Creative Juices

Take A Moment
It is hard to ignore the countless articles, blogs, tweets, etc. about creativity being lost in our school system these days. To some extent I don't disagree we are putting certain practices in place that can be stifling to the creativity that our students possess. But take a moment and reflect on what we have accomplished as a nation and where we are at. Yes we have many issues that can seem depressing at times, but in my opinion, we still have incredible schools, many opportunities, and creative citizens sharing and working with people around the globe!

courtesy of betterworldbooks.com

I am currently participating in a book study with the ISTE SIGAdmin group, reading the book, "The Flat World and Education." There is mention in the book about Singapore's educational reform and their focus on creativity and innovation, what grabbed my attention was a response by one of the SIGAdmin members about this program.

What is even more interesting is that the "training" the teachers are receiving is being done by, (you'll never believe it), teachers from the United States. True! A very dear friend of mine "commutes" to Singapore monthly to work with 240 teachers for 10 days a month in one of their training programs. my friend says that "the teachers are marvelous and "she returns quite inspired each month." -Becky

As a nation, we should be proud that many countries still turn to the United States for training, observation, and ideas, on how to educate their students to become creative and innovative thinkers. But how do we keep creativity and innovation in the classrooms, many think it is already gone others on the way out?

Keep Them Flowing
So where does technology fit into the puzzle with developing creators and how do we keep the creative juices flowing? As I always like to point out, we must keep the focus on "good teaching" and not the shiny object, and I recently read a grant proposal that stood out as an example of this. Robert Jones, a English teacher in Tempe, AZ, is having his students create Android apps that they will use to review and synthesize literature. The students will then make the apps available to download on their Android tablets or other compatible devices. The project has what I feel are all the right pieces that support innovation and creation in the classroom and the English content standards were the foundation when the project based activity was designed.

courtesy of http://wiki.makerbot.com/

Another technology device that I am amazed with is the 3D printer. Maybe it is just a shiny object that is distracting to me personally, but it seems like the device has a tremendous amount of potential to be used in schools. What better way to incorporate essential standards into a project based activity and actually be able to build a product, literally have it appear right in front of you. I learned about the Makerbot, an affordable 3D printer, from John Miller, Tech Director at Litchfield Elementary, last year. After showing a video of the device to my son, he immediately wanted one so he could make armies of Lego characters and blocks for stopmotion movies. Can only imagine how I could have used this in the classroom many years ago.

Looking Ahead
Developing creative and innovative students is important for any society to be successful and should be a priority around the world. Great things come from new ideas...jobs, success, personal satisfaction, and the understanding that if something isn't working, innovate and make it better. I hope that as a nation we do not lose sight of what has worked in the past, continue to evolve so we are relevant in the present, and develop creators to lead us into the future.

To The Extreme

Not That One

courtesy of Jim Crossley-raindog

If you thought that I was going to break into a Vanilla Ice song after reading the title to this post, then I apologize. I did however find it a little humorous that the line "collaborate and listen" was in Ice Ice Baby, maybe Vanilla was a bit ahead of his time. But on a serious note, I have been pondering lately why everything seems to be to the extreme, education reform, leadership style, politics, couponing. Rarely these days do you see push, pull, "off balance on purpose" situations that challenge and take staff to the edge, but not completely push them off the cliff. I would argue that disruption, innovation, pushing adults and students can take place with great results without an entire staff/class ending up at the bottom of the canyon.

Off Balance
How many times have you heard that to much of any one thing is not a good idea? The pressure to perform in the K-12 arena seems to push ideas to the extreme and one giant weight is dropped on the balance scale, with no hope of returning to the off balance place that is desired. In Dan Thurmon's book, "Off Balance On Purpose," he writes:

courtesy of christart.com

When we experience imbalance in our lives, we often overcompensate by throwing ourselves in another direction. We think that it takes bold, dramatic action to create change. Sometimes this is true-we reach moments in our lives when a huge shift in thinking or action is completely necessary. But usually when we find ourselves in that predicament, it is because we missed many previous opportunities to make smaller adjustments that would have prevented, or at least softened, the crisis. Often an attempt to overdo it, providing to much force in one direction or another to quickly, will only exacerbate the trouble. -Dan Thurmon

The same thought can be applied to organizations that are struggling to be successful and looking for the magic bullet of change. Instead of looking at the foundational issues within, a bold, dramatic action takes place that results in the scale being tipped completely over.

