professional learning

This Is The Time

Posted by Dean Shareski on in facebook, onlinelearning, professional learning 3 Comments

The spread of the Coronavirus is one of the most challenging things to happen to us as a society in a few generations, but it very well could turn out to be the best thing to happen to education in 100 years. While that’s a very difficult idea to process at the moment, looking ahead this could be a true turning point in education.

If you look back at education over the past 20, 30 or even 50 years there doesn’t seem to be any substantive shifts in the overall structures of learning, however, significant pressures on the system have become apparent: the pressures and ineffectiveness of standardized testing, the lack of relevance and boredom of students, the constraints of time, systemic inequities that negatively impact marginalized populations.  All of these things are being exposed today and recognized as major problems with our system. We’re constantly looking for examples that buck these trends and trying desperately in many cases to change education en mass. While to the greater public this is a relatively new discussion, I’ve been on this journey my whole life.

My life in education has been built around two main ideas: Technology and Joy. These two themes have been tied together in my mind for the past 30 years and during the current crisis, as we consider the role of learning in our lives, I would argue that these concepts are more important than ever.

This is the time to explore the advantages and disadvantages of learning online. As schools scramble to shift to online learning, what I’m seeing is a shift to a focus on online teaching. School systems are looking for ways to replicate the simplest and most basic level of education that is centred around sheer content delivery. I don’t intend to chastise anyone for this approach, but it reflects a rather a limited view of both technology and education; it’s a futile attempt to uphold pre-existing structures of teaching and learning. Online learning, while in existence for decades, is a brand new practice for the majority of classroom teachers. I would venture to guess that far fewer than half of all teachers have dabbled in creating any kind of online or even blended learning environment. There are many unique affordances with learning online but indeed we will recognize the downsides.

When I first began teaching online over 13 years ago, I remember someone using the apt analogy of playing a game of polo to describe the difference between teaching in a classroom and teaching online. As the metaphor goes, it would be like telling an expert polo player the game is the same, but instead of playing on a horse, they’ll be playing water polo. No big deal right? Obviously you can see that while the rules are similar, a completely different set of skills is required.

I think it’s important to also be very clear about the language we use to describe what’s happening now. This article clearly shows the difference between online learning and what we are currently doing now which is Emergency Remote Teaching. To that end, it’s important not to be tempted to evaluate and compare what will happen over the next few weeks and months to what’s been happening for years in higher education and K-12 with regard to courses and other blended experiences. It is not the same.

This is the time to understand the power of technology. When I think back to where technology stood 20 years ago, there was the prevailing attitude that it was a “nice but not necessary” thing for most schools. However, I was immersed in seeing its possibilities and the new potential to think about learning differently, always led by the question, “What is it that we can do with technology now, that we couldn’t otherwise accomplish before?” For me, it was never about the cool gadget or innovation for innovation’s sake. I truly wanted to see technology used to make us more human, not less. While most people don’t need convincing that technology has indeed potential, I’m not sure it’s fully accepted as the powerful tool it can be. Many districts still don’t provide educators with laptops and many also have been slow to define and support blended online learning. Today they are recognizing the gaps in their teachers around the comforts of learning and teaching online.

This is the time to foster community. When I was first asked to teach an online course, I remember being asked by a student two months before the start of class, “Can you send me all the assignments ahead of time?”. They believed online courses should be more or less like the old correspondence courses, where the work was totally independent of others and you could complete all the work the minute the course officially opened. Even at the time, I knew I didn’t want that to be my experience with my students. I wanted the idea of community and human connection to be fostered and seen as essential to the learning.

This is the time to explore joyful learning. The concept of joy remains central to the human experience and indeed is at the heart of the learning experience. Right now, more than ever, our children need to be calmed, reassured and encouraged to pursue learning as a joyful act. Teachers now need to play an integral role in this, more than ever before. While joy seems like a big ask in the current world, teachers are going to play a huge role in the social and emotional learning of children. I’m not talking about severe mental health or other diagnosed issues, but simply the well-being of their kids. Learning might be a distraction, as blasphemous as that sounds. Finding delight together will be an important way we can give each other hope and maintain the meaningful human connection that we had prior to this or perhaps a connection we’ll develop now.

