Random Musings

….I’ve decided that I like that adjective much better than retired.  Retired sounds like you’ve been put out to pasture–and that is definitely NOT the case.   Lot’s of thinking, but the zoo has been calling.  I’ve just spend the entire evening getting ready for the photo club sales at Tai Shan’s farewell tomorrow  (or, actually, today)….so deeper thoughts later.

…what do you do in the last 8 hours of a 27 year career?  I need the day to be normal.  I have things to do; loose ends to tie up; and it looks like I’ll be at the office over the weekend for the last time.

During my conversations today I was asked “what is the most memorable experience of your career”.  There hasn’t been just one.  As a music teacher I think of all the concerts–especially the ones where, when you turned around, the kids’ performance has moved the hard-nosed principal to tears;  I think of the sp. ed 6th grader who, after much thought, came up with this definition of music “Anything can be music, it just depends on how you listen to it.”  I loved teaching music–I left it while I was doing a good job;  6th graders were my favorite–old enough to really challenge your thinking but still young enough to be open to being pushed.

As I look back on the past 13 years, however, the answer is “people”.  We’ve come a long way–our conversations now revolve around what’s good for kids–how to help them learn–what they need to learn–and how to make techology a tool for learning.  We no longer focus on printers and servers–I see the changes in those around me and like to think that I had some small influence in those changes.

I left today trying to plant seeds for additional changes–a big one being that we need to reassess where we are and look at our “big bucks” tools.  I’ll be very curious to see if that leads anywhere at all.  IT would not be happy…..but we are using outdated tools and, in the process, tieing teacher’s hands.  Another piece was that we are still at the “adoption” level.  We are, for the most part, still just screwing technology on top of existing structures and techniques.  Technology used  in that way is just an expensive toy–a fad that will, and should,  fade over time. 

I enjoyed my conversations today–and I believe that if we held more conversations like it–that the system would move in a more focussed and deliberate fashion.  We talk about big concepts in hallway fly-bys and, as a result, never really talk about the road–just about the next bump.

Tomorrow I have exit interviews with two of the “uber-bosses”.  The first thing that astonished me was that I had to arrange them.  My office has found them to be very insightful and it surprises me that they aren’t routine.  Thirty minutes with a departing employee to discuss the good and the not-so-good would appear to have value for all involved.

So now the question is “What’s my final message?”  I’ve thought about it a lot in the past few weeks and I think there are three:

• You are surrounded by good people.  Get to know them; ask them for their expertise;  they will make you look good, help you anticipate pitfalls and make everyone smarter and stronger.  Ignore them at your peril.
• Instructional techology is critical–but you need to define it as what happens when a child puts their hands on the technology.  On-line testing systems are not instructional, nor are electronic gradebooks or resource banks.  For far too long, however, we’ve developed curriculum and then screwed the technology on top of it.  That might have been acceptable 10 years ago, but not today.  Today the instructional technology folks should permeate every level of curriculum at it’s inception, not brought in to add technology to a 90% done project.  These are the folks that see the possibilities and are not bound by what they know in the past–but can look to the future.
• Number three is related to number one.  People are what make a school system great; not things, not computers, not busses or desks or chairs.  Keep the people and find other ways to conserve.  Consider what and how our money is being spent.  Do we really need multi-million dollar on-line classware–when we could do the same thing using Moodle?  Do we need the software from the big Redmond conglomerate–when google docs does 100% of what we need–and so much more.  It’s time to take a true look at what’s done–and make plan to move into the real world.

I stared at the almost packed boxes on my office floor today and almost dropped all the contents on the freebie table for others.  How much of this life will I need as I move on?

It’s an interesting collection of books and toys….as I look at the books I’ve chosen to keep however, almost none of them are technology based (unless you count the photoshop/photography books).

Here’s a sample of what I’m keeping:

• Cognitive Coaching
• Everything is Miscellaneous
• Tipping Point (but not Blink)
• Daniel Pink (but not The Earth is Flat)
• Making Meetings Matter (as if meetings ever matter–if they have more than 4 people in them)
• half a shelf of various graphic design manuals  (this is something I value tremendously–but struggle with in myself)
• Presentation Zen
• Nancy Duarte’s book
• Purple Cow  (just started reading this–as I need to market myself in the upcoming years)
• Several books on creating hand-bound books  (yes, a needle, thread, paper and glue are involved )

Is there a comment in my book selection?  I’m not really sure…what do you think?

That’s it–I know I’ll never live up to the idea that I can blog every day–even for a short period of time.  As of today I have 5 days left as a school system employee–and it’s been an amazing ride.  The ride is amazing because of the people; not the things, not the equipment, the people.  It is people that make anything rise from mediocrity to greatness and the people that I have been surrounded with are amazing.

In times of budget cuts it is so important the we remember that, if we let the people go, we are losing riches that will not easily return.  We should be looking at things that are replaceable, and looking at the changing world.

