Letter to My Colleagues: Invitation to Connected Educators Month

Open Letter to my Colleagues and Friends:

I just read a blog about upcoming Connected Educators Month. I am really torn by how to support, encourage, and challenge my friends and colleagues to embrace connected learning both as a professional development tool as well as an avenue for teaching and learning. 

I get the resistance; it’s all about time, and the balance between “tried and true” pedagogy and augmenting one’s repertoire with practices that support the modern learner.

I am not going to kid anyone. Time is an issue; a huge one. It does take time to learn, practice, engage in and maintain the habits that enable one to benefit from the connected learning that occurs within a professional learning network. The more you engage, the more you feel you need to learn more, and with the world at your finger tips, you must pick and choose the visits along your journey as a connected educator.

The essential activity of an active connected educator is sharing the sites and sounds that one encounters along the journey. For me, this sharing is multifaceted. I share within my PLN and beyond it. I share digitally in an open forum as well as within a closed network.  I share targeted material that support a program, may motivate a colleague, or simply may spark curiosity toward a new endeavor.  But in the end, my sole objective is to share, collaborate and learn.

Everyone I work with directly on a day-to-day basis has been blessed with an abundant amount of technological resources and human support. No one I know takes this for granted. We all use our resources and support uniquely and I am in awe on a daily basis of what I observe in the classroom. One colleague is exceptionally talented in turning her SMART board into a interactive, fun, engaging cultural journey; a 30 minute class can feel like a voyage to a Carnival in Brazil – with all the sites, sounds and fun a long the way. Other colleagues have helped publish their students’ iBooks in iTunes; others ensure that their students collaborate and blog throughout the week; and some have a tact for editing the perfect iMovie to add to their pedagogical resources.  In sum, everyone is doing an amazing job.  The most powerful faculty meeting I have ever attended was one where colleagues AND students shared their success in integrating technology into their learning and practice.

I bring this all up because I truly do think we all want to learn from one another. At times I hear from colleagues that they feel pressured to use twitter, blog, Skype or visit the many sites that folks share from week to week. I could be wrong, but I think my colleagues know me well enough to realize that my sole intention is simply to share. Not only do I like sharing, but I consider it a personal and professional responsibility. If I have encountered a process that helps me grow professionally and through that process I run into resources that will support the growth of our learners, both as students and as teachers, I do feel the responsibility to share the wealth.

As Connected Educators Month begins on October 1, I offer my support to anyone who wants to extend his or her path as a connected educator. I also take this opportunity to thank each of my colleagues for all that you teach me on a daily basis as I visit your morning meetings, listen to your students share their written story or practice their reading, or simply allow me the opportunity to engage in the “messiness” of an active community of learners.

Sincerely,

Margo

A couple of resources for Connected Educators Month, October 2013.

http://plpnetwork.com/2013/09/25/connected-educator-month-kickoff-events/

http://connectededucators.org/events/

Post 1: Planning My Journey Toward “Authentic Learning”

This term has been floating around my head, bouncing around the twitter and blogosphere, and plopping itself into scholarly articles and educational conversations of various types. It’s high time I “catch it,” think about it, reflect on it; let it “flutter” a bit more, respond to it, incorporate it into my practice, share about it, and ultimately collaborate with others who consider “it” an essential component of education. So what is “it” and why should we care?

I do not have the answers, but I do hope that through a series of blog posts throughout the year I will understand, embrace, and incorporate “authentic learning,” into my professional practice as a teacher and administrator.  Collaborating and learning from my PLN most certainly will guide me along this journey.

I always battle between how simple and complex we make things. It’s not rocket science right? Authentic learning is ensuring that the learning experience is relevant for students. OK, lets just move on and do it, right? That’s just not good enough. How do I know what is relevant for the students or teachers under my care? When planning lessons and faculty meetings – what do I or should I do to ensure relevancy. Does relevancy come down to not wasting time? Hmmm, more questions than answers. Sounds like an interesting journey.

So I threw the question out on twitter a week ago. I received one answer. 

But then yesterday in #sunchat the topic was: What is authentic learning? Here are some of the ideas that continue to surface and certainly fluttered throughout #sunchat.

Authentic learning is:

• Learning how to learn.
• Understanding why we learn what we learn.
• Digging deeper into a topic.
• Acknowledging the way students learn best and meeting their needs.
• Problem posing.
• Problem finding.
• Being able to take it outside the classroom and use it.
• Learning for a lifetime.
• Creation of questions.

Clearly, authentic learning incorporates a flowing river of more and more questions!

What are your thoughts on authentic learning, and where will you begin on this journey?