

     To start I want to figure out the level of expertise, in PBL, of the people in the room.  For that I'm debating using some sort of mobile polling app or maybe just a google form.  Either way I'm hoping to have it updating as people are coming into the room so that, as we begin, I already know where I need to head with the initial discussion.

     Things that will effect my starting point for the conversation:  (1) Grade Levels represented.  PBL may be PBL but there are differences that need to be addressed.  Are we mostly Elementary or Post Secondary?  (2)  Experience with PBL.  Is my audience mostly new to PBL and really need to understand what the heck this PBL stuff is?  Or, are we dealing with knowledgeable teachers of PBL who we can really dig deeply in our conversations.  (3) Subject Areas.  Are there mostly math teachers?  Social Study Teachers?  Lower Elementary or Home Schoolers who want to discuss multi-content PBL's?

     One of the things I will want to share is this post with links to key items.  That includes the Buck Institute.  They do wonderful workshops on PBL and have "how to" books on the subject that I reference before the beginning of each school year.  Also, Edutopia has started really building their reference materials and videos about PBL.  And, lastly, the newest resource for great PBL information - PBLChat on Twitter.  PBLChat is every Tuesday evening at 9 EST.  And the archive from each week is saved in Storify.  Here are two of the better chats:  Engaging Entry Events,  and,  Doing Projects vs. PBL .  

   
     Mainly, though, we will have (as the name says) a conversation.  I want to hear what people are doing with PBL in their classrooms and schools.  I want to hear questions and fears from those wanting to take the plunge.   I want honest questions and honest responses.  PBL is hard, for example.  That needs to be made clear - yes, it is hard.  But only because you become like a new teacher when you start with PBL.  You are learning pacing, you are learning group dynamics, you are learning a new form of classroom management...  The list could go on and on.  But when you stick with it you will suddenly get to the day where you get the class started and suddenly there is learning going on all around you.  Groups are having thoughtful discussions.  Groups are handling issues with one of their members.  And, most enjoyably, students are asking you "how?" or "why?" or some other higher level thinking question.

      PBL is different.  PBL may not be for every teacher.  But PBL works.  Those classrooms having success can see it; they can feel it; and they can hear it;  the learning is in the hands of your students.

Why Are You Trying to be Like Us?

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     Too often I hear "Can you teach me how to do PBL?"  Or, "I would love to be in a school like your school."  But PBL is not the same in every school.  It's not even the same in every classroom in my school.  PBL is a way of teaching that should, no must, be taught by a teacher who is willing to put their own stamp on what is being done in the classroom.

     Now, can PBL be done wrong?  Absolutely.  As a matter of fact it is that fact that lead me to write this post.  Whenever I see a group of teachers learning the basics of PBL I see some who are frustrated and confused.  I feel that many teachers would just like a recipe for success that they can take into their classroom and, poof, they have a PBL environment.  It just isn't that easy.  I would venture to say that all of our teachers are struggling with how they are doing PBL in their classroom.  Some of them are teaching in their 5th year of PBL and came to the school with instruction on how to plan and lead a PBL classroom.  But they are still tweaking their presentation.  They are creating new projects every year.  And they continue to request Professional Development by others, outside of our school,  on how to be a better PBL teacher.

     So, getting back to the original question, yes I can teach you how to do PBL.  As a matter of fact I plan on doing that in about an hour during my Conversation at Educon 2.4 next month in Philadelphia.  If you, or your school district, wanted to pay the money you could attend our district's Think Forward Institute which gives you 4 days of intense PBL training.  Or you could talk with a representative of the Buck Institute to get instruction.  They can point you to some wonderful training.  But I'm here to tell you that the training is just the beginning.

     To be an effective PBL teacher you must hone your skills each year.  You need to be a reflective teacher.  You should be willing to have an outside observer critique your teaching and ask you tough questions.  As a matter of fact if you take PBL out of the first sentence then the rest of this paragraph would just be telling you what you need to do to be a good teacher.   And that's my underlying theme - you need to be a good teacher first.  Incorporating PBL is just another tool in your tool belt.

     PBL is about getting students fired up about their learning.  PBL is about students wanting to delve deeper into a subject.  PBL is about students being able to unlock their creative juices.  And, PBl is a chance for teachers to lead their classes to a place that no one anticipated when they set out on the journey.  It is NOT a culminating "project" where students get to take what they've learned and create something related to that learning.

    PBL is like a recipe that mixes a question to be answered with a set of standards.  The amount of standards that gets mixed may end up being different than what you anticipated when you started "cooking."  You may have been able to make a dense, rich concoction with more standards than you thought could fit into the recipe.  Or, you may have had to cut down on the standards because you realized that the original recipe called for too much of that ingredient.  If that is the case then you will need to incorporate the unused standards into a later recipe.

     It really is just like cooking.  The best cooks know the recipe but are willing to change amounts based upon how things are mixing.   And, you must always be looking at the batter to understand how the end-product will turn out.   This leads to one of the best parts of PBL.  On each day I get to observe learning going on.  Is it going the way I anticipated?  Maybe not.  If things aren't going well then I need to redirect the students in a new direction.  But sometimes they are heading in a direction that will force them to ask to be taught something new.  Even better, the students might learn something that they can teach me.  Now, we are all learning.

     Can I teach you how to do PBL?  That's like asking can I teach you how to bake cookies.  I can give you recipes.  I  can show you where the measuring cups and spoons are and where all of the ingredients are located.  But until you step into the kitchen and put that apron on you can never really start cooking.  When you take out that first batch you are going to taste them.  Is there something you could have added to make them better?  Could you have cooked them longer or shorter?  Could you have adjusted the temperature because your oven is a bit hotter than average?  These are all questions that you will have to answer the NEXT time you cook.  But next time you may be working with a recipe for a cake.  How will these very similar ingredients react to the way you mix them and cook them?
 
      You should stop trying to be like us and try to be the best you can be.  That may end up being much, much better than us.  And, more importantly you will be like - YOU.