Get Ready. Get Set. GO! Bring on the 2018-19 school year!

For many of us the "new year" begins January 1st. For those of us in education and for families across the United States, the "new year" begins in August or September with the start of the "new school year"! 

In just a few short weeks, from pre-school to college, millions of young people will head off for another "new school year".  

Preparing to receive these learners, thousands upon thousands of teachers are readying themselves. Cleaning rooms, seating charts, syllabuses, lesson plans, and student schedules are all being finalized. Bus routes, lunch times, school physicals, and preseason sports practices are all underway.  From Walmart to Target to Kohl's to Penney's "back to school sales" are in full swing. The new 2018-19 school year is about to start!

Why is this school year different?
This fall the graduation class of 2031 enters kindergarten.  Thats right, the class of 2031!  When you stop and thinking about 2031 seems like a long time, but the fact of the matter is it will fly by quickly.  The young people of 2031 will be the class that will experience the greatest change in teaching and learning the world has ever known.

       

     The class of 2031's will grow up with robotics, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, digital fabrication (3D printing), smartphones and other mobile devices and platforms that use algorithms to direct motor vehicles.  The class of 2031 will focus not only on learning the 3R's (reading, writing and arithmetic) but also on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). These young people will truly have careers and jobs in fields that have yet to be created.  In fact, by the time the class of 2031 graduates, the "world of work" will look vastly different. Think  "the Jetsons"

     

So what does this mean?

     During the course of the next 13 years, teaching and learning will reinvent, redesign, systemically change into something new. Just as we moved from the "one room school house" to the consolidate school structure, in the next 13 years we will evolve into something else. 

     It will all be OK!

     During the next 13 years there will be lots of "trial and error" in the design process.  When I look back over my own K-12 experience in Urbandale, Iowa and then include my 30+ years as an educator, I have lived through the many trials and errors, fads and fancies. SRA reading, open spaces classrooms, Scantron testing, "new math", middle school philosophy, team teaching, problem based learning (PBL), differentiated instruction, professional learning communities (PLC), work place readiness, college prep, Boy's Town Educational Model, and Madeline Hunter Lesson design, all attempted to change teaching and learning. 

   

When I think of all this "innovation" I go back to the day my great-grandmother, Juanita (Nena) Delbridge, visited my Social Studies classroom at Johnston Senior High School in 1983. Nena started her teaching career in 1921, in Edmond, Oklahoma, in a one room school house. Nena lived to be 100 years old. 

      

     I will never forget that on that day, as I shared with her all the cool things happening at Johnston Community School District, Nena listened, smile and nodded with a twinkle in her eyes.  

      After I was through, Nena reminded me about her start in the Oklahoma one room school house. She went on to tell me about how the students were not "sorted" by chronological age and there was no such thing as Special Education or Talented and Gifted. Kids helped each other with their studies and instruction was differentiated and personalized. School was fun!

     

     Nena then spoke of the transition to "town schools" and how students had to ride the bus to go to school.  She said there was all kinds of angst and fears from parents on their children having to go so far to go to school and all the "stuff" they had to learn.  Nena made the transition to "town school" too eventually becoming a middle grade principal and even having my mother, aunt and uncle as students.  

     That day in Johnston was special to me because Nena predicted: "John Chris, during your career the structure of education will change again. Big is not always better. The one room schoolhouse was like a family. Everybody knew everybody and nobody "fell through the cracks". Town schools standardized instruction and all of a sudden children were sorted by age. Students who did not make progress the same as their peers were "held back".  This many times scared the children for life, the humiliation of being "flunked". John Chris when change happens again to schools, be sure to make learning fun and exciting, not work. Treat all kids equal and find out what they are passionate about. Each child is special". 

So as the 2018-19 school year begins and the class of 2031 enters the system, change is on the horizon. In whatever happens next, as Nena said, learning needs to be fun and exciting, not work. Relationships will continue to be crucial and kids must be treated with respect and dignity. Finding a child's passion and strengths, growing it and remembering that each child is special must be the way forward.

     To all the families, educators, school staff, and community members, my best wishes of support!  Be EXCITED and positive on what comes next!  

     Get READY, Get SET, GO!  

      

Who has the power for change?

"So what does the School Board think of all that?"
The last week of June I was in Chicago at ISTE 2018. When I got back, a friend asked me "so what is ISTE"?  I shared with him that ISTE was the International Society for Technology in Education and that each year thousands of educators attend the annual conference. This year it was in Chicago. 

