Topic: What should a good Administrator look like & how can we get there from here?

Great discussion this week. I could barely keep up with all the comments that were flying around, and I did my absolute best to collect my favorite tweets. Still, I know that I missed some good ones while I was responding to @mentions or copying a particular gem over to MS Word. So be sure to check the archive when it’s up!

I don’t have many of my own thoughts to add to this one (again: I’m not a teacher), so I’ll keep the introduction very brief and instead dive right into the main themes, of which there are many  this week. Enjoy!

Main themes from the discussion:

• This is subjective. In any discussion of “the good,” we need to keep in mind that it is a very subjective concept. It will be differently defined by different people at different times. Still, there are some general qualities that “good” administrators should have, and this week’s discussion talked about most of them.
• Administrators are torn between two worlds. To be an administrator sort of means to serve two masters (at least!). They must feel a responsibility to the teachers, hopefully because they rose from their ranks. But at the same time they are now answering to school boards and politics. This often entails knowledge that is not available to all teachers, and will at times necessitate some difficult, non-optimal decisions. Teachers need to keep this in mind before criticizing administrators.
• We place a lot of demands on administrators. One thing that was very obvious this week was that we ask a lot of our administrators. We want them to be many things, often at the same time. But we also want them to be able to change gears seamlessly and intuitively. This is no easy feat. We need to keep that in mind during any discussion of what would make a “good” administrator.
• Good administrators were once (and possibly still are) teachers. This is a big one. Not only should administrators come from the ranks of teachers (that experience is essential), but there was some talk about how principals should still teach. A few people mentioned working with teacher-principals, and the experience seemed to be positive. It is a common complaint among employees that their boss doesn’t remember what it was like to do their job. I can see how that would get more frustrating (and more important) in the education world. The question is: do principals have the time? And, if not, how can we make room for it?
• Good administrators are leaders, which means they need autonomy. Teachers want their administrators to be leaders, not just paper-pushers and middle-managers. They want them to have a real vision for improving the school and helping students learn. And, of course, they want them to act on it. This means that we need to entrust our administrators with at least some amount of autonomy and security. Just like how teachers need to be trusted to “think outside the box” from time to time, we need to let our administrators take risks.
• Conflict mediation and communication are key. One of the main jobs of an administrator is to bridge the gaps between all the various interested parties in a school. That entails a lot of communication and some good mediator skills. It also means that logistics and other qualifications can sometimes come second in importance. We can’t ignore the “human” side of school administration – just like you wouldn’t want a teacher that ignored the unique personalities of their students.
• It is important to keep your focus; your priorities. Bottom line: the number one job of an administrator is to help improve the school so that students learn better (and want to learn more). This particular job is quite broad and quite difficult. But that’s the most important bit of an administrator’s job. And it’s important they never lose sight of it, despite all the distractions that assail them each day.

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

mbfxc Personally, I’ve always wanted my administrators to be the lead teachers in the school!

jrichardson30 Administrators should have one day where they don’t set foot in their office and put up a sign that says, “Out and about learning with my colleagues.”

davidwees I’ve noticed that the good administrators I have known focused on relationships first and the logistics second.

MsRossEnglish So frustrating! I have seen my admin maybe three times in my class this year. Busy dealing with “other” things.

PrincipalPC Great administrators lead with kids first and their job security second.

edunators Good administrators have to have conflict mediation skills for settling parent, student, and teacher conflicts.

davidwees One of the reasons we don’t have enough excellent administrators is that many excellent candidates want to remain teachers.

drdouggreen Good administrators encourage risks and always keep a slush fund to support good ideas when they show up.

mrsjjee I think it’s also easy to get swept up in an “we all need iPads” mentality. Administrators need to have the school’s immediate concerns first.

vpigreenie I have worked in 2 districts where administrators were required to teach one class per semester. Worked well. Kept them present.

RobertBorgersen Good administrators will do PD just like we do, not because they have to, but because they want to.

jricharson30 We must remember that it isn’t about test scores or “our school compared to theirs.” It’s about kids loving to learn.

betavt Looks like administrators, from all the tweets, need to be just about everything to everyone. Is that a realistic expectation?

cybraryman1 The key role of an administrator should be to ensure the best facilitation of learning for their students.

MertonTech My idea of a good administrator: Someone I can take a problem to and get it fixed.

JohnTSpencer Too often leaders are beaten into compliance in the name of liability management. They lose the fire and end up managing instead.

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To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.  They’re usually posted up by the end of the week.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.

Topic: What are the possibilities that open to us if we change the observation model for teachers to a coaching model?

Wow. This week’s conversation was a doozy. Great topic, fast and frantic discussion, and plenty to learn. It’s weeks like this one that make me remember what drew me into #edchat so quickly. Truly, this is an amazing community.

As tends to happen when topics focus specifically on teacher-related issues (as opposed to education or edtech issues), I started off at a bit of a loss. Remember: I am not a teacher, so I don’t know what it’s like to have an administrator come in and observe me for twenty minutes and then hand me a sheet of paper with a bunch of comments on it.

But I can imagine that it doesn’t feel good. I don’t even like having one person look at what I’m typing when I’m on the computer at home. I just feel “judged.” And even if the onlooker has something useful to say (like: “You spelled your name wrong.”) I have a very hard time receiving it.

What’s interesting about this is that I actually have no problem taking constructive criticism. I took a couple writing classes in school, and a big part of any writing classes is peer review. For those unfamiliar with the process, it basically means you sit in a circle and a bunch of people tear your work apart. Some teachers allow you to defend yourself, but most don’t. It’s a hard few minutes, but most of us accept it as a necessary step towards getting better at something that we care deeply about.

Clearly, then, it is possible for someone who hates being observed to want to receive outside help on something as important and personal and teaching. The question is: what is the best way to do it? Does it depend on the situation? Or is coaching a step up from observation no matter how you slice it?

The consensus this week seemed to be that yes, indeed coaching is a step up. But, we will need to make a very concerted effort to actually separate coaching from the old observation process. It can’t just be a new buzzword attached to an old and ineffective practice. There needs to be a real shift from observation and criticism to collaboration and coaching.

