Apologies to Doug Baird, whom I teach with at Brighton High, and really love (Drape's Takes). After three days at the Professional Learning Communities Institute with Natalie Aposhian ...one of the most gifted educators I have EVER worked with... (small team, I know, but the majority of our leadership (10) team headed to Washington DC this morning for the Model Schools Conference), we debriefed and agreed the wealth of information was just too overwhelming. We also agreed there was some urgency in meeting again, soon, while it was still fresh in our minds, to prepare to 'download' the info to the rest of our staff, even if it meant sacrificing precious (to teacher's, anyway) summer vacation.
Darren's recent post, on 'moving at the speed of creativity', plays right into what Natalie and I, among other educators from 22 states and Canada, dialogued about over the past three days in our interactive sessions. The concepts presented were common sense, were not complicated by any stretch of the imagination, but, to quote Bob Eaker, 'the grandest design degenerates into hard work'. We both agreed, having embarked on this challenge of re-culturing our school into a 'Learning (not teaching) Community' five years ago, when first introduced to this concept, we were NOT about to give up.
We also admitted our frustration, and sometimes embarrassment, when talking with some of the over 1,000 educators in attendance who were equally fired up over the concepts. We had to admit we belonged to the largest school district in the state of Utah, which, for the SECOND time was HOSTING this Conference...and yet, they continue to create roadblocks for individual schools to implement these research honored initiatives. Why...they asked...why!
Well, re-read Drape's most recent post again, and some of the answers may be apparent...CHANGE is painful...but, it's gotta be done, and it's gotta be done NOW. And we're the one's who have got to drive it...it's called LEADERSHIP. WHY the knowledge of what needs to be done frequently fails to result in action or behavior consistent with that knowledge is one of the great mysteries of organizational management. (There you go, Scott, I stole that from Pfeifer and Sutton...). We simply had to sheepishly admit what had been holding us up for FIVE YEARS was our own district's inability to 'think outside of the box', and allow the best and the brightest to 'run with the ball' (see earlier post on Laub's Blog).
Well, if you're gifted 'reading between the lines', I know you ALREADY know what we've concluded...as with assessments in your (our) school, or analysis, or anything else for that matter, what is the most effective FOR YOUR SITUATION/SCHOOL comes from within...from your own gifted people/teachers/staff...from the people who know, and CELEBRATE what WORKS for you every day. Finally, thank you Karl Fisch, for your comments on our 'award winning' super-star...right on! The focus of Professional Learning Communities is a fundamental shift away from 'I and Teaching' to 'We and Learning'...but, as I've heard before, you can 't cross a big chasm in two jumps...take a leap of faith...a BIG one.
(This does NOT deviate from the need to integrate Informational Technology into our schools...if anything...it emphasizes the IMMEDIATE need to address the exponential explosion of how quickly things are changing. If I can see this, after 32 years, why can't our 'visionary' educational 'leaders' see it...and they're paid the big bucks...!? Sheesh...).
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