Link to #DigiLitSunday posts at Margaret Simon’s blog.
Innovation
Not merely regurgitation
Not just analyzing
But moving on to . . . dare I risk it? . . . innovation?
By reassembling ideas
Through some thoughtful reflection
Should I attempt it?
If you read my found poem yesterday here, you know that I did not attend the 92nd Saturday Reunion sponsored by the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. But I did follow along in the TwitterVerse and even collected my re-tweets here in storify. There are about 150 Tweets there if you want to see some of the quotes, ideas, and Tweets that caught my attention.
In the interest of accuracy, this is NOT my first reporting on LEARNING when I was NOT at the conference.
My Previous Learning Via Twitter instead of In Real Life
- May 2016 – New England Reading Association (#NERA2016) in Portland, Maine
- April 2015 – #TCRWP in Paris and #NCTE and Poetry
- and that doesn’t even include Ed Collaborative Gatherings here and here
- And yes, I had a Tweet Deck column following the PAWLP Spring Day today #PAWLPARTS17
Teachers need to have many layers of skills and knowledge. They need to be EXPERTS with their content skills and strategies (Knowledge Base – the what), pedagogy (how to teach in an interesting and engaging way), design (why and how certain aspects of environment, technology, and instruction overlap) and in student development (to understand the faces/bodies in front of them each day). Which of those gets precedence on any given day?
IT DEPENDS!
As a teacher, it’s important for you to know and understand the skills, strategies of the standards and curricula as well as your goals for your grade level so the learning targets are crystal clear. Communication skills must be honed so that students clearly understand the purposes of today’s work and the connections that build every day to meet those end goals. However all of these are totally influenced by teacher beliefs and expectations. The teacher has to believe that ALL students can learn and learn at high levels. And what is it that they must learn?
Learning and school CANNOT be about preparation for the next grade. Grade levels assigned by century old arbitrary calendar years are not working for students. The goal in every classroom must be to prepare the students to be productive and independent citizens of the world. So that means no more points taken off for papers turned in a day late (where does that REALLY happen in the real world?), and that students need more VOICE and CHOICE in the work that is done in classrooms on a regular basis. And they also need to be risk takers, entrepreneurs, brave, empathetic, and . . .
“Wow, Fran, I was at #TCRWP and I didn’t hear any of that?”
My Take Aways from #TCRWP by Twitter:
- What do you value? How do we know? Set clear expectations for your students. Share your expectations for the students with them and then share what they can expect from the teacher. Here is one example from a reading teacher. Source: photo and tweet by Jane Losinger
Why does this matter? This is NOT the same as My Job/Your Job. These statements share/show what you, the teacher value as a promise to the students. When I see these statements in your classroom or on your class website, I know how you will make decisions about time, resources, and even daily instruction. I can also make predictions about what I think your classroom will look like based on what you say you value! Bonus: This maters because of this Hattie result:
2. Be excited, passionate, enthusiastic EVERY minute of EVERY day!
Who knows when or which connection will work for a student? If it’s boring for you, it may also be boring for your students. You don’t have to be an entertainer and an expert at “song and dance routines”. But you do need to be reflective and consider your impact on your students. Ask yourself, “Would I REALLY want to be a student in this class?” Source: Keynote Address – Tweet by Mike Ochs
“Come to work every day like it’s your first day”—Drew Dudley
Why does this matter?
The first day of a new job is filled with excitement and wonder. Share that wonder ALL the time with your students! The students deserve your very best every minute. There really is no time in the schedule for “do overs” so make every minute count the first time. But also focus on how each student can be a future leader. Leaders are kind. Leaders are caring. Leaders are compassionate. Teach for long-term transfer. Know your class well so you can make wise, well-informed decisions that fuel your students’ passions and excitement.
3. Make the learning work visible and therefore attainable for students.
Make sure that you have a depth of knowledge about your content so that you truly understand what students need to do for the next increment of learning. That deep understanding is your own scaffold that you can later remove when students are successful. Tools that can help students reach for the sky and all those lofty expectations are critical. Source: Katie Clements tweet
“@missalissanyc shares an awesome progression to help Grade 3 mystery readers lift the level of their prediction work.#tcrwp”
Why does this matter?
Students need to have clear learning targets in order to meet them. They can’t be secrets. They can’t be moving targets. Clear. Attainable. Clearly defined for self assessment because then students can figure out exactly how to improve their work in order to meet the criteria. Predictions seem like a fairly easy skill but they don’t occur in isolation and need a cycle of predicting, reading/watching/viewing, considering the degree to which the prediction was met, re-predicting (rinse and repeat) with those elements based on both explicit text references and implicit or inferred responses to the text! And to top it off a student needs to be predicting while collecting evidence to help grow other theories. Reading is COMPLICATED and does not happen one individual skill at a time!
And this bonus from Hattie:
4. Readers and Writers must be thinkers.
In your adult life are you really expected to be a “fact regurgitator”? Or are you expected to be a problem solver? A creative thinker? Source: Tweets from Mary Ehrenworth’s presentation.