Main themes from the discussion:

• Coaching is a conversation. Observation is merely critical. What most teachers disliked about the observation model (besides the fact that, most times, they were only observed for 20 minutes at a time), is that it’s not a conversation. It’s a one-way street. Administration rolls in, takes a few notes, and then tells you how to do your job. It’s way too hierarchical, way too judgmental, and not conducive to making change because teachers put their guard up almost immediately. Coaching, on the other hand, can be a conversation. Teachers can tell their coach what they think they need to focus on. They can initiate the process, and in doing so they will drop their guard. Then change becomes a possibility.
• Everybody can (and should) be coached, although not everyone will want to. One important thing, when making the switch from observation to coaching, is to stress the fact that everyone could use a coach (at least from time to time). Coaching does not imply deficiency. Rather, it simply signals that one is trying to improve. A good way to encourage this idea to take root is to stress that administrators are going to work with coaches as well. And if teachers are still hesitant to work with a coach? Allow them to talk with the coach beforehand about why they are hesitant. Remind them that they have some choice about the focus of the coaching – and that its purpose is not just to tell them how to do their job. It’s about helping them figure out how they can do their job even better.
• The goal should be more cooperation, collaboration, and continued improvement (lifelong learners). A very important aspect of the coaching model is the lifelong learner mindset. Teachers need to know that continuous improvement is something to strive for. They need to see that being modeled for them by those around them, and they need to see it being rewarded by administration. Many teachers might rail against being “coached” (at least, at first), but very few (if any) would say that they already know everything about teaching. The coaching process can be used to help cultivate and maintain the lifelong learner mindset among teachers – and to get them working together towards their goals.
• We should have multiple “specialty” coaches. We can sources these from the existing pool of experts at each school. Why spend the money shipping in “experts” with no first-hand knowledge of the school when there are experts in almost every conceivable subject and teaching style at almost every school? Sourcing a school’s coaches from the teacher/administration/staff population has two advantages: it’s cheap, and it promotes more camaraderie and collaboration. Of course, these teacher coaches may need some extra training and practice coaching other teachers. But everyone can learn together. The coaching model represents a shift from the judgmental observation model. It’s supposed to help teachers feel more connected with the people around them. What better way to start that feeling rolling than by working with teachers to develop the program?

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

tomwhitby The idea of coaching makes the observation more collegial and not as adversarial. That is good!

AHSTechTeacher Coaching is a nice word, but what good is it if people are not trained on how to effectively coach? Will it be different?

BarbLarochelle To me, the whole thought that I’m being ‘coached’ implies that I’m doing something wrong that needs to be fixed.

bjnichols Administration needs the same type of assistance. Coaching administrators is a big part of what I do. Can make a major impact.

Berryed1 When I coached, the objective was clearly to “beat” somebody at something and was very clearly measureable. Not for teaching.

johntspencer I like the blended approach: model lesson, observe lessons, co-observe another teacher, conference with reflective questions.

ShellTerrell In a learner model, teachers feel encouraged & supported not fear to experiment, make mistakes, etc.

KleinErin Coaching isn’t for those who ‘need’ it but rather for everyone. Once mindset is changed, the model will be more accepted.

jleous Coaching is the right term. As a HS hockey coach, I deal with players much better than I. I can still point out areas for growth.

Resources shared during the discussion:

cybraryman1 There is an outstanding #educoach chat Wednesdays at 10 pm EST http://t.co/tRLNU5tk

cybraryman1 I have seen more instructional coaches in school. My Instructional Coaching page: http://t.co/M1sJTNVd

davidwees Here’s something that I think would improve teaching: The apprenticeship model http://t.co/how4kz8U

jleous The Board just approved an “Instructional Coach” job description last night. The duties are well done. http://t.co/tbwKKqjl

###

To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.  They’re usually posted up by the end of the week.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.

Topic: As an educator, what are the best Twitter strategies you have discovered that help you use Twitter as a professional tool?

This week’s conversation sort of boiled down to a love-fest for Twitter, but perhaps it’s good to pay homage to that which makes it all possible once in a while. It’s not like educators wouldn’t have other options if Twitter didn’t exist, but since it does, and since it’s such a good sharing mechanism, why not sing its praises once in a while?

I was slightly disappointed that this didn’t turn into a discussion of how teachers are using Twitter in their classroom with some examples from hands-on experience. But perhaps that’s because not many teachers are actually using it with their students during class time. I did see some folks discussing how to properly use hashtags to allow for discussion on classroom topics after the fact. That’s interesting to me, because it encourages kids to think when they’re not seated in front of someone telling them to do so. And I think that’s something we need to encourage.

Another big topic for today was how we need to get more educators using Twitter and participating in chats like #edchat (or the specific discussion for their discipline). That’s definitely something that has come up more than once in #edchat. Remember that these educators are the 1%. They’re the connected ones; the self-motivated ones. And they need to stop being such a rarity.

Well, if you want to volunteer to be a Twitter missionary to the other educators at your school, I think a good place to start would be the archive of this discussion. I’ve never seen so many excited comments singing the praises of Twitter for education as I did this week. Hopefully that’ll win you some converts.

Main themes from the discussion:

• Professional development is number one. Of course, the number one thing that everyone said in praise of Twitter was its incredible potential for professional development. That boils down to two elements…
  • Motivation. A good Twitter discussion with another committed educator (possibly from the other side of the planet) is a wonderful motivator. Teaching is a tough and sometimes thankless career, and getting a weekly or daily dose of motivation is very important.
  • Inspiration. If you aren’t getting out to conferences or keeping up with all the latest developments in education and edtech, it can be easy to keep doing things the same way you’ve always been doing them. Twitter is a fast (and sometimes frantic) way of learning about all of them right away. And knowing is half the battle!
• Most important element is engagement (not just broadcasting). A lot of folks dislike Twitter because they see it as merely a broadcast medium that limits you to 140 characters. It certainly can be. And perhaps most of the time it is. But to really unlock the potential of Twitter, you need to make good use of its engagement potential. You need to participate in chats, use @mentions and #hashtags, and encourage your students to do the same. It’s possible (and remarkably easy) to make some very valuable connections on Twitter. All you have to do is reach out.
• Following/participating in chats can point you towards great resources. This is something that I have experienced firsthand. I can’t tell you how much my Twitter experience changed (for the better!) once I took the plunge and got involved in #edchat. I’ve met some amazing educators, found some awesome resources, and gotten involved in a cause that I find absolutely fascinating. And it’s not like #edchat is the only chat out there. Find one that fits your niche and throw yourself into it! It can only lead to good things.

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

jlubinsky It goes without saying, but Twitter chats have been an invaluable resource for professional growth.

vpigreenie As professional tool, I find the links alone give me insights, resources and information on education.

RobertBorgersen I have used twitter to get ideas to ENGAGE my students. Engagement is probably the top thing I have learned.

mcfaddenkk Following great educators, trying new things that others share, and participating in twitter chats has changed everything I do in the class.

mattbergholt I have found that Twitter allows me to set up interactions between classrooms and enhance virtual collaboration.

MsDittmar Go to a conference and use Twitter. Admin was amazed at how I was able to gain so much from sessions I wasn’t in!

tomwhitby #Edchat, or any of the chat discussions are great places to discover thoughtful educators to follow on Twitter. Build from there.

DrThomasHo Biggest problem with those who don’t use social media for PD or learning is folks “don’t know what they don’t know.”

CTuckerEnglish Plus- if I’m on twitter & SM then I can teach my students how to get connected to cont. their learning.

