Bud the Teacher

Goal:  Work to build multiple and overlapping communities of learners in our district who have knowledge, expertise and/or interest in the hardware and software and services that our district is supporting.  Help those communities to begin to learn from each other and to support each other in their teaching and learning.  As best as I can, document and share the learning and stories of the community.

I’m aware of so much potential in our classrooms and schools, and so many new tools that are coming online in the district that can be used to help students and teachers create deep and meaningful opportunities for learning and reflection in our classrooms.  These are tools like laptops (three new elementary schools, opening in the fall, will have laptops for every teacher; many more schools are investing in laptops for some teachers to be used with) interactive whiteboards, and/or clickers and document cameras, software like ActivStudio, which we’re trying to standardize on across the district, and services like Moodle, which powers our St. Vrain Virtual Campus.

There are a multitude of projects and programs that already meet and discuss some of these issues - but there’s nowhere to go to see all of those conversations, or for folks who aren’t already connected to those groups to have the opportunity to find ways into the conversations.  I also know that, with so many resources out there, we need to do a good job of aggregating all of that stuff somewhere (or somewheres) and then helping people to find that space.

Also, if we can work to build and/or sustain these communities, we can work to develop leadership on instructional issues in our district.  Better yet, we can help teachers to teach teachers.  That’s a good thing. I believe very strongly that the answers to most of the important questions facing schools and teachers and learning and students aren’t going to come out of school districts - they’re going to come out of classrooms.  It’s my job to help get the stories out there and the people connected.

This conference for me has been an intentional immersion in the hopeful ideas of school and learning.  I’m avoiding big talk about products and tools, instead seeking out positive pathfinders - the people and ideas and documents that, to me, are pointing learning where it needs to go - into rich and deep discussions of how and why we learn and what’s worth bothering to “cover” versus what’s worth doing.

As it’s the start of a new school year, I’ve been asked to set some goals for myself for the year.  There are many, many projects that require my attention, as well as the daily work and questions that keep me busy, but I do want to declare some goals that I hope to return to throughout the year and think about more. I’ll be posting them as independent posts here over the next little while - and I reserve the right to develop the final list later - but these are things that I think are worth doing right now.

I’ll be live blogging this session this morning.  Please join me as I record my thoughts and notes on the panel’s presentation.  Lookingforward to an international perspective on teaching, learning and what all teachers should know.

The panelists for this session are Geoff Powell, Gary Stager, and Peter Skillen.

Learning Rocks

Originally uploaded by Bud the Teacher

Had a delightful and energizing time at the Constructivist Celebration on Sunday, a day of teacher play, experimentation and, in the words of Gary Stager, time spent with folks who have “a commitment to use computers in creative ways for the benefit of children.”

I took my XO along as my note-taking machine for the day, thinking that it was poetically appropriate to do so.  Brian C. Smith did the same, and, wouldn’t you know it, there were several other XO’s in the room, too.  I ended up doing plenty of OLPC and Sugar evangelism, which was fine by me.  I also got to play and explore and create.

But more important than my play were the statements and commitments by Gary Stager and Peter H. Reynolds, the day’s speakers, about the importance of creation and exploration, both for my practice as a teacher, but also, and of far greater value, my growth as a learner. I hear a true committment from both gentlemen that there is great value in creating rich environments for children and that we, as teachers, need to model the creation that we want our students to do.

Our students need to see us struggle and reach and grow and try and explore and learn and fail and stand back up at the end and say, “Wow. What’d I learn here?”  That’s probably the best motivation for them to get their hands dirty.  And we’ve never any credibility if we ask kids to do something that we won’t do.

I thank everyone involved with the event for a special day of battery recharging play.  Special thanks to my friends from IMSA, April-Hope Wareham and Scott Swanson, who brought a whole mess of XO’s and taught me plenty about them.