This is the time to begin to address issues of equity. As our schools, states, provinces piece together some semblance of a plan to continue education, there is a great opportunity to do things differently. First and foremost we have to acknowledge the vast differences and inequities that exist. While equity has been a hot topic in recent times, we will see it at an even greater degree now. Obviously, access is an issue but even when it comes to families that have access, the one or two laptops at home are being used by Mom and Dad. Moreso than access is understanding the myriad of home environments and other needs that are out of our control. Experts fear child abuse may increase at this time. That’s scary stuff but we need to be aware this may be something we face. For all the negatives about compliance and uniformity, schools at least in part attempted to be an equalizer. No matter your status or background the premise was that all students were equal. I won’t argue this was flawed in many ways but today trying to teach students from there homes exposes the vast differences and equities that exist more than ever. There is no perfect solution here. But at the very least making meaningful connections with children and parents. is the most equitable thing we can do. We’re also seeing the myriad of responses of parents around what schools should be doing. Everything from “get started now” to “back off and give us space”. Pleasing everyone will be impossible and tensions are higher now than ever. Districts are treading carefully to address the range of wants and needs along with their own capacity to support this. Leaders have a very difficult job here. They need our support and so do teachers and parents and kids. We’re in this together and this is the one thing we all have in common. We won’t solve all the equity issues but getting more time to reflect will help us come face to face with the realities many of our students face every day. It’s a great time to see how much we’re alike as well as how much we’re different.

This is the time to give up control and embrace personal learning. Teachers have control of their students as they did while having 30 children in the same room. The range of support and access alone is complicated and overwhelming, let alone addressing the differences in students’ abilities and readiness to learn. So now, more than ever is the time to double down on individual and personal learning and toss the curriculum out the window. That’s not to suggest curriculum is the enemy or necessarily a problem but it does tend to rely on resources and also constraints and affordances of a classroom setting. Teachers have a hard enough time doing their current job without adequate resources and asking them to pivot to online spaces while delivering a curriculum modelled in a completely different learning environment is both nearly criminal and missing the opportunity at this moment to do something great. I love asking teachers this question, “If you were told that you didn’t have a curriculum, what would you teach?” Today this is not a hypothetical question, but rather, their new reality.

However, before we venture to restructure the learning process, we need to consider our relationships with students. If you are missing your students, it’s likely you have great relationships with them. They miss you too. At a minimum, finding ways to reach out – call, text, facetime – just to make sure they’re okay is job 1. If you don’t feel like you developed that kind of relationship with your students, now is the time to start building one – there has never been a better time! At this point, you should follow this idea:

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Let your students lead. When they are ready, this is the perfect time to let them follow their passions and interests. As the learning expert, you can be there to guide, support, encourage and question. I’ve long practiced self-assessment in my courses and there is no better time than to use this strategy. Whether you want to dive deeper into portfolios or even the idea of going gradeless, you may never have a better time to do so.

This is the time to rethink assessment. As mentioned, I’ve built my career in education around 2 themes and now is the time to understand and explore the intersection of technology and joy; to allow students to see more clearly than ever that learning is a human disposition, one that should not be directed by duty but rather by joy. As an educator, you have the gift of being able to watch your students pursue ideas and skills that interest them with no pressure to grade it. If it fails, it fails. You don’t have to know anything about project-based, or problem-based learning, you just have to be a caring adult who wants the best for children. I also recognize that some jurisdictions may still require traditional grading practices but at the same time, many are backing off on expectations. In either case, we can certainly add more reflective and self-assessment to our practice. I’ve had push back in the past saying reflection is time-consuming but that’s no longer an excuse. Helping our students and ourselves think deeply about their learning might never be easier than now.

This is the time to extend grace. This is virgin territory for everyone. Students, parents, teachers and leaders are all at zero when it comes to figuring this out. Mistakes will be made by everyone. Give people grace. Give students grace when they don’t know how or just don’t want to learn. Give parents grace when they can’t figure out how to support their kids or get frustrated. Give teachers grace as they try and navigate what an online classroom is supposed to be. Give leaders grace as they try and make the right decisions.

This is the time to prioritize well-being over all else. Perhaps this goes without saying and again I believe this is something that should be the case with or without a crisis but our message has to be loud and clear and ongoing: we care about you as a human first, learner second. As mentioned in the conversation about equity, we will have many students and families who need to know they are loved and cared for. You cannot ever say this too much. That said, well-being may include those opportunities to learn and perhaps be distracted from the day to day challenge of survival. It will be tempting for some and challenging to bypass this messaging or soften it because of your prior commitments to academic success. If that’s your culture, it needs to be tempered or modified at the very least.