Resources shared during the discussion:

daveandcori A-Z Dictionary of Educational Twitter hashtags http://t.co/ohwtPrY0

drdouggreen Check the Social Media in Education archives at http://t.co/DMYqOAZP for ideas on parent workshop.

davidwees Before we can teach teachers to use Twitter, we need to ensure that its purpose is clear. http://t.co/yeOU9tMP

cybraryman1 My teaching with Twitter links: http://t.co/LXq2A1mZ

cybraryman1 My PLN Stars page: http://t.co/uFhdpsfU

###

To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.  They’re usually posted up by the end of the week.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.

guest written by PJ Caposey

Effective educational leaders focus their energy on promoting two things: maximizing capacity for all members of their faculty and staff and aligning the goals of individuals within the organization with that of the school or district. Every school in America wants to create productive citizens that will be successful in the 21^st century, but many are afraid to take the plunge into the world of edtech. Leaders must facilitate and empower teachers to explore a frontier as foreign to them as a distant planet. This cannot be an excuse for inaction, however, because schools simply cannot prepare students for future success when our practices are not even current, let alone forward-thinking.

It is time for our schools to make a commitment to engaging students in activities that will benefit them in a global marketplace. In order for students to be provided that support, teachers must be able to ease the process. The role of the leader is to provide the service and guidance that teachers need in order achieve that end. The roadmap is daunting, but the end is worth the means:

FACE THE FEAR

Two primary fears exist for most educators regarding using edtech to promote 21^st century learning. The first is simply fear of the unknown or fear of failure. The second is the fear of doing something to get fired. These fears are normal for everybody, but must be overcome by the leader first if they have any hope of leading this type of change in their district or building.

Tips Moving Forward

• Get involved – Computers are not designed to break. Leaders must first understand the new wave of technology is user-friendly. The benefit for a school leader becoming involved is that modeling is essential when it comes to taking educational risks – which in many schools technology is considered. Explore social media starting TODAY – Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Pinterest are all great places to start. Some may work better for you than others and there are literally hundreds of different opportunities that being active on the sites mentioned above will provide you within the first few weeks of use.
• Teachers deserve support, guidance, and protection – Two or three articles a month are written about teachers losing jobs because of the misuse of social media. This is an enormous hill to climb when promoting the activity within a building. An effective means of combating this is to establish best practice social media guidelines for all staff. These guidelines should be user-friendly, promote interaction with students, and also provide a firm line for what is appropriate and inappropriate. Providing boundaries promotes a sense of security.

ESTABLISH THE WHY

School leaders far too often focus on the ‘what’ instead of the ‘why’. Doing so with edtech will result in failure. There must be a sense of urgency created. It may seem clear to you (maybe you are part of the 1%ers) but the world schools are preparing kids for is much different than it was 40 years ago, 20 years ago, or even 5 years ago. Globalization will impact this generation of students more than any other in history. Teachers must know that not embracing the technology that will define the world their students will live in doing them a dramatic disservice.

Tips Moving Forward

• The data is dramatic – There is no shortage of numbers indicating how globalization is impacting American students. Use it!! How would your staff react to knowing that there are more Honors kids in India and China than there are kids in the U.S. Use the facts to your advantage
• Create a local tie – Students that used to attend your school (and were ‘good’ kids) have tremendous influence when they speak of how well or how ill-prepared they were for the next stages in their life. Kids in college blog. Kids in college tweet. Kids in college have realized that technology has made what once was a distant afterthought a very real part of their future. That will get teachers’ attention.

ACKNOWLEDGE EFFORT (INCLUDING MISTAKES)

There is a learning curve with technology. There may be more failure than success when teachers first get their hands wet. Establishing a school hashtag (#) on Twitter or Facebook page for 5^th grade homework assignments is a HUGE deal. Acknowledge it as such. Modeling tech-aware behaviors will also allow for monitoring of use and progression among teachers so that you can better serve their professional development.

Tip Moving Forward

• Public reinforcement of a kid-centered, 21^st century learner-driven initiative is never a bad thing. At public assemblies, on websites, and even in ‘old-school’ newsletters the acknowledgment of teachers taking risks will serve to promote the activity.

CREATE A CULTURE

Culture as I define it is what a school does when nobody is looking. Using technology and social media to support learning will be cultural when it no longer would cease to exist in the majority of the classrooms without administrative push or influence. This may take years – literally. Remember, people probably had this conversation (not via blogs, however) regarding email and digital gradebooks. This is not going away – thankfully. Create a culture where your school, your teachers, and your students are on the leading edge instead of trying to play catch-up in five years.

Tips Moving Forward

•  Empower others. Leaders have a lot on their plates (as do teachers). View the championing of edtech as a capacity-building activity for a future leader. The voice of a colleague often sounds much more clear and inviting than that of an administrator. More than likely, somebody in your building is already vastly more proficient with edtech and SM than you are – take advantage of their talents.
• Start Young and Let Students Lead. The earlier kids are exposed to the benefits of learning via edtech and SM, the more impetus for all to embrace the change. Student and parent buy-in can occasionally be easier to attain than teachers and they have tremendous influence on the culture of a building.

ENJOY THE BENEFITS

The potential benefits for a school are limitless when it comes to embracing edtech with the same vigor of the rest of the professional world. Communicating via a platform that the intended audience already uses makes so much more sense than forcing students and parents to adapt to an already antiquated system. Once edtech is embraced a school will enjoy a wide-range of benefits including improved public relations, increased student engagement, access to volumes upon volumes of free professional development for staff, and an opportunity to be on the leading edge of the next major change in how kids are educated in America.

About the author:  PJ Caposey is currently the principal of Oregon High School in Oregon, Illinois. PJ is a husband to Jacquie and father to Jameson and Jackson. PJ is an awarding winning principal through IPA, a soon-to-be published author through Eye on Education, a contributor to the Ed Leaders Network, experienced presenter and active blogger, having published blogs through Edutopia, ASCD, and the Illinois Principal’s Association. PJ is also an #edchat and #cpchat enthusiast (@principalpc) and also blogs from www.pjcaposey.typepad.com.

Topic: With the need to leave comfort zones for relevant professional development to take effect, should teachers continue to control their own learning for PD?

This week’s #edchat was the third in recent memory about effective professional development in the education sphere. This seems to be a topic that teachers, administrators, and technology specialists alike are really fired up about. And I can understand why.

#Edchat is a special group. Those who participate in #edchat are the exception, not the norm. They are the stand-outs; the connected (and highly-motivated) leaders in their schools – even if they don’t know it. And they want to help the rest of their colleagues become exceptional too.

I realize that might sound elitist, but the truth is that some teachers are leaps and bounds better than others. In some cases, that’s simply a question of experience. In others, it’s burn-out or stress. Good PD can help with both, because good PD both teaches and energizes. I know that’s why a lot of #edchat participants come back each and every week.

Realistically, though, #edchat is not for everyone. Neither are conventions. Nor are online webinars. Different lessons, presented in different ways, will appeal to different people. Different strokes for different folks, as they say.

The question is: how much autonomy can and should we allow teachers in directing, choosing, and pursuing their own professional development? What’s the optimal mix of empowerment and guidance?

