Are We There Yet?

From spending time with me, or possibly reading my blog, you may have noted that I am a bit confused with the way my district is evolving and a bit unhappy with choices that have been made. There has been a ton of change and it feels like it has happened overnight. Let's just say teachers may be feeling a bit overwhelmed and confused as to why so much is flipping on us right now...

After an extremely looooooooonnnnnngggg couple of years of negotiation, we gave in and changed our schedule to an EXTENDED day so that we could add Problem Based Learning to the start of our day. We are tearing down perfectly good libraries and spending millions to replace them with Innovation Centers. We have provided students with their own devices but that has led to a desperate need to keep up with them so we now offer Tech Academy over the summer...and of course, they want every teacher to attend and better yet, to teach...so I have. 

Now, I am wondering why our administration did not just hand every single one of us a copy of the NMC Horizon Report: 2015 K-12 Edition!

All school year, we have been asking WHY? Why do we need to incorporate PBL? Why do we need all of this training? Why do we have to extend our day? Why are we holding STEM camps? Why do we need an Innovation Center when students already have their own devices? Why can't you just let us catch our breath???

And now, finally, I can understand WHY. Sure, I had to always assume we were trying to do something right. But we have never been presented with any solid evidence. 

I went from feeling angry at my district to a feeling of pride as I read the Horizon Report. This report examines emerging technologies and trends in order to determine how schools can best meet the challenges involved such as:

• create authentic thinking
• provide tech training for teachers
• personalize education for their students
• reconsider the role of the teacher
• solve teaching innovations
• determine how to teach complex thinking

While I now see that my district is really heading in the right direction, there is one trend that I would hope that we can seriously continue to improve. 

Rethinking How Schools Work is a Long-Term Impact Trend noted in the Horizon Report. Here, examples are given where schools no longer use bells to separate individual academic areas, mastery of technology is critical and student's have a voice in technology decisions. I would love for my district to move away from our strict, dictated schedule so that we could increase our to opportunity to integrate studies. I envision that the role of the librarian will become more powerful as the goal to include technology mastery within the curriculum is established. The librarian can lead classes, co-teach, or hold small groups to ensure students (and staff) are able to use the latest technology resources. In addition, I would love to include students in our decision making. This is definitely something that I would do as a librarian. Students could form a committee or feedback can even be collected using a simple resource, such as Google Forms. In addition, I think parent feedback should also be included. And last, but certainly not least, I would hope...and beg...for more teacher influence. 

While I can see now that my district is doing some great things, there is still much room for improvement. 

So, are we there yet? Nah. But that's ok. We're getting there!

Reference:

Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., and Freeman, A. (2015). NMC Horizon Report: 2015 K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.