“We are not looking for your first thinking, we are looking for your best thinking.”
Create reading notebook pages that open up thinking and develop thinking not tell what you already know.”
Why does this matter?
Thinking in life is not optional. The twenty first century is leaving the adults in the dust and we REALLY have no clue what jobs will be available for our kiddos when they graduate from school and move into the work force. We need to stop pretending that we have any real ideas and instead support students to make choices now. Students need a lot of practice in making decisions and being successful as well as making decisions and FAILING. That really is part of life. How we respond in the face of adversity is a true sign of our character. Let’s support students to be more cognizant of their own need to self-advocate for time, resources, and choices to increase their own learning NOW!
5. Circling back around to values – How are you going to put them into action?
What is your plan? Where will you start? What will you do? “Talk is cheap.” Time is precious! How do you make your actions match your “Professed Values”? Source: Mr. Minor tweeted by Julie Jee
Why does it matter?
Without specific actions, what will change? Keep it simple and doable. Don’t make it another form to be filled out and submitted to the accountability committee for leadership committee for change. Make it a focus for face to face conversations. Build a plan with someone else to increase your own accountability!
Ultimately . . .
I am ending with my thoughts after reading many of the quotes from Lucy Calkin’s closing. I’ve been there. Inspired. Mesmerized. Prepped for action. Ready to conquer the world. Ready to slay dragons after a day at a Saturday Reunion. And yet I can also imagine the tears shed for our beloved friend, Kathleen Tolan.
Choose something.
Something you believe in.
Support it.
Work for change.
The Democracy in your classroom and in the world still needs your voice and the voice of your students who will inhabit this earth for many years to come!
Where will you begin?
Values?
Actions?
How will we know you are using your gift of learning?
Innovation = My application of doing new things as a result of what I thought/believed I heard today in my #tcrwp Twitter Feed.
Thank you, Betsy, Beth, Deb, Kathleen, Lanny, Lisa, Melanie, and Stacey for this weekly forum and the #SOLSC that runs from March 1 to the 31st. Check out the writers, readers and teachers here.
Resource - Full 
Wow! You took so much from the Reunion. Drew Dudley was a great speaker- got a lot out of his talk. He’s making me reconsider how leadership looks. And I can just hear Mary say ” we aren’t looking for your first thought, we’re looking for your best thought.” There are phrases like that one that live in my brain, guiding me.
Thanks, Phyllis! So much to think about from both keynotes as our older students deserve acceleration and high flying success! I love phrases that live in my brain as well! ❤
I was feeling so badly about not being able to attend the reunion, but this post makes me feel a bit better… this post is so full of wisdom Fran.
Thanks, Tara! It’s time to move to action! ❤
Wow! You made us feel like we were there even though you weren’t there either. Love it! You’ve also spurred on my curiosity about Storifying something. I look forward to digging deeper into your collected thoughts and those of attendees. Thanks, Fran!
You are so welcome! I Love learning!
Love this post, Fran. You were certainly more than a fly on the wall at the TC reunion. Love the idea of choosing one thing, supporting it, and working for change. What will my one thing be? Thanks for all your inspiration today. Have I told you lately that you rock?!
Margaret, your topic today really pushed me to think about how and when I use my blog for innovation and when I seem to be using it more for low level tasks! Important reflections!
YOU Rock as well, my friend!
I enjoyed your taking time to create this post, Fran. We did not employ the terms called grades at my school; the relentless noise of who gets to move to ??? grade was not there, but moving to a next step was. Of course, that means that teachers had to know each student very well in order to find that next one with the student. I like this in your words: “Students need to have clear learning targets in order to meet them. They can’t be secrets” Teachers who work hard at being the one with the answers are missing great collaborators, their students.
Linda,
Good to find “grade” is not in your vocabulary!
YES . .. ” Teachers who work hard at being the one with the answers are missing great collaborators, their students.” So important to collaborate with the students!
Your ability to synthesize information is innovation. Thank you so much for the words from tcrwp. There is so much for us to take on content, students, etc. It can be overwhelming. Your call to choose something and then work toward it grounds it all.
Julieanne,
That “call” was a repetition of Lucy’s so it was not original. But I like to think that we do all stand for something. You stand for student learning! Every post you write oozes with it!
It was fun to work on a more serious slice – although more time consuming than MANY! ❤
Thanks for sharing these amazing insights into the reunion. Thankful for twitter and you interpreting it for me! Now to synthesize….
So much learning can be found on Twitter!
What a thoughtful synthesis of your learning, Fran. We do not have to be F2F all the time to learn from others. Your post exemplifies this. Thank you, Fran.
I did this one time too (not Tc but EduCon). So many people sent tweets asking if I wanted to meet and of course I was miles away at home. I appreciate the time and quality of thought you show here. CLearly you were engaged and through this post, I have a sense of some of what happened and was valued.