While I will freely admit that I don’t have any hands-on experience with this, I think there are two things that we should be working on implementing in schools right now. They are…

1) A teacher PD “curriculum,” with requirements placed on subjects that all teachers must explore, but options left open for how they learn about them. This should be developed by representative teachers, administrators, and tech specialists for each district. I am hesitant to go any broader than that, because we know how disjointed decision-making becomes the higher it goes.

2) Teacher authorities in every niche of professional development that can mentor teachers learning specifically about that subject. Example: there can be a resident social media guru to help guide teachers towards better use/implementation of social media into their classroom practices. Or a wiki-building specialist to help other teachers start using wikis with their students. The bottom line is that we need some other “go-tos” in schools. Dozens of teachers, one or two tech specialists, and a single principal just doesn’t work. It takes too long for change to be made in a system like that.

But those are just my own hare-brained ideas. I would love to hear yours!

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If you’re interested in reading summaries of the previous two discussions, here’s a link to the more recent one about providing relevant PD in schools/districts and here’s a link to the one from last November about EdCamps and TeachMeets. Enjoy!

Main themes from the discussion:

• Again: traditional PD is often either non-existent or totally ineffective. What discussion of PD would be complete without a healthy dose of complaints about how bad the current offerings are? Common complaints: it’s boring, it’s irrelevant, there’s no follow-up, it’s completely rigid and inflexible, and it’s been cut from the budget. The teachers that are pursuing their own PD often aren’t recognized and in some cases may even be penalized for it. Meanwhile, those that just go through the system seem to be rewarded. Clearly, we are placing our emphasis on the wrong things. And that needs to change if we want education to change.
• We don’t seem to apply the same lessons of education to teaching teachers. This has two very important implications.
  • Implication number one: We seem to forget that crowding a whole bunch of people into a room and talking at them for a couple hours isn’t the best way to get your point across. I guess we assume that, since they’re teachers, they’ll fill in the gaps on their own. But most don’t because they’re tired and overworked as it is. David Wees rightly wonders: what does it say about an education system when the teachers are too burnt-out to learn?
  • Implication number two: We are not following up with teachers the way we follow up with students. In fact, it seems like we’re often just winging the entire process. When teaching students, we first lay out a broad plan of what we want them to learn. Then we make lesson plans for how they’re going to learn it. Then we teach it to them, often reinforcing the lesson with homework. Finally, we test them on it to make sure it all stuck. Do we do any of that with the stuff we want teachers to learn?
• We need to simultaneously broaden what we accept as PD and narrow the focus of the PD that some teachers pursue. I find it amazing that #edchat isn’t considered viable PD in every school district around the world. I’m not even a teacher, but I learn so much from #edchat that I’m actually considering becoming one just so I can use some of these ideas! If that’s not good PD then I don’t know what is. But, lest we forget: “Different strokes for different folks.” Not everyone is going to be an #edchat type, and that’s okay. The point is, we need to help all teachers find the way they learn best and encourage/challenge them to push the boundaries. This means tightening certain requirements that have allowed teachers to not really do anything (but still technically satisfy the requirements) while simultaneously recognizing some “unofficial” but nonetheless valuable PD channels.

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

tomwhitby Teachers selecting to choose a path of PD that isn’t relevant to education is always a problem. Too many things are considered PD.

juliawilson89 Teachers should design and run their PD and  schools should fully support them. Lack of school support is preventing the best PD.

CTuckerEnglish Those educators using social media like Twitter should be recognized for seeking out learning opportunities. Often social media is not recognized PD.

cybraryman1 Yes, PD is important but it does not have to be expensive as there is so much available from webinars etc. for free

tomwhitby Admin comfort zones may be even more of an obstacle to reform in Education. Many admins view PD for teachers only!

cybraryman1 How many times have you left a mandated PD session and could not use anything you heard with your students?

teacherdebra Has anyone ever asked where the districts get their topics for PD? Do they come from mandates, their needs, or what they perceive as teacher needs?

rickarcher1959 The biggest problems with PD, in my opinion, is the lack of time to follow-up and lack of funding.

sanmccarron Admin should look at PD as “what will help our students?” rather than “what is the latest edtech thingy?”.

cdsmeaton People would rather do the wrong thing competently than the right thing incompetently. Remember that when asking for change.

tomwhitby Teachers must be supported with PD and not bludgeoned with it. But there must be a path or a plan from the leadership.

RabbiRoss We still need some quality control on teacher-led workshops. Presenting is a skill as well!

vpigreenie  Big fan of the train-the trainer model: train a few, they then become the experts in house to support and model the best practices.

jlubinsky We are finding that with our budget cuts, using a cohort of motivated learners has helped to bridge the gap.

tomwhitby Teachers need some direction for PD if we are planning relevant development to coincide with where we want schools to go.

A couple resources tweeted during the discussion:

NikkiDRobertson I use Coffee Chats to lure teachers into my new tech PD lair..donuts, coffee, and light friendly conversation. My teachers love it! Example: http://t.co/ekKobN8E

mbteach Here is my obligatory @EdcampBoard tweet for this afternoon’s #edchat: http://t.co/vrnjdWpc

cybraryman1 Please listen to recording of the Connected Superintendents webinar:  http://t.co/CCnfx35Y We need more leaders like these.

###

To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.  They’re usually posted up by the end of the week.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.

guest written by Karen Greenhaus

There are a lot of resources and advice out there these days to support teacher’s use of social media in their classroom.  From creating classroom blogs, wiki’s, Facebook accounts, and podcasts, to how to incorporate Twitter into formative assessment – you name it, you can probably find it. However, for many teachers, the thought of using social media is an overwhelming task, especially trying to incorporate it effectively into instructional practice, particularly with the controversy surrounding student safety and privacy issues. What I think is more prevalent, (keeping in mind my only proof is my personal observations and anecdotal evidence), is that there are a handful of teachers in any given school that might be using social media in some form in their classroom, but for the most part, teachers are not using social media in any consistent, pervasive way.

Is this a bad thing? My feeling is yes, because social media offers so many opportunities for students and teachers to collaborate with others, learn and connect globally, and instill communication and creativity into learning. Which leads to another question – how do we get teachers using social media as an instructional tool? There are, of course, probably several answers to that question, but one thing that won’t work is simply telling them they must use social media and offering a day or two of training on specific social media tools and expecting them to change their practice. That doesn’t work with anything (if you haven’t already figured that out). My suggestions – start small and start personally.  This means make social media a learning tool for the teacher first, allowing them to see and experience the power of the medium for them personally, and then build from there into classroom integration and use with students.

What do I mean by making social media a learning tool for the teacher first? As in any profession, teachers must and should be continuing to learn – learn more about content, new technologies to improve instruction, new instructional strategies.  Teacher professional development is a requirement for recertification but also an obligation of any teacher to improve their practice for the benefit of their students. Just as we wouldn’t want a doctor using an outdated method of surgery when there are new and better methods, we shouldn’t want our teachers using outdated instructional tools and strategies when there are new and better ones available. Teacher professional development is an important need for all teachers, but unfortunately, especially in this era of budget woes, professional development is one of the first things eliminated or reduced. My suggestion therefore is to use social media as a tool for providing teachers with professional development to improve their own knowledge about their craft. This will allow them exposure to the power of social media while providing a cost-efficient resource to support continuous teacher learning – learning about their content, their practice, and how to enhance their practice to help their students.