Technology Balance
I think we often tip the scale to the extreme with technology initiatives as a silver bullet approach, missing the foundational pieces that will truly make using technology in our classrooms relevant. Take a look at all the 1:1 initiatives that have struggled over the years because the focus was on the shiny new object and not:                           

-Good teaching

-Professional Dev

-Digital Citizenship

-Parent involvement

-Infrastructure

-Sustainability

An example of going to the extreme in a 1:1 environment would be piling up every book on campus and having a giant bonfire to celebrate every student having a device. Sure this would afford the ability to eliminate certain texts and some paper use that is not necessary, but a successful 1:1 isn't measured by walking into a classroom and every student having a device open in front of them. We need to think about being off balance enough to sustain meaningful change, without pushing the entire group to the bottom of the canyon for the sake of a photo op. 

Welcome Change

I enjoy change and new things, maybe that is why I don't like riding the same exact trail every day on my bike, or listening to the same music on repeat for a year at a time, I even enjoy clipping a coupon now and again. Speaking of coupons, before creating a stockpile that turns into an episode on hoarding, ask yourself if you are off balance or just going to the extreme for that photo op.

The Administrator Superhighway

I wrote this article for the ISTE Sig-Admin Winter Newsletter, and thought I would put it in my blog as well.

Have you ever driven on a freeway system that is so confusing due to the complex looping off-ramps, the over and under, and super high speed lanes that require exotic foreign sports car to navigate? Even with GPS I seem to add a few extra miles onto each destination when I venture out of AZ and into other states with more freeway twists and turns than I am accustomed to. As an administrator in today’s K-12 environment, there are many different off-ramps and high speed lanes to choose from when considering your leadership goals and how it will influence your organization.

Visionary Leadership ISTE NETS for Administrators (NETS•A): Educational Administrators inspire and lead development and implementation of a shared vision for comprehensive integration of technology to promote excellence and support transformation throughout the organization.

Sounds simple enough, right? Any successful organization probably has a leader that can inspire, create vision and put practices in place to reach a goal, but how many other “leaders” are influencing that person? In my position as Director of Technology, in the Apache Junction USD, I feel the Superintendent has created an environment that allows departments, school staff, and students to collaborate, share, and influence the direction of the organization. Let’s take a closer look at a few areas that support the road to visionary leadership.

Fear of Failing
There are a number reasons why people are afraid to change, try new things, and influence others around them. Two specific reasons that come to mind are:

• The fear of failure itself
• Staff members are not encouraged to fail

The end result of the fear of failure can lead to a stale environment and innovation will be put aside for sustaining old practices. Learning how to fail while maintaining the confidence to adjust and move forward is essential to creating a successful learning environment. I want to share an experience that Tracy Watanabe, Technology Integration Specialist for the Apache Junction USD, shared with me about failing.

“Early last summer, I was asked to do a presentation in a short webinar. I had never been involved in a webinar before, but figured it would not be very different from all of the professional developments I facilitated every week. Boy was I wrong. My computer froze 10 minutes before I was supposed to start, and my backup computer did the same. I was so nervous by the time my computer was rebooted, that I didn't remember what I said, how fast/slow I was talking, and couldn't read my audience, which is something I rely strongly on. I felt like I let everyone down. I was ready to write off webinars as something that was not for me. Luckily, I'm surrounded by others who believe that failing is just a milestone on the path of improvement Fail, Learn, Try Again. When I shared my webinar experience with my boss, and other peers, their feedback was encouraging and inspired me to try again. Recently I facilitated a webinar as part of the Edublogs Serendipity webinars. It wasn't perfect, but that didn't seem to bother anyone, including myself because it's part of the learning process. Next time is an opportunity for improvement. Isn't that what it's about? You see, to grow and improve is like a journey. Failures along the way are just milestones on that journey. Failures aren't the destination, and a journey without failures means you're not traveling far from the safe zone. It takes venturing out of the safe zone to grow and improve. “

Good Teaching vs. Shiny Object

Digital-Age Learning Culture ISTE NETS for Administrators (NETS•A): Educational Administrators create, promote, and sustain a dynamic, digital-age learning culture that provides a rigorous, relevant, and engaging education for all students.

