"Things do not change; we change."  Thoreau

"It's not that some people have willpower and some don't. It's that some people are ready to change and others are not."  James Gordon, M.D.

"Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better." King Whitney Jr.

As a year of helping districts and schools manage change comes to a close, I understand more than ever that leading a successful change effort is a hands-on, fully engaged job. One which often kept me from doing other things I love. It has been two months since my last blog post. I have missed blogging and reflecting here with you- because my personal path for change and growth comes from sharing, reflecting and constructing knowledge here with you.

I have learned a lot this year, but what stands out most clearly is that to change an organization, its people must see their roles in it differently. If we focus on the people, and how they change themselves, organizations change more quickly.

CHANGE IS GENERALIZABLE

Some of you know I bought a house this year. Pretty big change for me and mine. Then I got this crazy idea that I would remodel the home. So we gutted the kitchen, den, and dining room. Knocking down walls and starting at scratch. It has been a time of renewal. The other day it occured to me that the frustration, redefining, and hard work I am experiencing through this process (which has been going on since February- change takes time) is generalizable to the organizational and personal change efforts Will and I have been leading with PLP.

Preparing for Change

For change to take hold and redefine people and the places they live and grow there needs to be a time of inquiry, reflection, and visioning.

When I moved into this house I knew I wanted to change it. I started with imagery. I started looking at possible images and examples of what I wanted this house to become; scourging the Web, my networks and books and magazines for stories of others who had transformed their homes into more updated and functional spaces. Because I understood the culture of our family I was instinctively drawn to options that would work for us. Interestingly enough many of the changes I wanted to make came from a schematic building of ideas I had been collecting since childhood. Some of the changes were for fun and "cool" factor, some were to make the home more functional and relevant, some were to create a sense of beauty and well being and some were to support the social aspects of my life and to connect to the future- my children and their children.

Once I had some basic ideas I began to reflect and think and share. I would sit in a room quietly and observe, vision, and play with concepts. Then I would bring others in the room and elaborate my vision and ask for their opinions and ideas. I asked lots of questions. Then I took the new information and reworked my plans incorporating the ideas I liked best. Constantly, I was using the "wisdom of the crowd" to shape and reshape my vision. I brought family members into the planning to garner buy-in and collaboratively we created a shared vision. Every time there was a disagreement and a storm of ideas and opinions colliding I reminded myself this was part of the process and that out of diversity would come innovation.

Once I had a clearer vision of what the principled changes needed to be to make this home more relevant in our lives, now and in the future, I committed it to paper. In some cases where I knew I had limited knowledge, like the landscaping, I hired an expert designer to actually draw up some plans to follow. I worked for weeks with the designer to make sure the options we chose were the ones that would fit best with the needs of our family. It is important that as you are reculturing you consider best fit and how lives will be impacted in the most positive way from the changes you are about to make.

Getting the Right People on the Bus

Finding the right people is important. I needed to have a team that was willing to take risks. One that was not daunted easily. One that didn't mind learning new things and being innovative. I needed a team that would not bend and give me what I thought I wanted in a time of weakness but rather would hold true to the vision. I needed team members with skill and expertise who were networked and could bring in other experts to help us deliver. I needed a team that was in it for the long haul and who would pay attention to detail. I wanted team members who understood this project was going to be transformational and as a result joined me in pursuing excellence.

I needed to make sure I had not only the right people on my team but enough people to get the job done in a timely manner.

Keeping the Momentum Up and Not Giving Up

The toughest part of the change process with this house has been keeping the momentum and the dream of the transformation alive. I have had contractors in my house since February. Dust, debris clutter, noise, parking issues, inconveniences are all part of the messiness of change. Dealing with the ambiguity has been tough too. There are times I wanted to throw in the towel and thought as outdated as the home was at least there was peace and comfort. I questioned if I did the right thing. And in the demolition phase I reminded myself of the implementation dip- that things will look worse before they get better, and that the end result will not be chaos, but rather peace and improved and better for all.

Fear is a big part of it too. Especially in these tough economic times. Am I spending money that should be allocated somewhere else? Should I be saving this money for a "just in-case" moment or is what I am investing going to payoff? Trust is another issue. Do the experts I have hired to make these changes a reality have the know how and wisdom to make it all happen- or was it just talk? When all around me looks overwhelming, can they lead us out of the chaos and confusion into the shared vision we have developed?