How to start? Start small and start personally. Choose only one thing (start small) – i.e. a blog, a Twitter account, department wiki, etc. to begin. Make it personal for the teachers (start personally) – relevant to their needs (content, instructional, time) and relevant to their technical ability and interests.  Below are some of my suggestions from both an administrative view, for leaders who are trying to get social media into your school as a whole, and from a teacher view, for individual teachers who want to get started in social media but are not quite sure where to begin. (Note: My suggestions are not necessarily recommending specific tools or services, but more from an overall perspective, focusing on trying to create a culture of use and a beginning point.  Any specific social media I do name is based on my own personal experience with social media, which is still in its infancy – I am a novice, starting small and finding my own personal meanings as well).

Getting Social – School Wide/Administrative Suggestions

1. Start a school blog (or Facebook or wiki). Post events that are happening at the school or great things you are seeing in classrooms.  Have each department contribute a post each week or assign a week to each department where they post what topics are being covered or things that students will be learning in the next unit.  Ask specific teachers who are doing interesting or innovative activities with their students to share, including pictures of the classroom.  The blog can be a place where parents and students go to find out what’s happening at the school but also a place for teachers to share what’s going on, develop a culture of celebrating and valuing the great things that are occurring in your school.  It will encourage teachers to support and be interested in their school and colleagues.
2. Start a school Twitter and ask all school personnel to create a twitter account and follow the school.  Create a school hashtag so that all postings by anyone use the hashtag and it creates a record of activity specific to your school.  Much like the blog, post daily events happening at the school.  Tweet about classrooms you observe – mention your teachers.  Again, ask each department to post a weekly tweet or two about what’s happening in that department. Encourage teachers to tweet on a weekly basis about what’s happening in their classroom.  Make this be a place for sharing with teachers and the community – connecting the school, teachers, parents, and students.
3. Encourage each teacher to create a Twitter account and provide each department with a specific hashtag to follow relevant to their content (i.e #mathchat, #sciencechat…there are most likely hashtags specific to each content area). Encourage each department to check in with the hashtag at least once before the department meetings and bring an interesting article/blog/posting to discuss to their department meeting.  This sharing and reflecting on content related topics will foster collaboration, reflection on practice, bring new ideas or create topics for debate to help teachers learn and grow in their knowledge and support each other.
4. Find relevant webinars or live conferences or live tweet chats and provide the time for teachers to meet and participate in these. Everyone could be on their own computer and participate and respond or you could have them in smaller groups with a designated computer person who responds (usually these live events provide avenues for responding via chat panels, twitter responses, etc.)
5. Create an online community, such as Moodle, where resources are shared, discussion topics are posted and teachers can respond and reflect, ask questions.  Post a weekly discussion and give teachers time to respond asynchronously. Provide ‘live chat’ times where you or another teacher leads a topic of discussion relevant to content or education or strategies or new tools, etc.  This provides a non-threatening forum for participation and collaboration.

Getting Social – Teacher Suggestions

1. Start a Twitter account and choose one hashtag relevant to what you teach (for example, #mathchat, #edtech, #edchat, #science)  Once you do, simply read posts and click on links and read the articles/blogs that the links direct you to.  If all you do is read some interesting things related to your topic of interest, even if you never tweet yourself, you are learning.  And, as you read you will notice some of the same folks posting really interesting information on a regular basis, and these then become the people you start following.  Once you find some interesting, relevant people to follow, look at who they follow and slowly build your network.  Eventually, start tweeting yourself – reply to someone’s interesting comment, or thank them for providing the link, or ask a question.  You will begin to find more people with great ideas.  If nothing else, you will be informing yourself and learning and getting ideas. Eventually, try to participate in a live tweet chat (times and topics for these are usually posted by hashtags you follow – for example, #edchat has a live tweet chat every Tuesday at 11 pm Central).  The first time is a little overwhelming, but reading the reflections and thoughts of everyone participating really gives you ideas, things to think about, relevant links and posts, and when you start contributing to the conversation, you then make connections and find others who can become part of your learning network.
2. Find some relevant content-related blogs to follow.  Do content blog searches – read some posts.  Set aside time every day, even if it’s only 10 minutes, to read one post. Eventually start responding and leaving comments – participate in the discussions.  It provides again, links to others who can support your own professional learning and in turn, connect you to others.
3. Join a community forum, such as Linked In, or The Math Forum, or Learning without Frontiers.  Within a forum, there are usually group discussions – find a discussion of interest and read what people are saying.  Contribute your thoughts and ideas to the discussion.  Begin a discussion topic yourself.  This will again, let others out there hear and see your ideas and provide you with a network of peers who can challenge you, provide you with strategies, and help you with struggles.
4. Start your own blog. For professional learning, you want to focus on posting ideas relevant to what you are teaching – so content, strategies, technology, etc.  Start small and just post maybe what’s happening in your classroom.  Or, perhaps after reading an interesting article or viewing a great video on YouTube, write a reflection on that.  Comment on something happening in the educational arena, like teacher layoffs or the Common Core standards. Any article/video/blog you reference, link to it and let whoever wrote it know you are mentioning them – this begins a relationship and connections and helps get other followers.  If you respond to someone else’s blog posts, reference your blog so they can find you. It’s about building a community and networking.  But, even if you don’t have a single person following your blog (which, if you post consistently, you will eventually have folks reading you), if you are posting reflections about what’s happening in your classroom, or thoughts on things you have read or tried or seen related to your teaching or content, you are learning.  You are reflecting and considering your approaches and strategies and beginning a process of improving your practice.

Clearly, this is only a few suggestions on how to get started – I know there are so many other things that someone can do to start using social media.  The key is to start – start small and personal. You will find it leads to some amazing learning opportunities and connections.  Those of you out there with other suggestions please share them – I want to learn myself, as I am still just beginning this journey of being social.

About the author: Karen Greenhaus is currently the Director of Education Technology Outreach for Key Curriculum (http://keypress.com), a math technology company that sells The Geometer’s Sketchpad (http://keypress.com/gsp), TinkerPlots (http://keypress.com/tinkerplots) and Fathom (http://keypress.com/fathom).  She provides professional development for teachers all over the country via face-to-face workshops, blended learning, webinars, and online courses. Karen taught in public schools for over 17 years as a math teacher and math administrator at the middle and high school levels.  She has a BA in math from Virginia Tech, MA in Curriculum & Education from Virginia Commonwealth, and is currently working on her Ed. D. dissertation on professional development in education technology at The College of William & Mary.  Her passion is helping teachers integrate technology effectively into classroom instruction. Karen blogs at http://greenhauseducation.blogspot.com

Topic: What specific changes have you made as an educator that are a direct result of social media involvement or being connected? Why do we connect?

