always learning

Eureka! I think I’ve got it! Thanks to all of your fantastic feedback on my previous posts, I realized that the Collaboration Continuum I started this weekend isn’t really a continuum at all – it’s a cycle:

To me, the cycle idea makes much more sense than a continuum. For starters, I really didn’t like the idea that teachers would feel that they should be at one end of the continuum – the pressure to “figure out” where you are on the path and how you compare to others is just too tempting (and intimidating).  I also didn’t like the visual impression that it was a finite process, appearing as if once you make it to the mentoring stage you’re done.

So, I went back to the drawing board, and came up with the concept of a cycle.

I love the fact that there’s no definite beginning or end, which acknowledges the fact that all teachers come to a school with different history and different needs. Not everyone will need to start with “full collaboration” when they come to ISB because they might have already done something like that at a previous school.

I also like the idea that the cycle builds in a support infrastructure for continuing this process indefinitely – once a teacher has been through the process and reaches the mentoring stage, s/he will go on to be a fully collaborative with another teacher who’s ready on their team, and then that teacher will do the same for another member of the team. This way the learning and experience of one teacher turn into the learning and experience of many – especially important in international schools where we tend to have lots of staff turnover.

What do you think? Is this better? More approachable and less intimidating to staff? Any other ideas for improvement?

Just out of curiosity, could/would you use this at your school? Do you have someone who could be responsible for implementing this process and begin the collaboration cycle with a group of willing teachers?

After some very helpful comments on my last post, I have revised my collaboration continuum to reflect the need for some pre- and post-assessments, as well as consistent professional development and an emphasis on learning and assessment:

I still couldn’t think of different terms to define the continuum, although I don’t like the fact that “dependence” could have a negative connotation even though “full collaboration” is a good thing – we want to have more collaboration, more teaming, and more sharing of strengths. Any ideas?

What else is missing or needs to be revised? I’m definitely liking how this is starting to look…

Today Jeff and I also talked about the LOTI in relation to this collaboration continuum. Once we do a pre-assessment of where we’re at, we can look at using this model to help us move to higher levels of technology implementation. So, I made a nifty little graphic for that one too:

As I was browsing the site, I also came across this article about effective 21st Century leadership which I also plan on sharing with my admin team tomorrow.

What do you think? Do these work together well or am I off track here?

Jen Wagner and I are so thrilled to be sharing our thoughts about globally collaborative projects at the wonderful K12 Online conference this October. Here’s the title and description of our session:

Connecting Classrooms Across Continents: Planning and Implementing Globally Collaborative Projects

Ready to “flatten” your classroom walls? Looking to take web 2.0 tools to the next level by developing exciting and authentic projects that allow your students to interact with partners around the world? It may be time to tackle a globally collaborative project in your classroom!

Globally collaborative projects are an exciting way to engage your students in authentic and meaningful learning across cultures and continents. Successfully combining a variety of web 2.0 tools (like blogs, wikis, Skype, IM, social networks, etc) can remove the barriers of time and distance to connect your class with others around the world. Not only do students love to meet their far-flung peers, but learning to collaborate and create in an entirely online and inter-cultural environment will clearly be a critical skill for their future.

Learn how to develop a successful global project – from design and planning to implementation and product, see examples of engaging projects from all grade levels, as well as participate in a real time globally collaborative project with Kim and Jennifer!

Although this project will be aimed at elementary school classrooms, teachers of all levels will find inspiration and applicable and practical ideas throughout this video presentation that will incorporate a wide-range of web 2.0 tools!

We would absolutely love to have the voice of the community within our presentation, so we are hoping that you can spare a few moments to add to this quick VoiceThread about the benefits of global collaborations in the classroom:

If you don’t feel comfortable adding to a VoiceThread just yet, please feel free to leave your comment here. Our focus questions are:

• How does your classroom go global?
• What are the beneifits of global collaborations?
• Please share some highs and lows of global collaborations.
• Spread the love – please share a link to a great project!

Thank you so much for adding your insights to our presentation (all credit for the comments of course will go to the commenters)!

We would also love to hear about any specific issues you would like to see addressed within the focus of this presentation. If you have any feedback, please feel free to share it here!

