First Thing that I Learned at Education

Welcome to Educon

Where does the garden grow? I’ve planted a lot of vegetables in the education garden over the past three years. It has fed me during some dark moments of my career, and it has yielded me some of the best experiences of my career. It has been about people, place, and experiences, and I’m so grateful for being blessed to interact with some of the best in the business. With any garden though, the winter comes and winter passes. There are dormant moments before a fresh set of seeds is sown. During these periods, we have a choice. We have choice to enjoy the remaining harvest, plant new vegetables or prepare the garden for a fresh planting of the same. In most cases, we do a little bit of each of these things. This weekend for me is an opportunity to nurture my garden and prepare it for the next moments. It is about absorbing the sunlight of new ideas, tilling the soil that grows hardened from our echo chamber, and surrounding the garden with the best elements for a bountiful harvest. I’m so thankful for my professional learning network. It is layered group. From those in my district, to my friends and follow learners around Missouri, to the larger network around the country, this village is what it takes to support me. They energize me, question me, and lift me up, and it is this group that gives me hope that education will grow into greater greatness in the years to come. Educon in Philadelphia is an opportunity to break bread, share a brew, and stare into the soul of excellence in education. My cup is full. I’m blessed, and I can’t wait to share the bounty of my harvest. 

Twas the Night before Educon- A Preview Musing

The work of the Science Leadership Academy has been a symbol of hope for me for a long time. It has been the place where I have imagined that student engagement is oozing from the system, and kids were passionate about their learning at this crazy level. I’m worried about being disappointed. I know that Chris and his staff have worked to make this a reality, but I also know that all journeys are in process, and from a distance, it is easy to think of SLA as a finished product. I hope that my expectations aren’t shattered. I’m trying to reorient my expectations, but I am super excited about being in a place of learning that I can embrace fully without holding my nose at times. As I worked to build this type of place as a principal, I was always aware of the warts and the weak spots, but I never let the public know about them when they visited. Maybe I should have. Maybe my transparency should have been bigger. We don’t need to scale SLA, but we need to inject hope, ideas, resources, and passion into the system. I want to feel the DNA of SLA, but I don’t want to clone it. We are wholly wrong in education if we just replicate stuff and airlift it into new place. The systems are unique, and the solutions are unique. I’m fully ready to just be happy at SLA, soak in the energy of what is possible, talk to great people, and all the network that continues to grow to seep in. There is no going back after tomorrow. The mental model of SLA will become the reality that is SLA. I couldn’t be happier. 

A New Vision for the Core Learning Space in Schools

I was blown away by this incredible piece put together by super hero librarian Joyce Valenza. Her storytelling, passion, and vision for our library spaces is so compelling. I want the libraries that I support to grow into these kinds of powerhouse places of learning. Take some time to watch the video.

 
School Library Story from joyce valenza on Vimeo.

Bag of Hot Air

There are a lot of very busy people throughout my professional learning network and other incredible professional learning networks that intersect with people that I know from learning together, laughing together, and working together. Busy they are trying to make sure that the ideas in which they are passionate are shared, practiced, and spread. It creates a fire hose of reading that is pure pleasure for me as I know that there are allies of action and philosophy around the world. I'm super excited to meet many more of these thought leaders and awesome educators on my first pilgrimage to Educon in Philadelphia later this month. Over the past few years, it seems like these incredible groups of people are growing more coherent with their language, rationale and ideas for a new journey for public schools around the world. There are still many points of conversation and difference which is helpful for our overall growth, but the umbrella of beliefs is growing clear. This creates a tipping point for me and all of those that spend time saying really important things about education. It is time to act, act really big. It is time to surround students, teachers, and leaders that are trying to do things the right way with more than just praise and words. These places need our expertise and personalized professional development from the experts throughout our PLN. They need space to make mistakes, and that means our voices pushing back their doubters in local newspapers and boards of education. They need mentors and resources. They need our time, talent, and treasure. They need our sustainable presence. Our professional learning network is the most intelligent team on paper ever, but words crave actions in a bigger way. What if there were 10 schools around the country that we decided to surround with our collective wisdom? What if we showed that our ideas could work and could scale? This could be the next phase of our grassroots work to build the right public schools in this country. I worry at times that we are a bag of hot air when it comes to big change. Sure there is a little change, and each little change matters, but there is a lot of talk about big change and being a part of whatever that looks like, but the time has come. Will the actions follow? Are we too busy to realize our big dreams?

Simple

How can we keep it simple? The simple pleasures in life should never be locked away. There are moments each day when a smile, a pause, a notice can change everything. There are so many things to be thankful for in our lives, and even with the clouds of reality, stress, and anxiety looming, we can carve out moments of simple pleasure that can change everything. What year did you stop allowing the simple things to be a part of your soul? A new year is a new opportunity to allow the simple pleasures in life to reinfect your DNA. The video inspiration for this post is 90 seconds of great video to remind you how these simple pleasures look, sound, and feel. Take 90 seconds of today to watch. It may change your entire day.

Solitude: The Final Phase of Technology Integration

Have your students collaborated, connected with others? Have they realized that our global learning requires them to reach outside themselves? If so, they are ready for the next phase of technology integration. This phase values solitude and reflection, and asks students to balance their technology time with their time to disconnect and think.  Are you thinking about how to make this happen? Do you practice this in your connected life? Are you OK with the sound that comes when there is no sound?