If we are out to save people then we must look at non-people expenditures.  In today’s world of open source, how do you justify millions for a word processor when I have a choice of 4 or 5 good ones that are absolutely free;  how do you explain buying electronic classroom shells when the “do it yourself” version would let you create something that’s primary friendly?  Where’s the person fighting the notion that just because something’s free it can’t possibly be as good?

The only thing that’s essential are the people who understand how to reach students; how to help them dig deep into questions and figure out how to figure things out.  To build on organized chaos’s idea; people who know how to help kids understand “we CAN do hard things”.  I just wish the school board and others up there realized we CAN do hard things–as long as we have the right people.

Today was a rough one.  The video created by my colleagues is wonderful.  It makes me laugh, it makes me laugh so hard I cry-and then it touches me and I cry more.  Such an amazing group of people.  So talented, so enthusiastic, so committed, so energetic.  They have made this amazing ride I’ve been on possible.

Today, however, they were informed of a possible contract cut–for some it may mean as much as a 15% salary reduction.  These people deserve better than this…..and, just as importantly, to be treated better than this.  To be told it might be coming is bad enough–but to be told that and not be able to get details about potential personal impact is inexcusable.

I feel as if I am abandoning them in their time of crisis.  I feel guilty because I will not experience what they are going through, and I am worried and concerned because they are my friends. The truly horrifying add-on is that it could get worse if the Board of Supervisors doesn’t fund the current request.

If you read this, point your energy to the Board of Supervisors….the $57,000,000 is bare bones—don’t accept that–we need more–and then turn your attention to the School Board to insist that they ask for more.

..has me thinking about the things that have truly changed my teaching–and I realize that they are few and far between.  In 27 years there have been so many trends and fads that have crept (or flown) through education. Thankfully most of them left as rapidly as they arrived.  Here are my “top 5″

1. Orff-Schulwerk:  this process approach to teaching music convinced me, almost immediately, that it was about MAKING music, not teaching music…and that shaped my music classroom permanently
2. Bloom’s taxonomy:  I’d learned about it in college (of course) but it was an inservice given by Shelly Pixton over 25 years ago that showed me how you actually use it to shape what you teach–and the power of it.  Until then it was just words on a page and not real
3. Cooperative Learning (Johnson & Jonhson)–changed the shape of my classroom for good—it added the focus on the essentially social nature of learning–and was really about what we are now calling 21st century skills.  I much prefer Johnson & Johnson to Kagan–Kagan is about learning the “tricks”  Johnson & Johnson was about understanding the concepts so you could flexible apply and manipulate them to meet the needs of your students.
4. Cognitive Coaching–at this point I’m out of the classroom–but I have learned that I cannot offer solutions–I can only help others think through their problems to come to their own solution (and what a lesson for the classroom)
5. Patterns of Thinking–this structure for helping students break down complex questions has become invaluable–and it’s frustrating that, because of poor collaborative planning share these techniques has come to a standstill.

So, where’s technology?    I guess #6 is technology–and as I think about how I use it–it has an organic structure to it.  The challenge remains–how do you help teachers understand the power when they don’t experience it? For me, 15 years ago, the idea that, when we were singing about “redwood forests” I could show the students 100 different images of those forests “on the fly” convinced me that this way going to change the way I teach and the way my students learn….so I continually wonder why the classroom hasn’t really changed that dramatically.  The most powerful technologies are what Peter Reynolds refers to as “blank slate” software….these are the applications that will turn the 21st century into a new renaissance of learning and creativity.

All of this came about as part of a quick discussion of interactive white boards today–what I see is a technology that highlights everything that can be negative;  a focus on direct, whole-group instruction using electronic versions of 50 year old worksheets and calling it “interactive” because one child gets to come up to the board and move a block to reveal an answer…at least when every child had a worksheet they were all interacting with the information.  Look around the room–after the first few weeks you will still have students “disengaging”  until it’s their turn.  So, in the end, IWBs are no where on my list of “top 5″  or even “top 100.”

…9 days to go, and never has the world been in sharper relief.  It is so hard to leave and yet I know it’s the right decision.  It’s time to let others take the reins and move in new directions–and my own sense of wanderlust has kicked in.  I need to explore the rest that the world has to offer in the time I have left;  to grow and change in ways that I don’t yet know.  I know that I will not leave education, or educational technology, behind.  It is too much a part of me.  The first step, however, will be to commit to posting here regularly….and certainly a lot  of postings in the upcoming days.

Wednesday morning, however, all that I am leaving hit very hard;  an amazing group of people who’s dedication and inventiveness, honesty and willingness to challenge the status quo will be much missed.    These are my friends who I care very deeply about.  I can only hope that they know how difficult a decision this was.  On some level I feel as if I am abandoning people I care very much about as they enter a challenging time;  an opposite view, however, is that, no longer tied to the strings of our OLSS, I will be free to provide them with a much broader range of support.

Over the years I have learned a lot about change processes…it’s still fascinating to reflect on those processes as you go through them yourself and to attempt to view them with almost a clinical eye (but it doesn’t make it easier).  I am so lucky, however, to be able to say that I am choosing my path and leaving while I LOVE my job.   I can put it no better than Robert Frost:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both…