IT'S NOT ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY!

     On Wednesday, the entire secondary staff at Van Meter attended the 2nd Annual Iowa 1:1 Institute. It was a great opportunity for our teachers to learn, collaborate, and share about their experiences teaching and learning in a 1:1 environment.  Over 1,200 educators participated in the conference this year. Many are there to learn what it takes to implement a 1:1 technology initiative.  Many are there to ask questions about different web 2.0 tools, software, and other technologies that will help make them a more effective teacher.  Still others are there to find out what all of the fuss is about when it comes to kids having access to technology.  I have news for you, IT IS NOT ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY!  Though the technology can help teachers more effectively:

• Teach for Understanding
• Provide Rigorous and Relevant Curriculum
• Assess FOR Learning
• Differentiate Instruction
• Center the Classroom Around Students Needs

Providing students a laptop will not magically improve the quality of instruction provided to students.  

     Our focus as move forward as a state needs to be on ensuring all teachers are providing meaningful learning opportunities for students.  The focus should be on LEARNING!  Don't get me wrong, there were many great sessions at the 1:1 Institute.  Many focused on quality instruction, but there were too many sessions talking about cool tools, and not nearly enough about one or any of the 5 Characteristics of Instruction outlined in the Iowa Core.  

     Next year, we need more sessions like Matt Townsley and Russ Goerend's Rethink Assessment.  We need more sessions that help teachers see how effectively implementing quality instructional strategies like the five outlined in the Iowa Core is what will truly improve learning opportunities for our students.  We need more sessions focusing on how to not only teach students the universal constructs, but how we as educators need to model these skills as well.   

     We need to take the next step in our journey to transform the educational system in Iowa into a system that meets that is flexible enough to adjust to each student's needs instead of trying to cram all students through the one-size fits all model we have now.  We need to help people realize that it is not about providing every kid a laptop, but it is about providing students the best instruction from the most qualified educators.   The sooner we are able to ensure that all students have access to the best teachers, the sooner we will see the system transform into what it needs to be. 

What Are You Doing To Threaten The Status Quo?

Recently Will Richardson shared an article about an upcoming movie called Waiting for “Superman.” This article from New York Magazine really made me think about what I am doing as a building principal to threaten the status quo in public education. I am fortunate that I work in a district in which the first time I met our Board President, he told me he would be disappointed if I didn't take any risks or didn't try to create something new and different. I know not everyone works in a district like Van Meter, but we all have the ability to threaten the status quo.

What are we doing at Van Meter to threaten the status quo?

Some would say this:

• Providing laptops to students in grades 6-12
• Embedding technology in most lessons
• Providing meaningful PD through development of Professional Learning Communities
• Time for teachers to collaborate by changing start and end time of school day
• Focusing teacher learning on the 5 characteristics of effective instruction
• Skyping with people all over the world including the creators of Sweet Search, YouTellYou, and Diigo

All of these suggestions are great things we have going on as a district, and it will improve the quality of teaching by our teachers. But how much is it really changing the status quo of our school? I would suggest really not that much.

Wait a minute. Did I just say that what we are doing at Van Meter is not a threat to the status quo? I did for these examples that I just gave. Technologies have always been a part of education, teachers have always had some level of PD and prep time, we all know some strategies are more effective than others, and students have had guest speakers at school for years. So really, none of these changes are really that different from what we have always done.

If we are going to change the status quo, we must truly challenge what schools were designed to do, educate the masses to be relatively the same at relatively the same time. How are we doing this at Van Meter? We are:

• creating an environment in which everyone is a learner.
• empowering our students and teachers to control their own learning.
• ensuring opportunities for students to learn within their own passion.
• providing the support needed for our students/staff to be life-long learners.
• allowing students/staff to demonstrate their learning in multiple ways.
• becoming creators of content instead of consumers of content.
• taking risks to challenge students/staff to not always do it like its always been done.
• trusting our students and staff to learn the necessary skills when they see fit.
• being flexible with our time.
• Allowing students to show mastery and moving on instead of waiting for the rest of the class.
• developing a system that puts the learners needs in the middle and adjusts everything else about school around those needs

I am sure there are more things going on than what is listed, but our end goal is to create a school that empowers our students/staff to THINK, LEAD, & SERVE as global, digital citizens in this ever changing world. We must be willing to take the risks necessary to challenge the status quo, or we will never have the lasting impact necessary to change what "school" looks like.

What are you doing to threaten the status quo of your school?