It was the talking, visioning, revisioning, and reflecting that kept this change project alive and moving forward. It was interesting to me that as one task of the mission was completed, the next change needed would become obvious. Change motivates and reveals the need for more change.

Lessons Learned

When one group fails to perform their piece of the change process it sets everyone back.

Relationships need to be negotiated along the way.

Resources need to be examined closely and also negotiated creatively.

Risks need to be considered and in some cases pieces of the plan need to be abandoned while others move on to phase 2.

Celebrate and document the progress and changes along the way. Recognize those who are working hard. Reward and credit those who deserve it. Nurture those who need help.

Not everyone on your team has pure motives for change. Some see the change as an opportunity for wealth and power rather than the goal of helping those who will be living out the change. Deal with this diplomatically.

This experience has reminded me of a reality TV show at times- intense with drama and life. It is almost surreal. But change produces movement and turbulence. And turbulence is life force. It is opportunity.

Comparisons

So as I wrote about the change process with my home I could clearly see the comparison to the  changes organizations and individuals go through with 21st Century reform. Can you? I would love for us to discover them together here in the comments. Please share your ideas- how does what I describe above compare?

My daughter Grace (pictured above wearing the "optical Illusion" threadless) loves Threadless T-shirts. She always asks for them for Christmas.

I recently got this email and thought I would share.

Hi There,

I wanted to let you know about a new program that is being hosted by Threadless which is a community-centered tee-shirt company based out of Chicago, IL called Threadless 101. 

It has become apparent to me that I have raised a family with strong geek tendencies and I find it quite endearing. Don't get me wrong, we are all cultured and our interests range from the arts to medicine but deep down we are way techno-geek and nerdy about our passions.

Case in point- my son's recent letter to me.

Mom,

I have created a spreadsheet of To Do’s for me for the new house along with description and tentative due dates. Hopefully this will help expedite the situation and get the work done. Let me know if any of this doesn’t work for you. Love you.

His spreadsheet is below. This is typical of how we communicate within our family about the various projects we are working on. I hope to share some before and almost done project pics on the new house for those of you who are interested in seeing what we are creating together in my family of Geeks.

So what kind of emails do you get from your 22 year old son? Is your family in touch with its inner geek?

Bottom line- Get your students involved. Join the Working together Site, raise some money, and donate to help rebuild schools and help Australia's students. (left hand column of the site has a PayPal button for donations.

Yesterday I posted here about the fires affecting Victoria, the State I, and other members of our cohort, live in here in Australia. Here is what I posted on my blog and the Working together 2 make a difference site tonight.

Join us to work together 2 make a difference for fire ravaged Victoria.

Yesterday I posted about the natural disaster that has ravaged the Victorian countryside. Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach read my post and offered to help in any way she could. My good friend Angela Stockman, who I collaborate with on Working together 2 make a difference, also wanted to know what she could do to help. Here we have two Americans reaching out to assist those in a country very distant from their own. Why do they want to help? Firstly no doubt, because they are sensitive people with a desire to assist their fellow citizens of the world. Perhaps they are motivated also because they have formed connections through these networks we are working in and feel a link to a country far from their own.

Sheryl spoke with me tonight and has committed to help me, Angela and other educators who may wish to join us, to do whatever it is we can to raise funds to support those in need. The Red Cross has coordinated a fundraising effort here in Australia. What we are encouraging you to do is to join Working together 2 make a difference and post your efforts there. We will set up a paypal account that will direct the monies you raise to the Red Cross appeal. Here’s what I’ve posted on the Working together 2 make a difference site to enocurage participation;

Victoria, the State I live in in Australia, has been hit by a tragic natural disaster that is affecting the lives of many of our country communities. On Saturday the 7th of Feb., bushfires, fanned by fierce northerly winds in 46 degree celcius temperatures, ravaged our countryside, leading to the deaths of 173 people. This figure is http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/10/2487517.htm?section=a...”>expected to rise to over 200 in the coming days as they gain access to affected areas and search homes. Native animals, livestock and family pets were other victims of this disaster.

So how can we all make a difference? We would love to see our education community from near and far band together to support the communities in need. What is needed is money to help schools rebuild, families rebuild their lost homes and for communities to build the infrastructure needed that has been lost in these fires.