As part of our organizational goal this year, all teams are participating in an action research project. Although each team is focusing in slightly different areas based on their needs and observations over the past year, the ultimate goal for all of us is improving student learning. We’re following a standard action research process:

Lucky for me, I’m on a team with my amazing new colleagues, Tara Ethridge and Jeff Utecht. Although we’ve only been working together for about a month, we were immediately on the same page about where to start: how to best support teachers that are willing to embed technology into classroom experiences – no matter what their level of technology proficiency might be.

After some thoughtful discussion, we settled on our focus question:

Does collaborating with teachers build the confidence needed to take the next step towards independently implementing future projects?

Along with the question, we thought some clarification might be needed about the world “collaboration,” as well as the term “next steps” and “independence,” so we came up with this continuum:

Of course, this is still a work in progress. What do you think? Would this be an interesting action research project? Does our continuum accurately represent the basic stages of growing independence with technology integration? Are we missing anything key?

Last year when I arrived at the International School Bangkok, I stepped into a fabulous new learning space we now call The Learning Hub:

Not only does it look amazing, but the concept of our Hub is to combine digital and traditional literacy into one flexible learning zone where students, teachers and parents alike can explore new ideas collaboratively or independently, as the need arises.

What I think is especially interesting about our space is actually not the physical structure (as beautiful as it is), but the staffing. We have envisioned a new partnership among our technology specialists, library specialists and literacy specialists. We like to call ourselves the ISB21 team:

All of us are working together to support our 21st Century teachers by co-planning and team teaching, focusing on learning outcomes and successful assessment design, brainstorming new ways of solving problems and leading consistent and flexible professional development programs.

Our resource team acts as a flexible unit capable of supporting a wide range of literacy needs – what one person may not know, another will jump in and share. Three support staff working together must be better than one, right?

We are currently in the process of refining our individual job descriptions, but no matter what changes, all three of our roles will always share some overlap, and we will consistently learn from one another:

• Technology and Learning Coordinator
• 21st Century Literacy Specialist
• Teacher Librarian

As a team, we have begun to offer professional development sessions three days a week after school. Each week is focused on a specific theme, but presented in different learning styles on each day. All sessions are walk-in/walk-out supported by all members of the ISB21 team:

Need help with a technical problem?  Want to spiff up a lesson?  Need help finding online resources to support your unit? Want to know what Web 2.0 means and how it can impact your teaching?  Want to collaborate with a global audience?  Looking for some SMART Board tips? Just want to know how to podcast?  Crop a photo? Download a video clip from YouTube?  You have a tech question; we have an answer (we hope).

The ISB21 team will station themselves in the Main Library classroom every Monday for any sort of tech question or help.  We can work individually or present something to a group.

PD tailor made for you.  You can’t beat this kind of personal attention.

Are you interested in talking about technology, the future and how both will impact education?  Wired Wednesdays are about that conversation. Come to these sessions to be immersed in progressive and current thinking about how teaching and learning is being redefined in a rapidly changing world and ISB’s plan to keep up.  These sessions will have a strong audio/video component so whether you want to get deep or just want to be edu-tained, these sessions are for you.

Entertaining and educational. The best way to spend your Wednesday afternoons.

Need hands on experience when learning a new tech tool? Want to be shown the highlights of the coolest new technology and have a chance to test it out yourself? Then this is the session for you! Each week we will share a new technology feature and give you a chance to try it out with our guidance. From blogging to digital video to social networking, this is the place to get your hands on the tech!

It’s time to test out the tech!

It seems as if there are others out there looking to reinvent the concept of a library and computer lab too. What do you think? Is this the future of literacy and learning? Or have we missed the boat? What else can we do to support our teachers as we work towards 21st century learning in all of our classrooms?

At the beginning of every school year, I’m reminded of how important it is to build collaborative relationships with teachers. As a resource person I believe the most crucial area of my relationship with teachers is becoming a true collaborative partner with classroom teachers – actually teaching together with them in the classroom, building on each others strengths and weaknesses and providing immediate support and modeling best practices for technology use in the classroom.