Building and promoting a digital-age learning culture can be difficult with the rapid change of technology. Every week a new shiny device is released and it can become distracting from the educational goals of a district, unless the focus is on good teaching and not the device. The device type will continue to change, but good teaching must remain constant and use whatever tool best meets the needs of their students. Take the time to collaborate and create a foundational plan that will guide good teaching practices that support the learning goals. The “College Readiness for All” is our foundational guide in the Apache Junction USD.

Role of IT
As we continue down the administrator superhighway we have to ask ourselves what role every department and staff member plays in supporting the foundational plan that is guiding good teaching. As a Technology Director, I feel that the Role of IT can have a tremendous impact on a district’s educational plan. IT staff spend many hours in classrooms and cannot make it across a campus without being asked a question by staff and students. The days of IT staff just replacing a video card or upgrading operating systems are becoming a thing of the past. I recently asked my Superintendent what his thoughts were on the role of Technology Directors in the K-12 environment and this was his response.

“The Director of Technology can absolutely play a significant role in helping influence change within the district if he or she assumes the role of instructional leader. Many of today’s school systems are technology-rich, especially compared to just ten years ago. But technology in and of itself won’t improve student achievement. Putting computers, Smart Boards, Doc Cameras, etc., in classrooms without first developing teacher capacity to utilize these tools to create authentic, learning opportunities will do little to change our current school systems.

Great technology, paired with excellent teaching, is what will provide students a better opportunity to learn. This is where the Director of Technology can have a huge influence on change. By being an instructional leader, Directors of Technology can help districts keep a balance on first, good teaching, and then second, how technology can be utilized to provide students with quality learning opportunities. Directors of Technology should be instrumental in shaping professional development opportunities for classroom teachers, focus the conversation about how/what technology should be utilized to support quality teaching, how dollars should be utilized when purchasing technology, how technology fits into a school/district strategic plan, etc. By fulfilling this role, the Director of Technology will absolutely influence change in school districts for the benefit of all.”

Put Me in Coach
Excellence in Professional Practice ISTE NETS for Administrators (NETS•A):
Educational Administrators promote an environment of professional learning and innovation that empowers educators to enhance student learning through the infusion of contemporary technologies and digital resources.

Administrators must model the practices that they want to see happen in the classroom, but who can help support the teachers on a daily basis. One Technology Integration Specialist was not going to be able to support 6 schools by herself in my school district, so we turned to the Microsoft Peer Coaching model developed by the Peer-Ed team. The focus with our collaboration coaches is first on good teaching, aligned to our College Readiness for All plan, with technology embedded in the instruction. If administrators are going to “allocate time, resources, and access to ensure ongoing professional growth in technology fluency and integration” they will need support from departments, staff, and peers to make this happen, peer coaching is an off-ramp worth taking.

The Real Leaders
I hope that you have enjoyed the ride down the road to visionary leadership on the administrative superhighway! The off-ramps I have discussed are few among many that make up the complex K-12 environment in our technology rich world. As long as we keep the real leaders at the center of all decisions, the students, the K-12 landscape will continue to evolve and still be the goal that all others strive to achieve.

Yes, No, Maybe?

Face-To-Face

The ISTE Learning and Leading publication is a membership magazine that contains great ideas, success stories, and the chance to share opinions. Point/Counterpoint is a regular feature that provides a topic question that readers can respond to. The reader answers yes or no and then gives their reasoning for their answer. It is a great feature that I enjoy reading and on occasion will respond to. Back in August the question was,  "Should students opt out of face-to-face education." This question is featured in the current issue and I thought I would share my response (added a little color) here and see if others have any feedback on the topic.   