What can you do? Anything that will help your students to understand the need to help others when the situation is dire. Be it a sausage sizzle, free dress day, bake sale, whatever it takes to raise a few dollars that can be used to support others. In the next few days, with the help of Sheryl Nussbaum Beach and some wisdom fron Clarence Fisher, we’ll be setting up a paypal account to direct funds you raise to the Red Cross appeal that has been set up to support those affected. Create a page here and let us know your plans. We can support one another and link our schools to a common cause. Let’s show the world how the education community can use the tools at our disposal to connect and support one another for a common purpose.

So, wherever you are in the world, think about helping out those in need here in Australia. And let’s see just how small our world really is when we connect using these tools for the common good.

We would love to see our cohort rally to support this cause. It will be a wonderful example of the power of these networked connections and their ability to form community that cares and supports one another. Think about what your school can do to help. It doesn't have to be huge, but whatever it is, it will make a difference. Go and visit Working together 2 make a difference and see what you can co.

In a family or community when some of us hurt- we all hurt. When some of us succeed we all celebrate.

Many of those in  our community from Australia are hurting. We need to stand with them in this time of crisis. I got this letter today. I have stripped the identifiers to protect privacy. I simply wanted to share to create an awareness that will inspire us to some collective action.

Hi all,

Just need to share this ...  for those overseas -  more than 130 people died in a bushfire on Saturday and the death toll is still rising.

On Saturday, we (my colleagues and friends) lost one of our students in the Bushfire - I taught him from Year 8 through to Year 12 - he got the best score in IT Apps for my class last year.  He stayed with his parents to protect their home and all three perished - his older brother and sister weren't home at the time.  He was a school prefect, involved in musicals and drama productions, a great student and topped many subjects.  Many of last year's Yr 12s came in today and the school community is devestated.

Also, one of my colleagues who retired 2 years ago and his wife have not been heard of since Saturday, so we are fearing the worst for him - his kids were taught at the school making it even more difficult.

A new student to the school was very upset this morning and when I took a closer look, it was the daughter of someone I knew (not very well).  When I enquired, it turns out her father wasn't responding to phone calls and hadn't been heard of for quite some time.  Her mother picked her up and they went to look for him. 

Hopefully, tomorrow brings some closure on  these missing people.

Many families and kids lived in the area and were on high alert over the weekend and continue to be on high alert.  Buses aren't running, so they can't get to school.  Many have lost their homes, livestock, businesses, etc.  3 colleagues lost their homes while about 15 - 20 families lost their homes.

The back of the school property (a back paddock) got burnt which makes me wonder whether our emergency plan good enough if it escalated. 

It was a tough day speaking to kids in class today and they told stories about their situation or family or friends not heard of or losing everything.  The devestation is amazing. 

While we don't live too close, we are close enough to hear the choppers, smell the smoke, see the haze and be aware that if the wind shifted in our direction for long enough from the wrong angle, there are many green (or dry) wedges that could put our house under ember attack.  Fire plan is to just pick up the kids and animals and leave.  Let's hope it doesn't get to this.

This sort of day makes you remember to live each day like it's your last.

Update: How we can help right now. PLP is working on an idea with Jenny Luca in Melbourne too. More info will be forthcoming.
http://www.redcross.org.au/vic/services_emergencyservices_victorian-bushfires-appeal-2009.htm

I had the opportunity recently to facilitate a group of business, education, political and community leaders in a discussion about developing a workforce ready group of graduates in the 21st Century.

I was given the task of relaying the experience. I have decided to share with you to see if you agree or disagree with these leaders' ideas and action steps and why. I encourage you to read and weigh in in the comment section below. I look forward to your responses.

Executive Summary

Newport News Public Schools is moving quickly to address learning in the 21^st century, its barriers and its possibilities, and kicked things off for 2009 with a 21^st Century Leading and Learning Conference.

As a precursor to the conference, held Jan. 9-10, 2009 at Heritage High School, global and regional leaders in education, business and religious organizations met to brainstorm together 21^st century learning concepts in a Global ThinkTank. 

An electronic global panel discussion kicked off the day’s events with an impressive group of thought leaders from Scotland, Thailand, and the U.S. logging in to Elluminate, a webinar software platform, to share their ideas and answer questions. Bios of the guest speakers can be found here. An archive of the conversation that took place can be found here.

In the following facilitated discussions, leaders were given a chance to voice their opinions about what they saw as barriers to implementation of 21^st Century workforce readiness and a re-culturing of our curriculum to meet the needs of today’s changing student.

Through the economic lens, business leaders expressed a need for 21^st century students to not only be prepared for the technology of the changing world, but to still grasp soft skills needed in the workforce, such as problem solving and leadership skills.