As as important as it is to meet with teachers for co-planning and technology training before a project starts (and we all know how much I love planning), in my experience even the world’s best planning can go awry without spending some quality time team-teaching in the classroom as a project is getting started. As anyone who’s ever used a tech lab or laptop cart knows, just when you’re ready to get something started, a dozen tech-related things will probably go wrong at once. Three students will think they know everything already and yet still do everything wrong, two students won’t be able to log in, one of the laptops won’t turn on, the projector won’t mirror displays, etc, etc – and everything is happening during the most critical part of the project, the beginning.

As a tech facilitator the last thing I want is for a teacher to have a bad experience because a few minor tech-mishaps occur during a lesson. And something will definitely happen, no matter how well-planned a lesson might be beforehand. For those teachers who are inexperienced, nervous or hesitant about technology, there’s a level of comfort that is difficult to attain just by planning something together and sending the teacher off on their own. It’s to be expected that some teachers won’t feel comfortable with certain kinds of technology projects unless they have in-class support, and one of my favorite things to do is to show those teachers just how successful a project can be with proper support.

My interest in working together in the classroom with teachers is not just a matter of providing moral support. I’ve done all different types of projects with teachers and students (from just giving hints and tips, to coaching on the side, to full blown collaboration), and can honestly say that when I have the time and permission to go into the teacher’s classroom and work with the teachers and students on the project, I have always seen tangible benefits in several major areas:

Flexibility

As every teacher knows, lesson plans need to be modified while a unit is actually in progress based on where students are in their understanding. Sometimes a little on-site fine-tuning is all that’s needed to turn an untried plan into a great success, and other times huge chunks of curriculum have to be turned inside-out at the last minute to avoid complete disaster. This process can be time-consuming and nerve-wracking enough when a project is within a teacher’s comfort area, but when ever-changing, unfamiliar and sometimes-intimidating technology is involved, many teachers simply aren’t able to make the necessary modifications on the day. When tech projects are involved, this can lead to undifferentiated, rigid projects which leave some learners behind, or worse, promisingly planned projects that mysteriously take far too long to get underway, or which cause too many technical headaches, and are then abandoned before they achieve their goals.

With a tech facilitator is on hand as a true collaborating partner from beginning to end, projects can be far more flexible, and teachers are able to appropriately modify the project as it’s being implemented. Experienced and ready tech-savvy students can be identified and teams of student-led support infrastructure can be built, struggling students can get the modifications they need, and pacing can be adjusted as each day goes by. This approach creates a feedback loop that leads to smoother-running projects and even more appropriate future projects. By getting immediate student and teacher response data via experiencing the project firsthand, tech facilitators can better coordinate a cycle of continuously improving project approaches, which in turn would eventually decrease the number of unknown variables and problems teachers would need to deal with on the spot, lowering anxiety and increasing success.

Support

It is so exciting to see teachers ready to run with an engaging technology-rich project, but the first time (or just the first time with a new class or a new tool) can also be nerve-wracking for the teacher – what if something goes wrong, what if the kids don’t know how to do something we thought they did, what if kids are off task and not listening? Having someone co-teaching in the classroom as a partner can alleviate most of this stress, help the teacher feel more comfortable and offer the type of support I know I wish I had the first time I tried using technology in the classroom. We often talk about collaboration in education, but how often do we actually have two teachers working in the same room, one with one set of skills and experience, the other with a different set – perfectly complementing each other and supporting (and modeling) the learning process for both teachers and students?

Class Dynamics and Management

Having had the opportunity to work with many different teachers over the years, it is very interesting to see how significant a role class dynamics can play in the implementation of any given project. The same project can be a dream in one classroom and a nightmare in the other – just based on the way the students and teachers interact, personalities, and established behavior patterns – and there’s no way to know what that really looks like aside from seeing it yourself.

On top of the attitudes and behaviors in any given classroom, classroom management with any kind of technology, especially laptops, can be a challenge for teachers. There are many little tips and tricks that I’ve developed from constantly working with students using technology. Similarly, each classroom teacher usually has dozens of subtle ways they interact with their class which an outsider might miss. Unless the tech facilitator has some time to see the students in action, and model appropriate classroom management in tandem with the classroom teacher, the easiest, most engaging tech-rich project could go off the rails.