No
Online learning has brought a great opportunity for both students and teachers in today's educational environment. It continues to evolve and K-12 institutions are finding ways to incorporate this medium of instruction in a number of creative ways. Traditionally, opting out of face-to-face and moving online has been associated with credit recovery, illness, participating in a class that their school does not offer, or particular situations that keep students from attending a traditional setting. I think we should be grateful to the online learning options for those situations. However opting out of all face-to-face education  just "because" is not the right choice in my opinion.

Blend It
I believe that a blended learning opportunity can better meet the needs of our students than opting out completely from the face-to-face environment. Blended learning was defined by Michael Horn and  Heather Staker in The Rise of K-12 Blended Learning as,

"any time a student learns at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home and at least in part through online delivery with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace"

This definition has been interpreted and rewritten in a number of different ways, however the definitions that I believe will allow our students to be successful in society have a meaningful face-to-face component. We have created this definition in my school district to guide our blended learning opportunity pilot by combining our own thoughts and those of others.

blended learning is any time a student learns at least in part in a Project-based, higher level thinking, brick-and-mortar location away from home and at least in part through online delivery with some element of student
control over time, place, path, and/or pace

"When PBL is done correctly, it engages the students in their learning. They are motivated by an authentic purpose that peeks their curiosity. Learning is differentiated through product, process, possibly content, choice, etc. Various learning styles are met, and student strengths are nourished. Teachers can work with small groups, and can meet individual needs." -Tracy Watanabe

Why Not
I suppose there could also be an argument that PBL and higher level thinking can be facilitated online and not face-to-face, but a productive society still has to interact with one another sometime, so why not blend it.

The Role of IT

Amazing Group
I am very fortunate to be on the AZ CIO/CTO Conference planning committee, which works closely with Converge (@convergemag) to make the conference possible. The conference is a product of the AZ CIO/CTO group that is made up of CIO, CTO's, Directors, and other AZ educational IT staff. What is so refreshing about the planning committee and the group in general, is the desire to influence change in the classroom using technology as the catalyst. When planning the most recent conference, the discussion was focused on pedagogy, leadership, and how we could share thoughts on innovation with our audience. Yes the techie piece was still a part of the conversation, but a small part in the big picture. You may be thinking what is so great about that, but I would ask you to stop and think about your district's IT department and what their role is in the organization. Do they just manage devices or do they influence change?


Influence Change
The keynote speaker at the conference was Dan Thurmon (@DanThurmon), and his philosophy is based around, "Success in life is not determined by your circumstances, but by your actions." One of the statements that he made was, "you can't always control the situation, but you can influence it." I very much agree with that statement and believe that as technology directors and IT staff, we can and should operate as 360 degree leaders. John Maxwell talks about leading down, up and across in organizations and how you can expand your influence and become a more valuable team member in his book, The 360 Degree Leader. You may not always be able to control a situation, but you can spend time talking with your superintendent, working with principals, spending time in classrooms and leading your tech staff to be 360 degree leaders also. 

Why So Motivated
I may be generalizing a bit here, or maybe AZ just has the best group of educational IT staff around, but CIO/CTO's and techies in general are not afraid of change. Maybe it is because we are used to the rate that technology changes everyday, or the infinite number of possibilities that can cause a piece of software not to run properly. Whatever the reason is, district tech staff can be innovators and can influence change across a school district, they reach classrooms on a daily basis. What is the role of your district's IT staff, do they just fix devices and manage the network, or do they influence change and innovate?

Innovation Center

There were a number of great sessions at the CIO/CTO conference I mentioned earlier, but one that motivated me to write about the day and IT department was John Miller's session, Innovation Centers. Here is the session description.