Education leaders saw disconnect between teacher preparation programs and the changing learning environment. High stakes testing was seen as another barrier to learning in the 21^st century.

“That accountability hinders the changes in curriculum and teaching practices needed to impact instruction, problem solving, literacy…”

“If pass rates are high, teachers/students feel a certain sense of fulfillment, but the SOLs are a minimum competency assessment. They are not enough to prepare kids for the future.”

A major theme from the breakout sessions was the disconnect between education and relevance.

“Students need to have the tie in – that what they are learning has relevance to the career they choose.”  

“When kids fall in love with learning it’s because they see the relevance.”

Leaders in the sessions admitted fear as a big barrier to 21^st century learning – the fear of change, of trying something new. This fear hinders the modeling necessary in 21^st century learning.

“Everyone needs to model from top down. . . .Principals model to teachers, teachers model to students, etc.”

After the facilitated discussions, leaders were asked to come up with proactive recommendations to the barriers addressed. From this long list, leaders filtered and organized their recommendations under different categories and then ranked the categories by the most important in their opinion. Some of the top ranked categories included leadership development, cultural awareness, professional/teacher development, partnerships/community involvement and student curriculum.

Empowering educators through leadership development, building relationships and cultural awareness, training and modeling were some of the most recommended steps to overcoming the barriers.

Out of the discussions recommended action statements emerged:

- Inventory the technological skills already available in the division to identify and address gaps. 

- Ask students to teach the teachers how they use technology and how they see these tools being used in a classroom.

- Allow teacher experts to train other teachers so there is no additional cost involved in the training. The business community can also provide in-kind support by providing training in these technologies.

- Build cultural awareness and infuse relevance into our instruction by teaching educators and students the facts of our global economy and community. 

- Teach educators the importance of and how to build their own online personal learning networks as a 21^st Century networking literacy leveraged for student growth.

- Teach students how to develop their own personal learning networks and discriminate information value and organization.

- Use technology to access and examine current events from various world perspectives through original sources and global connections.

- Teach the whole child by using inquiry driven approaches that reexamine curriculum through a 21^st Century lens.

- Work on belief systems, so that they produce citizens who can meet the challenges of this world with confidence and embrace all its people with compassion.

- Develop leadership networks that collaboratively function as professional learning communities to address and solve barriers to learning. These networks would include administrators, teachers, school staff, community and business leaders, and student leaders in the district, state and world.

Received this today and believe in the work. Thought I would share with you.

I am writing on behalf of Academy Award-winning filmmaker Vanessa Roth, co-founder of 826 National Nínive Calegari, and writer Dave Eggers. They are the Director and Co-Producers of the feature-length documentary The Teacher Salary Project. We wanted to reach out to you in the hopes that you may be interested in getting involved in our production.

The Teacher Salary Project will be a documentary film, a national outreach campaign, and the only digital archive of the stories of teachers' lives. In the end we will have a community-built movement that tells the true stories of hardworking and effective teachers in order to change the public perception, support, and financial rewards that accompany the invaluable work of teaching. The film is based on a book co-authored by Nínive Calegari, Daniel Moulthrop and Dave Eggers called Teachers Have it Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America's Teachers. You can read a Washington Post review of the book here <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/23/AR2005062301562_pf.html> .

We are excited to invite first-hand stories/ footage filmed by students about their public school teachers and the struggles of being a teacher. In this spirit, we are looking for public school teachers to help get their students involved. We found your name in searching for teachers that have already done some work with film or digital storytelling in the classroom, and hope that you would be interested in becoming part of this new and exciting way of filmmaking.

To learn more about the project you can check out our website at <http://www.theteachersalaryproject.org/>. To get an idea of what we are looking for, visit our student information page <http://www.theteachersalaryproject.org/studentvideo.html>, where you and your students can get some ideas for what we're looking for and how to get involved in the project. If we are able to use your submission in the final film we will hold a premiere screening at your school!

If you think this is something that you might be interested in helping with, or if you could perhaps suggest others who you think might be interested, please let us know. I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Emily Davis
Production Assistant
The Teacher Salary Project 

FROM THEIR WEBSITE

CREATE A VIDEO DOCUMENTARY

.  

We want to include your story in our film!

The Teacher Salary Project is all about giving YOU the voice to share your own personal story and connect with others so we can help our nation’s strongest teachers become even better.