I believe so strongly in this moment as an opportunity to change how we do school, that I believe it’s my duty to offer support to any schools and districts looking to seriously consider this as a great opportunity to reform practice. Having taught and developed online learning for that past 13 years, building community with thousands of educators, I know I can help you as an educator, school or district work through this transition. Specifically, I would love to support your teachers in:

  • Using simple tools to connect. (you don’t need a fully online classroom management system to teach and learn online)
  • Meeting students where they are. Essentially create IEPs.
  • Designing and co-creating learning experiences
  • Building community with your classrooms
  • Using self-assessment and gradeless approaches

If you’re interested or know someone who is, please send me a message and I’d love to continue this conversation: dean@shareski.ca If you’re a district or school leader, I’m happy to create a specific proposal for you.

Above all, be safe my friends and colleagues, do what you can, and most of all take care of the human side of your children and students by bringing even just a modicum of joy into their lives – it’s needed now more than ever.

I Don’t Read Educational Books

Posted by Dean Shareski on in Blogs, facebook, professional learning 3 Comments

My good friend George Couros gives me a hard time about this. He gives me a hard time about a lot of things. I like that. The truth is, it’s been a long time since I’ve read an educational book and in particular an educational book written in the last 5 years.

I’ve thought about this quite a bit and yet I hadn’t been able to fully articulate my own thinking on this until a recent conversation with Kristina Ishmael. (Disclaimer: We didn’t actually jump after we talked but we should have)

It’s not likely that it is because of a single reason so I’ll list a few. I’m not writing this to convince anyone of anything but perhaps this might alleviate some guilt folks about who for their own reasons, don’t find educational books particularly compelling. Keep in mind, I wrote a book and am grateful for those that have read it.

  1. I’m immersed in this work. Particularly in the last 10-15 years I’ve spent my work life not just as an educator, which I had for the previous 15 years, but immersed in conversation and thought around the topic. Unlike a classroom teacher, I’ve had the luxury of exploring lots of ideas and issues that most teachers can only do outside the regular day.
  2. Blogging. Creating a blog and writing opened up a brand new world for me. For me, connecting directly with others in the field offered a very personal, intimate, conversational way to learn. Books were limited and fixed ideas. Having direct access to authors spoiled me. Another aspect of blogging I value is that it’s highly personal. I like blogs that are specific and don’t try to make their learning universal. I like the unpolished, raw nature of blogging. Many times, when bloggers, including myself, write a book, the tendency is to make it less conversational and more prescriptive. Certainly, you can argue this isn’t always the case but too often people take their own learning and want so badly to make it accessible for others they resort to things like cute acronyms and frameworks that magically align to their learning. Again, I know they are just trying to be helpful and they certainly are helpful for many. I’m just voicing my own reality. I prefer folks sharing their learning in a less packaged way.
  3. I need another perspective. When your world revolves around education you can get pretty insular with the way you see the world. I take great pleasure in taking ideas that live outside of traditional education and seeing how they might be beneficial for classrooms and schools. I want to read someone who has had vastly different experiences than I’ve had.

Again, this is in no way a knock against all the great people who are writing and telling their stories through books. As someone who thinks of himself as a learner it would seem natural to be reading these books. So when I find myself disinterested, I need to ask why that is.

As a follow up to this post, I’ll share what it is I am reading .

Bad PD is Sometimes Your Own Fault

Posted by Dean Shareski on in professional learning 2 Comments

Pro tip: If you want to make a group of teachers laugh, show them this image:

You can even change “staff meeting” to “PD session” and get the same results. Professional Development/Learning is to teachers what school is for many students. Ask a random group of students what they think of school and you’re sure to get answers related to boring or worse. it’s almost cliche. It’s also kinda cool to say school sucks.

While it may be cool to suggest that PD sucks and yes, it sometimes does, I think the difference between how students experience school and how teachers experience PD is different at least in 2 ways. First, as teachers, we chose our profession. Secondly, it is our job to model and be good learners.

Maryellen Weimer offers 7 characteristics of what makes someone a good learner. Along with being curious, and open-minded, I’d add they are willing to embrace some dissonance. The best learners can learn something from almost any experience. That’s partly what makes them a good learner.

