| 1:1 Discipline of Learning | |
| Author: Karen Ward, AALF | July 13th, 2011 | |
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If you want to be a champion, you must do what champions do. (1:1 history teacher) I have had fabulous opportunities to work with and learn from 1:1 educators around the world. Many times the essence of my learning has been identified in a few key words or an engaging phrase…words like, If you want to be a champion you must do what champions do. This quote comes from a 1:1 history teacher who is also a football coach; he understands the importance of watching, learning, and applying lessons from other successful coaches and teams. He also understands how to connect what he learns to proven practices. This same wisdom must be applied when creating and building highly effective 1:1 programs. In the AALF May newsletter (2011) I wrote about creating teacher learning cultures based on continuous improvement. I would like to build upon this idea by making a suggestion for school leaders: while creating a learning culture based on champion work build and capture a site-wide memory through collaboration. How to do this? I would like to share several principles and examples from two schools. Principle 1: Identify what champions do. In other words, refer to and rely on what researchers have found champion schools are doing. At RMS middle school leaders and teachers are working to capture their site best practices by laying strong foundations for this collaborative work. They started by applying the Research Findings and Frameworks they learned about through AALF coaching. Next, they identified several research findings to focus their site-wide work upon. Additionally, each teacher was encouraged to choose additional research findings that would be appropriate for their work and content. They then continued their staff reflective learning work that already existed prior to their 1:1 implementation by asking teachers to share their evolving 1:1 pedagogy as well as student work samples. Here are examples of outcomes from their work: Research Finding: Students spend more on academic work, are more likely to be independent learners, and more readily take ownership in their learning. Frameworks: Provide students with resources and protocols to engage independently in their learning. Encourage students to identify their interests that focus upon the unit of study. Incorporate rigorous inquiry and build upon student curiosity; help students look for answers through various means, including collaboration and building partnerships as well as effectively searching for and collecting online resources. RMS Best Practice: • Help each student establish their own effective PLN (Personal Learning Network). • Include student questions in unit planning. • Support students to develop their research skills and knowledge (common site-wide search skills by grade level) • Ensure that student collaboration is included in each unit of study. Examples: o Online discussions among class members, between classes on campus, and with other students from unique campuses. o Incorporate online forums sites for collaboration. o Involve students with ePals. o Establish opportunities for students to communicate with community experts Principle 2: Build and capture a site-wide memory for your staff. The second school-based practice involves using Web 2.0 resources to share lessons learned while also including various perspectives on the work. Leadership at JJS has requested that each department create a common blog where they can record and share what they are learning. They have learned powerful lessons, not only based on 1:1 classroom pedagogy, but also about organization and structures needed to empower all their staff and students. Examples of their lessons learned include: • Create a common structure or organization for each department blog so that everyone can learn from one another. The site administration and teacher leaders have worked together to identify these common organizational structures. This process took longer than they expected, but it has helped build a school-wide community of teacher learners. • Expect teachers to complete their blog entries during their reflective meetings to ensure that the collective wisdom is captured. • Work with the technology coach to incorporate additional linked resources that will help all teachers build their pedagogy. This also helps to build an invaluable resource for future work in each department as well as across campus. • Share your site blogs with community members; this builds relevance for the teaching staff. • Invite student leaders to provide feedback on the site blogs; getting a student perspective on learning provides very powerful insights for staff. While these two examples are not inclusive of all the learning and work that can take place while building and capturing a site-wide memory through collaboration, imagine what would happen on each campus if they each implemented both practices…they would be doing what champions do! |
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