We are especially looking for video submissions from teachers who have had to take on second and third jobs to be able to keep up their "teaching habit". Bring the video camera to your other jobs, tell us about the other work you do and what keeps you teaching.

We are also looking for videos made by students - Click here for more student info. Tell us about a teacher who changed your life, or interview your teacher and submit the interview to us! (click here for some questions you might ask)

Here are three ways that you can contribute:

Option One:
Film yourself with you own camera and create a “video journal.”
Then give us a call at (415) 963-4344 and we'll tell you where to send it.

Don’t forget to print out and sign a release form (click here) and send it with your tapes.

Option Two:
Directly upload your videos for others to see. Go to the Teacher Salary Project’s YouTube Channel (here), watch one of our videos, and then join the conversation by clicking on the “post video response” link found under the “commentary” tab on each video’s webpage. Then subscribe to our YouTube channel so you’ll receive all of our new videos. For technical help with uploading your videos to YouTube, click here.

Option Three:
Call us at (415) 963-4344 and leave a message explaining your story or circumstance so that we can contact you directly.

Again, we want YOUR input and YOUR perspective, so be creative with your camera and tell us your story!

My oldest daughter Amber was interviewed recently. I was blown away by her response to this question.

So what most inspires you?

I couldn't agree more. Community is the venue through which creativity can be fueled. Just think-- if we rethought classrooms and made them into communities that produced students who felt this way about learning-- what a difference we could make. At PLP we too feel like teachers who learn in communities become part of something bigger than themselves and that something  results in meaningful change and deep personal growth. Community is the best hope we have for re-culturing education.

So, what inspires you?

photo credit: http://isferea.jrc.ec.europa.eu/Communities/Pages/default.aspx

In this new year many of us have promised ourselves to try and find more balance in our lives. I personally vowed to spend more time connected with the earth through hiking, walking on the beach, and playing hard with my four 20-something kids. And yet with all of the meaningful work I am engaged in online I often find it difficult to unplug. How does one balance their personal and professional lives, especially while living in a world where often those in the communities to which I belong contribute to a significant part of my personal growth and constitute a great deal of the human interaction I receive each day? How do I draw the line in the sand between have-tos and want-tos when because of the personalness of the connections the lines have become grayed?

TECHNOLOGY CAN HELP
Some folks tell me that if I buy the Life Balance software for iPhone and iPod touch that it will help a multi-tasking mobile professional like me who struggles to keep up with the demands of their busy life. Life Balance(TM) is personal coaching software that helps you to decide what to work on, so that you can put your effort into the goals, projects and tasks that really matter to you.

Scott Elias, Expert Voice in the New Jersey cohort of Powerful Learning Practice is looking closely at this issue of balancing our real and virtual lives. He gives a powerful tip for keeping up with the deluge of email you are receiving.

"First, if the very idea of having an empty inbox sounds absurd to you, check out Merlin Mann's "Inbox Zero" series (complete with a video of a talk he gave at Google). The most useful idea I took away from this series if the idea of scheduling short email "dashes" where you process what you've got and move on."

Scott also shares a tool for helping to managing your "to-do" tasks called Remember the Milk. Scott likes RTM (as those "in the know" call it) because adding tasks is super-simple. "You can add directly from the web interface, you can follow @rtm on Twitter and "Tweet" tasks to yourself from your cell phone, or you can email single tasks or lists of tasks to a special, top-secret RTM email address. Once you've sent your tasks, they show up in your inbox."

Technology is willing and able to help us keep us organized and accountable. More than ever before  we have the knowledge management tools to help us keep up! Such as these--

So we have to ask ourselves is technology the problem when it can provide so many solutions? Or does true balance come from somewhere else?

My superintendent, a wise man indeed, once told me that technology only gives the illusion of saving time because we quickly fill the time we save with new tasks resulting in our professional lives being even busier than before. In many ways I think his perception is true. It as if we have this empty void we are all trying to fill. We are all looking for that sense of purpose in knowing what we are doing will matter in the end. It is the struggle of balancing the tension of change- wanting change, realizing that something different is needed and yet being terrified of losing something valuable in the long run. John Connell once told me that it isn't change we fear, but loss.

ARE WE FOCUSING ON THE WRONG THING?

Stephen Downes says, "The difference between the physical and the virtual is illusory - it is a distinction that has been marketed hard by companies that want to keep selling you paper. But the virtual is the physical - the people online are real, the computers are real, the impact of your words is real, and it all happens in the physical world to people with physical bodies."

