Shift Happens

Change is inevitable, at least it should be. This past week I saw an excellent presentation created by Karl Fisch, author of The Fischbowl blog and the Shift Happens Wiki, called Did You Know?/Shift Happens! The presentation contained some incredible information about how much information we have access to nowadays, and just how global we are becoming. When I saw one of the final slides, Shift Happens!, I had to smile.  At first because of the obvious reasons, being so close to that famous other saying, and secondly because that is the business we are in.  I do not mean we as in Technology Coaches, or Integration Specialists, or Tech Savvy Educators; I mean we as in all of us that work in education.  We can not afford to think of these changes as small scale, or in terms of if we are able to do it or not. On the  contrary, these are changes to the way we think and the way we teach and they have to be implemented in order for us to support each and every student.

Trying to implement this sort of paradigm-shift is exciting, but it can also  be extremely slow.  And you know what, that is perfectly o.k. People have to get comfortable with the fact that students can be controllers of their own destiny. People have to get comfortable with the fact that students will outwork teachers if they care.  People have to get comfortable with the fact that we are global, and if your students do not have a global voice, they are behind.  People have to get comfortable with the fact that  your students will let you know what they need to know, and find  out for themselves,  if you give them the chance. People have to get comfortable with the fact that every student is an expert (10,000 hours +) or on their way to being an expert in watching t.v., surfing the internet, playing video games, and texting; and if we are not using those mediums in our classroom, why aren´t we?

The shift is here. In this calendar year, it is predicted that there will be more new information posted on the internet than in the last 5,000 years. By the time you teach your students how to use that hot new app, it might be the third or fourth best app for your students to even use. Allow them to figure out what they need to know, and then figure out how they want to learn that information.  We need to facilitate, not imitate.

Have you taken your One Small Step? Continue the conversation below.

Week 1, August 1st-3rd, 2012

The first few days were a blur.  I had some successful meetings, and it was great to see all of the old and new faces.  One thing really sunk in. Our principal, Jeff Richardson, was speaking about always communicating with respect and not allowing your passion to cloud the fact that you may be acting rudely to another. We have also initiated a new form to our team leader and PLC (Professional Learning Community) meetings, dialogue, then discussion. This is a great way for people to share their thoughts in a non-threatening environment.

I met a few times with fellow integrationist/coach Hector Londoño. We talked at great length about our "Big 3" ideas/goals for the coming school year.  I will go more in-depth with them once we present them to our administrator and get them approved. I also met with Alma Harder, our new Elementary Vice Principal, about the possibilities of our Outlook Calendars (more to come on this as well).

One thing I must work on is streamlining my researching practice.  Twitter is an incredible PLN (Professional Learning Network).  There is an incredible amount of passionate educators sharing their ideas and links to information.  I was expecting a lot of wonderful resources, but the sheer volume of resources has been a little overwhelming.  I found a great group of educators to follow by reading this blog post by John Mikulski, blogger of Classroom in the Cloud. Here are the two posts: 57 Must Follow Educators on Twitter Part I  and 57 Must Follow Educators on Twitter Part II. There is a great art to Micro Blogging, and I am going to try and inspire the educators at my school to give it a try!

Another resource I have focused on this week is Pearltrees. Pearltrees is a wonderful way to experience and share the web.  You basically create different Pearls for different categories of web pages, pictures, files, etc. The uses for Pearltrees are unlimited, for educators and students alike.

This is an exciting time for being an educator (and hopefully even more so for being a student).  There is a shift coming, and all it takes to start is one small step. What's your one small step?

T Minus 43 Days and Counting

The purpose of this blog is to serve as a communication and reflection tool.  We have entered an interesting time in education- a tipping point if you will- in which I hope to participate fully.  Starting in August I hope to post daily blogs about my experiences in this new job.

Stay tuned...