There has certainly been an awakening in teaching that suggests teachers ought to be master learners, learners first and other statements which shifts education from being focused on teaching to focusing on learning and what it means to learn.

Along with this shift, student agency has become a recent pursuit: getting students to own their learning. This is a challenge given that school is still very much prescribed. The reality is adults still have most of the controls and variables around learning. While this might be concerning, it’s also a response to the nature of childhood. Younger students require more guidance and direction and in theory, a gradual release of responsibility and ownership should occur as students move towards adulthood.

We presume adults should be able to manage and control their own learning. Yet of course, in education, theory and practice don’t always match. I’ve been speaking and writing about autonomy and trust for a while. When it comes to Professional Development/Professional Learning we still have a ways to go.

And yet.

I try my best to avoid absolutes in statements, thus the word “sometimes” is intentionally used in the title of this post. It’s obvious that some PD experiences and events are better than others. Katie Martin suggests it’s also important to re-define PD. People complain about boring speakers, lack of engagement and irrelevance as primary factors that make PD bad. These certainly exist but I also think that speakers, presenters or experiences need not always take the blame. Sometimes our expectations are misplaced. Here are some factors that often contribute to poor experiences:

Time: I often struggle when I’m asked to do an hour presentation. The reality is, an hour isn’t usually going to be life-changing and I fear that both presenters and sometimes participants expect that it might. Conferences and PD events typically use these small chunks of time and meaningful learning is really difficult.  I’ve been guilty of complaining about the lack of depth by some presenters. I need to be more gracious in understanding their limits and the limits of time.

Community: A very common complaint of PD sessions is that they are “sit and git” and do not reflect what good teaching ought to look like. Valid point. However including “hands-on” activities should at least consider who the learners are. A good teacher designs learning to meet her students’ needs. When you’re presenting at a conference or even in a district, many times you have no idea who the people in the room are. In addition, your lack of relationship means you can’t dive into many things that typically require building relationships and trust. Yes, there are some things you can do but you also have a lot of limitations. Participants need to understand this.

Context:  Related to community, it’s difficult to know the context of your audience. People sharing their experience in a rural, elementary context might not seem relevant to a high school teaching in an urban setting. Often when these differences are revealed, participants tend to shut down and begin to dismiss ideas. Presenters also have a difficult time making their ideas broad and relevant to every person.

I suppose the one big idea I’m nattering on about here is that each of us needs to take some responsibility for our learning. It’s easy to blame others but good learners can find truths, ideas and wisdom in almost any circumstance.  That’s why we read books about business, go to movies, have conversations with people who aren’t in education and take those ideas and learn to apply them to our situations.  The best learners can find truths and ideas in all situations.

What examples do you have of being able to turn a bad or perhaps seemingly irrelevant PD session and finding value for yourself? Conversely, if you offer PD, how do you tackle some of the issues I’ve shared?

Lessons From 70+ Ignites

Posted by Dean Shareski on in Discovery, professional learning 2 Comments

Over the past 18 months, I’ve hosted 8 Ignite Events as part of my role as Community Manager for Discovery Education. If you’re not familiar with these events, here’s a brief invitation I created for our upcoming event in Vancouver.

I’ve heard superintendents, principals, teachers, community members and students share over 70 of these talks. Mostly hosted in pubs or restaurants, there are several factors that make this one of the best networking/learning events I’ve been a part of.

  • Location: The fact we hold them in a pub is important. It’s purposely not in a school and not just because people can drink, although that can helpful. 😉 An offsite location immediately relaxes people, let’s them know this isn’t necessarily work related as well it represents a neutral meeting space. In addition, the less fancy, the better. Each location has had its challenges in terms of viewing screens and hearing speakers but those constraints actually make people work harder to support one another.
  • Social first, learning second: The order is important. In most professional learning environments, social is at best acknowledged, at worst ignored. Our focus is on the networking. We create time and space to have conversations. For many participants, it’s the awakening to the idea that learning can be social and professional. Many say they’ve never experienced an event like it before.
  • Stories, not performances. I gave an Ignite talk at ISTE a few years back. That was a performance. People didn’t want me to mess up. I didn’t want to mess up. I rehearsed every word. I practiced my timing and cadence. At my events, we want the focus to be on the story and community. We expect people to mess up. We laugh with them, we cheer them on, we applaud, we talk about them later.
  • Diversity rules. I work hard each event to have as many educational perspectives represented. I’ve had 9-year-olds follow Superintendents. All voices are considered equal. Even the topics are diverse. Some folks talk about their classrooms and schools, others talk about their personal lives. The binding them is discovery and curiousity.