Twenty-first century innovation is a symphony of the arts and sciences to design beautiful products and services in new ways. Innovation centers prepare a generation of creators with self-directed teams of students learning through active creation. They are a mash-up of science experiment, art project, music class, multimedia lab and innovation playground. With the help of a trained facilitator, students select, lead and manage their own projects, developing empathy, teamwork, independence and creativity. Evolve beyond the computer lab or Media Center to student Innovation Centers. Transform the digital native to the innovation native.

John truly believes that IT staff can help bring innovation into the classroom and he is working closely with one of his district's elementary schools to create an innovation center that focuses on keeping the creativity in learning. I wanted to end with a picture that John recently shared of the door to his IT department, nice to see department names and titles starting to change to reflect the 21st century.

"Billy" Beane for the Disruption

Baseball

softdistrict.com

Like most kids I played baseball growing up, Little League and then Senior League, before giving it up for track in high school. It was fun hanging out with friends, developing rivalries with the other teams, yelling hey batter batter batter.....swing, from the dugout. I have to admit that I don't follow baseball very close anymore, I don't know many players names and only keep up with the AZ Diamondbacks, who are doing very well I might add:-). Despite me not knowing every stat of every player in the league, there are many amazing baseball stories that have inspired countless books and movies over the years.


Moneyball
I recently went to see Moneyball starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, "A story of Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players." Like any Hollywood movie based on a true story, I am sure there were a number of changes to keep things interesting and people planted in the seats, but what I took away from the movie was very simple. Beane brought disruption to the organization. By using sabermetrics to build his team, he caused discomfort to the traditionalist of the game and was quickly criticized when the team got off to a rough start.

typepad.com

Sound Familiar
The wheels in my head were spinning throughout the movie as I kept thinking about how disruption is so difficult for most people to accept and when it happens, how quickly the change is condemned unless there is immediate success. Once Beane had his team together, he used stats to build relationships with the players and it gave them an understanding of the why...sound familiar? I won't give away a few great scenes in the movie where others have their aha moments, but there are a number of them that could be used with staff as examples of how change can be something positive and professionally stimulating.


Final Quote
Like I mentioned earlier, I am not a die hard baseball fan and I am sure there are many arguments by purist that may argue Beane's methods of constructing a baseball team. However I think many scenes in this movie will be used by leaders as examples that disruption is not a bad word and changing the way we have always done things is OK. I will leave you with my favorite quote from the movie, "adapt or die!"       

Nothing Without It

mediabeast.net

Relationships
I recently was having a conversation with someone and the topic of discussion was successful teams/departments and the relationships among them. While we were discussing the qualities of the leaders that have built these great teams, this person said something which I found puzzling. They said that the person didn't really matter to them, just what they had to say. It quickly put things into perspective about this person, but also confirmed for me the importance of relationships when attempting to build a solid team or connect with anyone for that matter. 



Long Term
So what does it take to build relationships that will leave people truly listening to what you are saying....trust. I believe John Maxwell puts it in very simple terms, "In reality, trust is necessary in ALL good relationships. Good marriages, business relationships, and friendships all require trust. Without it, there can be no open and honest interaction, and the relationship will be only temporary". Have you ever watched a group of people follow someone they don't trust, or work collaboratively together, or sustain a relationship that proves successful over a long period of time? Temporary relationships may yield quick outcomes, but not long term growth.

bydanleisure

Build Them
Relationships exists at every level within a school district and building them is critical for the success of the organization. Everyone must take responsibility for building them, admin-staff, teacher-student, teacher-parent, the list could go on. If we are to build more than a short term relationship between individuals, we must build trust. I was sent a post by Mike Myatt recently, via @LarryLaPrise, that addressed leadership and presence. One takeaway for me was, "Leadership is about trust, stewardship, care, concern, service, humility and understanding. If you build into those you lead, if you make them better, if you add value to their lives then you will have earned their trust and loyalty. This is the type of bond that will span positional and philosophical gaps, survive mistakes, challenges, downturns and other obstacles that will inevitably occur".

Listen
Building relationships, it is the foundation in my opinion, that will allow a successful structure to be built. It opens the door for genuine collaboration, interaction between customer and business, school and students, teacher and parents. And just think, when people are listening to each other, they may just matter.