Where to begin on this #edchat summary? I honestly think this was simultaneously one of the most uplifting #edchat conversations in awhile – and at the same time it was one of the most frustrating. I say uplifting because I literally could not keep up with all the positive things people were saying about social media and how it has impacted their teaching. That’s wonderful and inspiring.

At the same time, though, it was more than a little frustrating for me. I love #edchat, and those that participate in it. But I worry that we’re an insulated and a-typical group. We don’t represent the average teacher: we represent the very connected and committed teacher. So while it’s awesome that so many are benefitting from social media, I worry that the movement isn’t broad enough.

The central question to me is not: “Is social media a beneficial thing for educators?” We know that it is. And while it’s nice to see a bunch of positive tweets about all the ways that social media has revolutionized the way that we look at education, we also need to remember that we are not everyone. We’re not even most educators. We’re an isolated group that needs to act as missionaries to the rest of the education world.

I’m not saying #edchat is for everyone. In fact, I’m not even saying that social media participation is for everyone. What I am saying is that connecting is for everyone. It’s part of being a life-long learner. And it needs to be a larger part of what teachers do when not in the classroom. The question is: “How?”

Main themes from the discussion:

• Social media is amazing. Again, there was no way that I could possibly have kept up with or copied all the best tweets about how social media has revolutionized education. I picked some of my personal favorites and pasted them below, but I strongly encourage you to check out the archive of this chat when it goes up. I really think that showing this to “non-believers” might be a great way to get them to test the waters of social media.
• We need to get more educators into social media, because it’s great professional development. Unfortunately, not everyone is involved in something like #edchat, and not everyone has a list of education blogs that feeds into their RSS reader every morning. There are a lot of educators who are simply not “plugged in.” In some ways, that might be okay. There’s still a place in the world for the old fashioned, as long as they still make the effort to keep their hand in and keep striving to improve on a personal level. But there’s a lot of teachers who simply don’t, either due to a lack of time or a lack of motivation. How can we change that? Most likely: by showing them how their lives could improve by plugging in.
• #EdChat is awesome, but is it for everyone? I really don’t think that every teacher should participate in #edchat, despite the fact that it is, undoubtedly, awesome. But it’s simply not for everyone. It’s fast, it’s frantic, it’s disorganized, and it happens in real time. That just won’t work for some people. Fortunately, there are so many options out there, from blogs to webcasts to podcasts to like webinars and online discussions to… some stuff that I haven’t heard about yet. The point is: there are options, and we need to keep that in mind when we try to recruit the rest of the teachers at our schools and in our districts. Tailor the message to suit the listener. We already try to do it with students. Why not with other educators?
• How do we spread the word that social media isn’t just useless noise? It always frustrates me when I hear someone who has never used Twitter say something like “I hate Twitter. It’s just noise. I don’t care what you had for breakfast this morning.” I manage a couple feeds for my work, each with several hundred “friends,” and I never read about what people ate for breakfast that day. Ever. Still, the nay-sayers do have a point: there is a lot of useless crap out there. That’s why it’s a good thing there are lighthouses like Larry Ferlazzo and the #edchat moderators out there! It’s by exposing “outsiders” to sources like these that we may start seeing more adoption of social media. And that would only mean more gradual improvements to education.

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

MertonTech Hard for me to figure how I have changed. I started out in this field using social media.

DrThomasHo As an educator, I have QUESTIONED more than ever what we have been doing as a result of social media revealing so many alternatives!

ShellTerrell I have attended more conferences online and face-to-face as a result of the use of social media.

davidwees Social media has increased my options for where I can go for information.

msmith833 I’ve also opened up more professional development opportunities for my staffs as a result of social media.

CTuckerEnglish I was just chatting with friend via social media who mentioned using Mail Chimp. Because of that conversation I’m going to send a monthly newsletter to parents.

michellek107 I am teaching in my “dream school” because of social media. I met and got to know the founder of our school on Twitter.

jswiatek Social media has allowed me to make connections all over the world which allows me to bring real world learning to my kids.

marciarpowell I like that idea of refining our practice and ideas. Social media can be your pulpit (not my goal) or a collaboration platform.

davidwees Social media has started flattening hierarchies. It’s now less about my official position and more about my ideas.

ToddWhitaker Twitter is the best free professional development there is!

coreydahlevent People who “poo-poo” Social Media have not participated in #edchat.

ShellTerrell Before social media, my ideas helped only my learners in my classroom. After social media, my ideas helped educators worldwide

bhsprincipal Our students will have a greater chance for success if they know how to build a network. It’s helpful for educators to model this.

cybraryman1 Speaking of connecting how about the wonderful Educator’s PLN by @tomwhitby: http://t.co/7IQnjJDy

tomwhitby Social media provides the questions we need to ask, as well as answers we need to hear.

Sheila_Johnston I wish I could say social media has allowed me to tear down my classroom walls however, my students don’t even have daily computer access.

mbfxc Social media has changed teacher preparation, allowing teachers to connect and learn with other teachers and students!

stumpteacher As with anything in life, you get out what you put in… social media is no different

###

To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.  They’re usually posted up by the end of the week.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.

guest written by Nicola Petty

Lectures were invented before print was available for the dissemination of information. One person talked and other people listened. It was the best they could do at the time.

However, today we can do better. Lectures are a cost-minimising way of presenting information to a large group of people. Note I didn’t say cost-effective. The universities of the world love lectures, and their buildings reflect that. However all the research I have ever read says that lectures are not an effective way to teach. They can do a wonderful job of inspiring and even converting, and sometimes entertaining, and they can be really fun to give if you enjoy that sort of thing. (Which I do.) But sadly, they are not really a very good way to teach.

When I first started work as a “Lecturer” of Operations Research, I read up about the whole process of lecturing in order to do the best I could. I was an experienced highschool teaher, but knew that a class of 250 differed from a class of 33. I was a trifle dismayed to find that the method that I thought had served me just fine as a student wasn’t really very effective. I read that you shouldn’t talk while people are copying notes down. So I prepared my overhead transparencies (which were modern and innovative back then) and worked out my timing. Within two or three lectures I realised how boring this was for me. I would talk a bit, expose some notes, and wait for the students to copy them down verbatim. This was self-delusion – the copying process leaves much to be desired, and is especially fraught when involving mathematical formulas. In fact I brought in an unnecessary level of error.

I started to photocopy my transparencies and distribute them at the start of class. I left gaps for working problems. This definitely left much more opportunity for interaction and participation from the students. But it was still “statistical methods as a spectator sport.”

Fast forward a bit over a decade and things have changed with regard to what is available. Let me tell you about my course now. Thanks to a natural disaster, last year I have been able to abandon real-time, face-to-face lectures entirely. The course is delivered using a learning management system known a Moodle. There are eight sections, with material in various forms. Each section has open tests which the students take repeatedly until they master the material (defined as 80%). There is a bank of questions so that the tests are different each time. Then they sit through a similar test in a supervised setting, to ensure the student has done the work. Again they must gain a mark of 80% or better, but may have multiple attempts.