Maybe that is why balance is so hard to achieve? Maybe we have been focusing on the wrong thing? Maybe the tension isn't between balancing our real and virtual lives, but more about balance in life in general? What I do online is very much a part of my real life. I am building real connections with people around the world from whom I am learning a great deal. My life is richer and I am a better person because of the relationships I have built online. The work I do is purposeful and meaningful and very much a part of my real life. Maybe the answer to making it all work comes in understanding how to integrate it all and realizing that by letting go (change) I will have loss, but what will follow will make me more effective in reaching my big picture goals. The secret is realizing that virtual is part of our real world now and it can't be thought of as "one more thing" added to our already impossible day, but rather it needs to become a seamless, embedded part of our normal day. Kind of like how families adapt when a new child is born. Somehow we find time to incorporate all the new things that have to be done in caring for a baby into our busy lives. We fumble at first thinking we will never adapt and then before you know it is becomes "business as usual."

I look forward to learning with you this year as together we try and find balance in our lives and turn business as unusual to business as usual.

Someone in a community I belong to recently said, "Why should teachers change? We are asking them to work harder, do things in a new way, unlearn the old ways of doing things, and when they do all that we have asked we do what? Tell them thanks? I know we don't give them more money. Maybe if they are really lucky we ask them to help the others who just don't seem to get it. What a reward!

I face the same problems, some jump on board and others don't, and I have started asking myself why should they change?"

Why change?

Here's why-- you change for the same reason you went into teaching in the first place. You change because what you do for a living was never just a job- but more a mission. You change because you are willing to do whatever it takes to make a significant difference in the lives of the students you teach. You change because you care deeply about kids and you know that unless you personally own these new skills and literacies you will not be able to give them to your students.

Why change? You change because of all the people in the world- teachers understand the value of being a lifelong learner. You change because you know intuitively relationships matter and you are interested in leaving a legacy to your kids-- through what you do for other's kids. You change because you understand learning is dynamic and that to not change means to quit growing.

Why change? Because you made the decision when you first became a teacher to do something that was larger than life and more meaningful than money, recognition, and status. You became a teacher because of change-- the changes in the world you wanted to make one kid at a time. You change because you want to do what is right-- simply because it *is* the right thing to do and you understand the need to model for others so they can do what is right as well. You are use to hard work and long hours. You are use to commitment with little recognition. You know what you do has lasting results.

You change because the world has changed and you know that not challenging the status quo is the riskiest thing you can do at this point. You change because you love learning and you love children and you know they need you to lead the way in this fast paced changing world and to do that you have to find your own way first. That is why you and they should change.

Photo credit:http://leadinganswers.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/03/15/monarch_stages.jpg

I’ve been tagged by Jenny Luca to contribute to this meme. The idea is that you share 7 things about yourself that would be unknown to your readers.

1. Before I attended college at age 26, I managed health spas.
2. I first became interested in education when I was homeschooling my four children. Soon I was homeschooling my friend's children, which then turned into a small private school which then grew into a charter school, all while I was finishing my first education degree.
3. I was the youngest manager ever hired of all Long John Silver's company stores. I was 16 when I was made manager and had to get my employees to draw the beer because I was underage.
4. I left home at age 14 and never went back.
5. I am a big believer in random acts of kindness to strangers that they have no way of paying back.
6. I had my four children in birthing centers (one where the doctor didn't show and we delivered ourselves with no one in the room-he did arrive in time to cut the cord) or at home (again the midwife didn't show and we did it ourselves).
7. I was a vegetarian for ten years and previously lived on the US's largest successful commune (The FARM).

Now I am suppose to tag 7 people who will do the same thing I just did.

I tag:

Jamie Baker

Lisa Parisi

Fred Delventhal

Mike Gras

Pat Hensley

Robin Clarke

Amber Karnes

Some questions we will ask each other in our family meeting on Jan 1, 2009 ...

• What am I doing well?
• What did I complete or do successfully during 2008?
• What are my highest held values and how can I build on them?
• How am I documenting my successes and excellence?
• What are my three month, one year, & five year goals under the categories of personal, professional, family, spiritual, and financial?
• Long term- what 2008 goals have I achieved?