So, while it can tempting to design technology projects on paper and send them off into the world on their own, I’ve found that I feel much more effective, reflective and flexible if I can actually be on-hand in the classroom while the projects are underway. Of course, this means that schools need a manageable facilitator-to-student ratio, time for the facilitator to co-plan and co-teach, and a willingness and openness on the teacher’s part to allow another teacher into the classroom.

These are just my top three support areas, what are other key ways you ensure your teachers receive the support they need to have success with technology?

After nice, long, relaxing summer of traveling, spending quality time with family and friends, and lots of excellent eating (all essential qualities for the perfect summer, in my opinion), I am definitely ready to start another exciting school year! And lucky for me, it’s already shaping up to be totally amazing…

I’m so excited to be back because, among other things, I have some fantastic new colleagues:

Jeff Utecht is our new ES Technology and Learning Coordinator, Tara Ethridge is our new ES Librarian, Chrissy Hellyer just signed on to teach grade five and Chad Bates is our new MS Technology and Learning Coordinator. It’s hard to believe I could actually be so fortunate to work with these superstars every single day!

It’s also refreshing (and so much less stressful) to be coming back to ISB for the second year. As much as I love international school teaching, the first year in a new place is always overwhelming – new city, new school, new home, new students, new language, the list goes on and on. While I truly love the daily adventure of living and working overseas, it really does take a whole year to feel like you actually understand the intricacies of a new job, let alone life in a new country.

Returning for the second year also gives me the opportunity to refocus my priorities. As much as I enjoyed my year last year, and as happy as I am with the work I did, the summer holidays gave me time to reflect on exactly how I worked. Although it may seem strange, what I want to focus on this year actually has nothing to do with technology, it has to do with my work process. Instead of focusing on the number or type of projects as a goal for the year, I would like to refine, improve and streamline the way I get my job done.

With that in mind, I’m definitely coming back to ISB with new priorities:

Focus: I think we all know what it’s like to get caught up in one problem after another throughout the day – constantly feeling like all we’re doing is putting out fires instead of taking time for planning, organizing and putting in place thoughtful infrastructure and systems. At the end of the school year, I was exhausted and I’m realizing that, in order to be more productive in an efficient way, I need to make an effort to be more deliberate, to focus on what’s genuinely important (rather than just what seems to be urgent). To help remind me, I’ll be posting Steven Covey’s time management matrix on the wall right above my work space.

Simplify: Along those lines, I want to keep things simple – start projects off small, and build, if all goes well to help ease teachers into working with technology. After having so much success with the super simple Blog Pals project in third grade last year, I’m realizing that trimming major ideas down to just the basics not only makes things easier to manage, but also helps build teacher understanding about how and why these types of experiences are important to students. The simpler the start, the easier it is for teachers to take a risk and try something new, and the more positive experiences they have with technology, the more risks they’ll be willing to take.

Connect: With an ES staff of over 70, it was impossible to complete a project with every single teacher last year, which means there are quite a few teachers I didn’t work with at all. This year I want to make sure I not only continue building relationships with the teachers I worked with last year, but also to connect with those I missed. I would love to be able to bring together the more experienced teachers with those that have never tried a technology rich project before. It’s always amazing to see the wealth of experience and expertise within schools that often goes untapped. Hopefully, by building connections and relationships between teachers we will see more sharing of ideas, collaboration and the successful spread of quality learning with technology.

Of course, I can already tell that saying I’m going to slow down will be a lot easier than actually doing it. Even after just one week of school, there are already so many events in the pipeline that I think this year may end up being even busier than the last.

First up, I’ll be presenting 3 sessions at Learning 2.008 in Shanghai mid September, then I get the privilege of developing a presentation with the amazing Jennifer Wagner for the K12 Online conference in October, next, if I can possibly manage it, I’d love to develop a presentation for the Mobilize This! online conference later in October, plus I’m already gearing up to head back to Doha for another consulting trip to Qatar Academy thanks to the wonderful Julie Lindsay. And, of course that doesn’t count the friends that are (as usual) lining up for a visit to tropical Thailand sans hotel fees.

Slow down? Focus? Simplify? Phew! I’m already exhausted and it’s only the end of week one!