The most important part of the course is the tests. This is where the learning takes place. The support materials include lecture notes with audio (podcasts), lessons with step-by-step instructions, links to outside material, notes, videos of lectures from pre-earthquake, and carefully made videos which are hosted at www.youtube.com/creativeheuristics. You can read more about how the videos are made at www.learnandteachstatistics.wordpress.com. We provide daily opportunities for students to get one-on-one help, though surprisingly few take it up. The material is very carefully designed to build skills, confidence and learning strategies as the students progress through the course, so that at the end they are tackling difficult material that they would have balked at at the start of the course.

I could write much more about this course, and the success it has had, particularly for students who are not mathematically inclined. And I will – soon!

About the author: Dr. Nicola Ward Petty has taught business statistics and operations research at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand for over twenty years. She was awarded a university teaching award in 2006 and has mentored other faculty, and developed innovative and successful courses to help people who find quantitative subjects difficult. You can read her blog here and follow her on Twitter here.

Topic: What would be a better alternative to present leadership hierarchy we’ve come to accept in public education?

This week’s #edchat topic was an especially welcome change of pace for me, because once again I was forced to really think about an aspect of teaching that I, as an “outsider” and non-teacher, had never previously considered. I like topics like that. They force me out of my usual style of thinking and put myself in the shoes of someone else.

As someone who studied business in college, I sort of took it for granted that schools would have the same structure and hierarchy as businesses. There would be a couple big-wigs at the top, several layers of bureaucracy below them, and then a legion of teachers (“employees”) that were managed relatively closely but given the appearance of autonomy.

It turns out, I was at least partially right. There are several layers of bureaucracy above teachers, and there is a prevailing sense that teachers don’t exactly have as much autonomy as they need. But the point that I was missing was this: why should schools function the same as businesses? Why should it be this way?

I guess I had figured that the school my father teaches at was the norm. I would hear him complain about all the bureaucracy at his school regularly over dinner. It was just the same type of complaining I imagined I would hear if my father worked in an office or in a factory. There’s always a big boss who has forgotten what it’s like to be an employee. And there’s always stuff to complain about.

The point is, though, it doesn’t have to be that way. There were a few #edchatters this week who said that they were quite happy with their schools’ hierarchy and leadership. They were well supported and those at the top knew how to communicate and prioritize.

Unfortunately, we all know that this is not the norm – not in business and not in education either. The question is: what can we do about that?

Main themes from the discussion:

• Things are too hierarchical. One prevailing theme I saw this week was that there is too much of a division between teacher and administrator. Administrators got to make the decisions, but it was teachers that had to abide by them. That makes teaching really difficult because teachers know that the rug can get pulled out from under them at any moment and they won’t have any say in the matter. That’s not a good way to do things. We need more communication and more collaboration. Decisions need to be made together. In fact, we should even be making more of an effort to involve students and parents in the making of important decisions.
• Administration is out of touch with the needs of teachers. Even though the majority of teachers were very sympathetic towards administration, I did see quite a few complaints that administrators have forgotten (or never knew) what it was like in the classroom. That’s never a good thing. When those in charge of making decisions are out of touch (and collaboration across hierarchical levels is discouraged) they are not likely to make the right decisions. The solution? Have administrators spend more time in the classrooms for observation purposes only. They shouldn’t only show up briefly to judge a teacher and make an arbitrary decision. The “cream of the crop” administrators seem to know this already.
• The way things are is a hold-over from the industrial age. I have heard it said before (and I really do believe it) that many conventions in education were created during the industrial revolution to prepare children for factory work. America has moved way beyond that for the majority of workers, yet still we continue to do things in much the same way as we did “back in the day.” Apparently the educational hierarchy is no different. Why should there really be such a division between principal and teacher? Shouldn’t it be the administration’s job to support the teachers, and not the other way around?
• Is there too much weight on the principal’s shoulders? I was surprised to see so much sympathy for principals during this week’s #edchat. I would have thought that teachers would be ruthless, complaining that these folks get more money for doing less difficult work. Instead, I saw a lot of teachers pointing out that there are simply too many responsibilities for the average principal. And while delegation and prioritization can solve some of those problems, they can’t solve all of them. The solution that I liked best was to split the job in half (or in thirds) and have one principal look after education and the other(s) look after the business side of running a school.
• Sometimes, the current system works very well. It should be mentioned that more than a couple #edchatters seemed genuinely happy in the way their schools ran day-to-day. They felt like their administrators were in touch with their needs and had not forgotten what it meant to be on the front line. This, I think, is a very good point that gets lost in #edchat from time to time. Sometimes, things work out really well. Let’s not forget that there are a lot of great teachers and administrators out there right now, and that in general things are only getting better. The tendency for the elite is to focus on the negatives, but we need to remind ourselves that there are plenty of positives as well.

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

tomwhitby I believe the leadership of schools was set up as an industrial model.

USCTeacher Perhaps we need to look at hierarchy as more of community; something we have access to and can collaborate with?

John_DAdamo I would argue this is not a phenomenon exclusive to public education. Private schools all have layers of bureaucracy as well.

cybraryman1 I personally agree with more collaboration. Must include students, parents, and community in this process.

Mamacita When opportunities for parent input do occur, VERY few parents bother to show up. They seem to prefer whining after the fact.

MrBernia Many schools around the world have a lead teacher rather than a principal. Is our setup just closest to the industrial model?

ShellTerrell Current model has a few make decisions while those who are expected to implement them aren’t included in the decision-making process.

drdouggreen I don’t think superintendent, principal, teacher structure is the problem. It’s all about the vision in this food chain. Principals and superintendents should view teachers as customers whose needs must be met.

PrincipalPC It’s not the model — it is the poor implementation of the model. We are talking about the symptoms, not the disease.

cybraryman1  I always felt there should be two leaders in a building. One for curriculum/learning  and the other for business matters.

rliberni  Much of what principals do is buildings, payroll, and everyday business that all schools have to do, so it would be easy for one “business principal” to do 2 or 3 schools.

John_DAdamo I have seen the 2-headed dragon (two principals) fail because no one was held accountable.

A few resources that were shared:

delta_dc Schools would benefit from structures like this: http://t.co/WF2rKMeC

cybraryman1  Walkthroughs are good ways to learn but I would like to see more modeling by administration. http://t.co/i7LDUk5x

###

To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.  They’re usually posted up by the end of the week.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.

Topic: What does your district/school do to provide relevant professional development (PD) for you and your colleagues?

I must admit, this #edchat was reminiscent of one that I participated in back in November. Happily, I summarized that one too, and so I just gave it a quick re-read to make sure I won’t simply be repeating myself (too much).

Some repetition is inevitable. For example, I read many, many complaints about traditional PD in November, and I read many, many complaints about tradition PD this week. But the conversation  has seemed to evolve a bit since then. Which is great.