Everyone of us has something that works in life; something we can build on and develop. I am a big believer in developing strengths. To be highly successful you figure out what you do well and where your passions lie and you develop that area to its fullest. I am convinced that is how one achieves excellence, by playing to one's strengths. In our family, the areas of weakness will get attention too, but while we work on our deficits we understand that our most heroic efforts will often yield mediocrity at best. The exception is when our deficit is in an area of passionate interest, then motivation typically pushes us to produce despite any circumstance that may conspire against us.

We also celebrate together our successes and we hold each other accountable for laziness. Our family meetings throughout the children's lives have been a powerful way to develop their voice, encourage their strengths and to receive from them their wisdom regarding life choices we are contemplating. A good friend told me recently, "Never sell short the importance of raising wise children, as we will need their wisdom as we grow older." Never a truer statement! I can't count the times my children have been able to look at my circumstance and offer a perspective I had not considered that was wise beyond their years.

"21st Century Learning is students and teachers co-creating the curriculum.  The teacher has a broad-brush idea of where to go, but the students connect this outline with their own passions, developing a syllabus together."

One of the Powerful Learning Practice community members recently gave this definition to 21st Century learning. It connected immediately to my vision of classrooms as communities. What if our classrooms were places where we all learned together? Where students taught teachers and each other as often as teachers taught students.

But that would mean a reculturing of schools as we know them. That would mean equipping teachers with the skills to build and sustain communities of practice and learning networks.

TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES
Anthony called me for an interview yesterday on a piece he was doing about the adjustments schools are going to need to make to get their training and PD needs met in light of the tightening of most district budgets. Many schools are realizing that they will not be able to send as many teachers to conferences or bring in the same numbers of high ticket presenters to lead their staff development initiatives. He wanted to know if I had ideas or tips for how schools can still meet their training needs.

For me it is a no brainer. Equip teachers to do their own PD through the building of PLNs and leverage the potential of Web 2.0 tools to bring experts in at relatively low cost. Teaching teachers to create their own free PD represents a lifetime savings for the school or district.

SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING
In schools we all agree that students need to take responsibility for their own learning. The teacher can present the material all day long, but the students have to be active participants in the process if learning is going to take place.

But somehow with teachers we do not have the same expectation. We put them in conferences, lectures, courses, and inservices that are mandated and for the most part are one size fits all. What if instead we equipped them to design their own learning experiences based on professional development goals that they co-created within a professional learning team? What if we helped them understand how to develop learning communities within their schools that knew how to connect globally with other educators around the world? And what if they knew how to leverage the communication and collaboration tools to find "just in time" answers from their learning networks through the sharing of resources and ideas? What if through this sharing they were able to improve their teaching skills, mentor each other, and model for their students these same 21st Century literacies?

I am reminded of the analogy, " “Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime”— Schools trying to cut PD dollars need to be investing in teaching their teachers to fish.

WHAT WOULD I DO?
If I was in the position many educational leaders find themselves today- I would invest in PD that helped my faculty understand how to build sustainable situated communities of practice where teachers learn from each other. I would make sure my teachers knew how to use the emerging technologies to share, connect and collaborate. I would target my professional dollars on experts who knew how to deliver best practice professional development online and understood the value of job embedded PD over time through virtual community spaces. I would invest in training that helped my teachers understand the new networking literacies.

Why?

1. PD needs are met for less money
2. Teachers are gaining valuable 21st Century teaching and learning skills through immersion in the the environments their kids use to learn outside of school.
3. Teachers make connections that accelerate their growth as networked learners.
4. To save on travel, lodging, and food cost associated with sending teachers off or bring multiple experts in physically.

TRADITIONAL CONFERENCES STILL HAVE THEIR PLACE
I am not suggesting conferences are not still beneficial or diminishing the role that a well positioned keynote and workshop can have on motivating your staff to accomplish great things. However, I do believe that as budgets grow tighter and leaders are forced to limit the number of opportunities like these they can provide- taking a serious look at programs like Powerful Learning Practice or K12Online just makes sense.

But then that reminds me of other "Fish" analogies...

“Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today.  Teach a man to fish; and you will not have to listen to his incessant whining about how hungry he is.”—Author unknown

“Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today.  Teach a man to use the Net and he won't bother you for weeks.”—Author unknown

“Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.  Unless he doesn't like sushi—then you also have to teach him to cook.”—Auren Hoffman, Herald Philosopher

“Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today.  Teach a man to fish, and he will sit in the boat and drink beer all day.”—OldFox

“Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today.  Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime.  Teach a man to sell fish and he eats steak.”—Author unknown

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