Skip to main content

Learning, Unlearning and Relearning Yourself

When I decided to blog I made the call not to give it a tech-centric name because I was at a crossroads in my career. I was smack dab in the middle of graduate school, getting my administrative certification and becoming a principal seemed like a potential career option. While my path didn't lead me in that direction it has veered me off the track of solely technology integration - coordinating data and assessments. For the first time in my professional life I'm looking at how I can help teachers assess student work, or meet the Common Core changes, rather than evangelizing why they need to embrace 21st Century Skills development...communicate with Web 2.0 tools...or something of that nature. It's refreshing.

I think Krista Moroder's post on focusing on learning helped to make me conscious of the importance of remembering why we're in education. She blogged more about this just the other day. I have no doubt I had lost site of that, lost in the world of wireless gadgets and web tools. I never got traction in my last district because all I was doing was saying - "boy this is really cool...try this, learn about this."

This evening on my rainy and windy run I wrapped up Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future. I completely paused The New Digital Age because the content was so timely and compelling for me. Outside of having of having the ndmielke handle market cornered I don't have a brand, but I certainly see a new future. Author Dorie Clark offers quality advice on ways to help change directions in your career (I'm glad she mentioned that looking up big wig's bios is part of the process to find your path. I was starting to think I might be weird).

Two great take aways from my first listen to the audiobook.
1) Mentorship is powerful. Working in a new, more densely populated area I've been able to make many contacts with folks who work in technology, data, assessment and curriculum. The non-tech folks are the ones I bug the most far and away, because those are the areas I need the most development in. Luckily that data and assessment folks like Mel Stewart and Nick Dussault are incredibly giving of their time, talents and resources.

2) is that we don't always leave everything about our old careers or interests behind, but we find ways to leverage those strengths. Last night I was up watching a CRESST YouTube video on the Future of Assessments. It's fascinating to me, and totally nerdy to imagine all we can do with better adaptive technologies and gaming that provides students greater feedback on their performance.

I hope more folks in this grand field of education pick up this bug. To some people in all stripes of life, change is horrifying. I've found it to be completely liberating. I think once you try it...it hooks you. Hope it hooks more folks as we all search to find our passions and make a difference in our lives.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Do we have to call them 21st Century Skills?

I'm glad a few years ago I introduced the book 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times  to our administration. It was exciting to have an assistant superintendent interested in changing the conversation for learning in our school district. While I still certainly appreciate the content of this book, I am soooooooo sick of hearing about 21st Century Learning, 21st Century Skills, 21st Century ad nauseam . Isn't there a better way to phrase this for everyday conversation? Perhaps we need to stick with this so everyone hears consistent jargon, but I don't think people overall have the right idea of what it means. I would imagine if we polled our staff or parents they would say its technology or computer skills. That couldn't be further from the truth. If I say higher order thinking skills  I think that's pretty clear (at least to me) of what that means. I worry 21st Century  means the Jetsons or Star Trek to all too many people. I appreciate Tony Wag...
2 comments
Read more

...moving in.

...getting used to my new digs in Germantown . I moved into an office I'll be sh aring with a soon to be hired Student Information Specialist. To be honest there were plenty of times in the last week I felt like I was going to puke - moving on from all I've known for 7 years professionally. Stomachs have settled now and great conversations are taking their place. Had a great one today with our high school media specialist Jeff Schreiber  who has done great things integrating technology, boosting circulation and getting kids reading. I know we're going to do some great things in the next few years and I look forward to the challenge of discovering what works for Germantown in terms of instructional technology. In addition to instructional technology integration, I'm also working on data and assessment analysis. This is a hot topic in Wisconsin right now, as the DPI NAEPized  (more than you care to know on this link) our standardized test scores. Students who may...
2 comments
Read more

The Future of Technology Funding and Support

Will Richardson and Chris Lehman shined a light  on what I found to be horrifying statements. At the Education Innovation Summit Lehman reported defeated former Mayor of Washington DC Adrian Fenty said "if we fire more teachers, we'll have more money for technology."This happened a while ago - back in April, but this morning it came back to me as I contemplated the future of technology funding and support in schools in the face of ever-decreasing budgets. In my opinion, people are more important than machines for our kids. I can buy an iPad or laptop, but a personal teacher/mentor/advisor that's a little more pricey. Can we find ways to use technology to lighten the load for teachers - of course - but as a parent, a school flush with laptops and tablets, but devoid the necessary number of caring professionals to support learning is not a school I want my kids in. To contradict Mr. Fenty, "the more technology we don't buy, the more caring professionals we ...
2 comments
Read more