I think Tom Whitby is sort of leading the charge on this one (he does tend to lead charges in education, doesn’t he?). His big point these days is that all people, especially teachers, should be “life-long learners.” The idea is that you don’t just stop learning and thinking about how to be a great teacher just because you have your teaching certificate framed at home. You keep going.

This point has become something of a rallying cry in #edchat – and for good reason! Almost all #edchat participants are, very clearly, life-long learners. They’re already self-motivated. They’re already out there seeking ways to better themselves and help their students.

The question is: how can school administration help those teachers that aren’t willing to help themselves? How can we design a system to pull the whole group forward, willingly or not?

Main themes from the discussion:

• “Traditional” PD is just no good! I won’t waste any time going over this one again. I will simply say that “traditional” PD, which consists of a so-called expert rolling into town and talking to every single educator in a school about some random topic a couple times per year is useless. It should be quite obvious that it’s useless. But apparently it’s not (to many of the higher-ups). That’s unfortunate.
• To be effective, PD needs to be folded into the regular schedule. I know it’s hard for teachers to find time to do anything “extra” these days (what with all the grading and the testing and the bureaucratic non-sense), but PD shouldn’t be considered “extra” at all. It is an essential ingredient to a quality education system. We can’t have teachers simply regurgitating the same lessons they crafted right out of school year after year until they retire. At least, we can’t have that if we want our students to succeed later in life. We need to make time for PD – and we need to make time for PD regularly. Once a week or maybe twice a month sounds about right.
• Teachers should be more involved in shaping PD. We’re trying to move away from the “sage on a stage” method of teaching in everyday classrooms. So why are we preserving it when it comes to PD? If it’s good for the goose, it’s good for the gander! Why fly in experts to talk about some random topic when, if we bothered to take the time to look around, we’d find experts on a myriad of topics sprinkled throughout the teaching staff of any school? It just doesn’t make sense – not financially and not any other way you slice it. If we want teachers to “buy in” to PD, then we need give them some power in shaping it. Check out November’s post for more information on that.
• Teachers should be more in charge of their own PD. One of the ways that we could likely get more teachers to self-direct their own PD (as many in #edchat and elsewhere already do) would be to allow them to pursue topics that actually interest them. This is another idea that we’re playing with for younger students, so why don’t we adopt it for those adults that we’ve put in charge of teaching our children? The rationale sounds solid to me. If you give a teacher more choice in what he wants to learn about, he’s far more likely to really invest himself in it and get something out of it. Which, in turns, makes him a better teacher. It’s all about cultivating the life-long learner.
• “No PD” is simply NOT an option. The necessary corollary to “give teachers more control in shaping PD” and “let a teacher choose his own PD methods” is this: you have to do something. Not only that, but you have to do something regularly. Again, once a week or once every other week seems about right. Of course, we need to relax our definition of PD if we’ll be requiring weekly participation. It’d be hard to attend a conference every week. Instead, online participation in programs like #edchat and many others should be included. As long as it’s something, it should be allowed. The hope is, of course, that by opening up the array of options, we’ll have more buy-in from those that traditionally opted out.

My favorite tweets from the discussion:

MsDittmar One of the greatest things my district does for me is allows access to Twitter. Without it and the #edchat community I would be lost.

Mamacita In 26 years, my former district had exactly ONE good PD for us. The rest were overpriced wastes of time.

MertonTech The problem with PD is its relevance is relative to the individual. Hard for a district to provide relevance for all.

tomwhitby How can PD workshops held once or twice a year on a conference day be relevant? How many schools continue this practice? PD must be part of the work week and supported w/follow through by all.

ProjectAdvance Teachers should be very involved in the PD selection process. Without their buy-in, the information may fall on deaf ears.

ugafrank All the stakeholders in PD need to be involved in design, implementation, and evaluation.

MertonTech For tech PD, give teachers a chance to co-teach with a tech expert. I love working with my teachers, and it is working for the kids.

tomwhitby Learning about pedagogy and content should never stop when one gets a degree, teaching license, or a job as a teacher.

MeetOkema With PD, everyone doesn’t learn the same. All modules won’t work. Neither will all trainers. Same topic in different forms?

cybraryman1 Why do so many educators here on Twitter say what they learned here is the best PD they ever received?

jrichardson30 Our first attempt with an edcamp, we had great success! Teacher feedback was overwhelmingly positive; wanting more.

John_DAdamo The only PD mandates should be: 1) you actually do some (self-directed), 2) you reflect on experience, and 3) you share your learning.

mikevigilant  I offered a Twitter PD just this morning! Only 6 people came, but it still went well.

vltreadway I provide Lunch Bytes. (1/2 hour drop in sessions.) Same teachers come every time though.

teacherdebra  Time is huge factor. Allow for technology days. Get subs & let these teachers collaborate.

tomwhitby Giving choices is fine as long as NO CHOICE is not a choice. Too many have gone down that path.

Mamacita I can’t respect adults in any profession who aren’t eager, avid learners; willing to upgrade skills, experiment, change routines.

kylepace The time for PD does not need to be found it needs to be made.

SECottrell The freedom to find my own PD is the most beneficial thing my administration has done for me.

daveandcori My district offers “PD” but low quality. I go looking for my own: Twitter, EdCamp, TechForum, ISTE, etc.

John_DAdamo A good admin finds a way to share the successful PD reflections/experiences by staff members with the community.

bennettscience We used flip for a conference 2 weeks ago with HUGE success. “Lecture” part of presentation was video, so it was all discussion during day.

sdavids51 Twitter works because it’s immediate and relevant info that I control. I get what I need and also get to share what I know.

A few resources that were shared:

Mr_Brett_Clark  Here is something I do as a coach in my school: Coach’s Menu http://t.co/qMbDxlqX. We also have a summer elearning conference, July 11 & 12. http://t.co/uHYnrAmB

daveandcori Professional Development for Teachers needs to change – http://t.co/ET2VIMZd

cybraryman1 My Professional Development page: http://t.co/TMtMGpx8

j_allen A link to our recorded fall “Tech Tuesday” webinars. http://t.co/n6rZTacx

NancyW The year long PD I am leading for 21st century learning has an open Grouply site you can explore: http://t.co/v10lUSSq

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To follow the complete discussion, look for the full archive here.  They’re usually posted up by the end of the week.

Looking to discuss #edtech in depth? Check out the LinkedIn group: Edutech Trends, Visions, Passions.

New to #EdChat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter.  Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts:

• Edchat: Join the Conversation
• Using TweetDeck for Hashtag Discussions

More Edchat

• If you would like to join others in transforming the discussion into action, please feel free to join the Edchat group on the Educator PLN ning.
• Jerry Swiatek does an incredible job of posting each archived transcript on the #edchat wiki created by Steve Johnson. This way you can look back at your favorites!
• Find previous summaries here on this blog – see #edchat category on right sidebar
• Follow other Edchatters and make sure you are on this Twitter list if you participate in #Edchat!
• Read summaries of the 7pm EST/1 am CET Edchat discussions.

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

What do you think? Leave a comment! We would love to hear from you.