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My goal with each event is to grow community. The wonderful role I have with Discovery Education is to continue the mission we have to connect educators with their most valuable resource: each other. This is one way we do that. Watch for an Ignite event heading your way.

Professional Learning is Messy

Posted by Dean Shareski on in Conferences, professional learning 4 Comments

Many people say learning is messy. But is professional learning messy?

There seems to be an ongoing search by districts and teachers for the best kind of professional learning. That’s a bit like searching for the best kind of food. I appreciate the need to provide better learning opportunities but like food, there is a wide range of learning that is essential or preferred depending on the learning and the learner.

When it comes to student learning, we often hear, “hands-on” or active learning is the best. If we’re talking about professional learning, it’s similar but now we might hear about job-embedded learning as being a preferred or optimal type. Job-embedded learning is associated with results. Results are important but they aren’t the only outcomes we should be seeking in our learning. Or at least, we shouldn’t ignore that many kinds of learning occurs before results might ever be considered.

This recent  quote from Will Richardson about learning makes me think:

if learning is measured by a desire to learn more, to continue learning, then the focus is on creating the conditions for that to happen

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Those conditions are created in a variety of ways and indeed the new role of the educator is to design these environments. For our teachers, that desire usually doesn’t begin with a job embedded experience. Job-embedded learning is about implementing specific strategies or pedagogies. Often the job embedded approach is often a top down mandate and even when it’s not, without the desire for the teacher to learn more, the learning is in question. When I think about my own learning, I’ve experienced a plethora of events, moments and conditions that have fueled my desire to learn more. Most of my significant learning has been as a result of connecting with smart people and their passion and expertise, It’s made me want to learn more. Books, articles, conversations and lectures have all been means by which I’ve been influenced and challenged. Often times afterward, I reflect, practice and act on the ideas of these smart people. When it comes to events it’s often lectures at conferences when I get a chance to spend time just listening. The act of listening remains one of the best ways we learn, particularly when dealing with complex, engaging ideas. If I’m lucky, I’ll get a chance to talk with them, ask questions. But more than likely, if the ideas are provocative enough, I’ll need time to reflect and revisit the ideas and then begin to implement them. The idea of job embedded is likely not the first thing to consider and yet, I don’t think there’s a recipe or order that must be followed. With all the emphasis lately on creation over consumption, I worry that we’ve forgetton how important and necessary it is just to listen to others.

Obviously as someone who frequently speaks to audiences, I would hope that what I do helps to create conditions for people to want to take action and learn more. But the truth is, I’m doing the least amount of learning. This seems to go against some folks who suggest that the person doing the talking is doing the learning. I am doing some learning, but the bulk of my learning was done before I stood up in front of an audience. That’s why I love listening to smart people. They’ve done the work, they’ve done the learning and now they’re sharing it with me.

The reality is learning is messy. Professional learning is messy too. It’s not a sequential journey. It’s a hodge podge of ideas, conversations, time to work alone, time to work together, insights from colleagues and outside voices with perspectives we’ve never before considered. Most learning is like that. Many districts and teachers hate that notion. As districts and teachers consider professional learning, I hope they get more comfortable with this messiness. I hope they’ll search out smart people to learn from and with and I hope they’ll find opportunties to embed practices and then keep going back for more ideas not because they have to but because they have a desire to grow and learn more.

This shouldn’t be seen as a lesser form of learning. And yet it seems that we’ve devalued this form but using disdain when referencing it. “Sit and git” or lecture-based learning is generally seen as the lowest form of learning. While this can’t be the only kind of learning, it remains essential for growth. Listening need not be passive. It’s only passive if the content or the delivery is boring. But good listeners can overcome some of that to glean ideas and concepts that challenge and inspire.

We need all kind of opportunities. All learning is messy. We need to recognize and create times to be quiet and times to speak, times to act and times to sit still. What smart people do you listen to, to increase your desire to learn more? How do you and your leadership create conditions and opportunities for you to listen?

Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk via Compfight cc