He then asked "so what are they all about?"  I told him that ISTE's vision is that "all educators are empowered to harness technology to accelerate innovation in teaching and learning" and the mission is to "inspire educators worldwide to use technology to innovate teaching and learning, accelerating good practice and solve tough problems in education by providing community, knowledge and the ISTE Standards".  I went on to tell him the ISTE standards is a framework for rethinking education.  

He went on to ask "so what does the school board think of all that?" That question caused me to pause. 

With all the excitement at ISTE this year, connecting with innovators, thought leaders, sharing of instructional practices, the one group not represented in force was the ones who ultimately "own the system" and control the purse strings, Boards of Education, community members and taxpayers. 

In Learning Transformed (Sheninger and Murray 2017) Eric and Tom talk about "Return on Instruction" (ROI).  The thinking is that "when integrating technology, there needs to be an ROI that results in evidence of improved student learning outcomes. (p.87).  I think School Boards, parents, taxpayers and even some educators, continuously ask the question "is technology really giving us a ROI and is it worth the money"? 

The other thought is how effective is technology if it is being used with traditional teaching pedagogy? That reminds me of the Iowa saying "putting lipstick on a pig, it is still a pig".  

Across the United States and globally, embedding technology into instruction and also learning, is making a difference. It is making a difference when the learning is reframed and redesigned from "sit and git" to  connect, collaborate and create.  The big question is why has this not gone to scale? 

Technology Procurement is BIG Business! Technology procurement is BIG business! In an article written for eSchool News in 2015, I pointed out this was a 12 billion dollar a year expenditure. Just think what that dollar amount is today in 2018. 

The Expo Hall at ISTE was AMAZING!  From industry leaders like Google, Apple, Follett, LEGO, Microsoft and Scholastic to cottage level start-ups, vendors shared their products, the benefits for teacher and what the projected ROI to be. For many educators it was like going to Disney's Tomorrowland, for others it was like "this is just how we roll".  

Interesting as well was the "footprint" and visibility of University and College teacher preparation programs in the Expo Hall, extremely disproportioned to the vendors. 

For me the emerging question was what is it the "secret sauce"? What is it the separates the "haves" from the "have nots"?  What is the thinking, conditions and dispositions of Districts that have "stepped through the looking glass" into the 21st century.  What is the thinking, conditions and dispositions of those who have not?

So again it gets back to "what does the School Board think"?

   

  

ISTE 2018: Energized, Excited and Hopeful

Learning with 25,000+ educators and change agents!
Chicago ISTE 2018 is in the books. It is always exciting to connect and be in the same physical space as some of my heroes and role models. Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach's energy is so contagious, Alan November always stretches my thinking and makes me smile, Future Ready's Tom Murray constant modeling of servant leadership and approachability is inspiring, and of course being with Shannon Miller and Eric Fitzgerald is always an adventure! 

I am so thankful to have bumped into #edchat co-creator Tom Whitby and very much appreciate his "double dog dare" to join Twitter back in the day. His challenge, along with Shannon Millers encouragement, pushed me "through the looking glass".  

Getting a hug from Angela Maiers, sharing a meal with my Australia "brother from a different mother" Brett Salakas, connecting with Illinois Computing Educators Executive Director Amber Heffner and Science Leadership Academy (SLA) creator Chris Leman  = PRICELESS!

ISTE 2018 was extra special to share and have opportunity to present with Maury County Public School elementary principal Micheal Ford. He is a ROCK STAR!

Reconnecting with original Future Ready leaders Devin Vodicka (now Alt school Chief Impact Officer) Joseph South (now ISTE Chief Learning Officer) and Richard Culatta (ISTE CEO) was off the hook!  All this plus making new friends, excited and energized about serving and empower kids, ISTE 2018 was a HAPPENING!

ISTE: What's next?
ISTE U is an exciting positive step forward in providing professional learning to teachers. ISTE's new relationship with TED and the capacity to  create TED talks will accelerate the creation of content and amply the sharing of thinking. Momentum for change is building.  

As cool as everything was at ISTE 2018, I keep replaying in my head a conversation I had with a teacher.  She shared she paid for ISTE out of her own pocket and that "coming to ISTE each year is what keeps her going and hopeful", She indicated she was heading back to a district that was still traditional in structure and practice. I talked with another inspired and fired up teacher from Oklahoma who was committed to change but shared that fear, financial concerns and leadership was keeping his district from moving forward. 

The "tipping point"
ISTE and its membership has unlimited potential and power to inspire change.  You can feel momentum for change building.  That being said the thing to keep in mind is that schools are non-profit, tax support businesses charged with educating young people.  They are governed by an elected Board of Directors and answerable to patrons (taxpayers).  This means those of us "in education" need to convince and sell those "outside of education" to see the need for systemic change.  This is THE heavy lift.

The next 12 months will be very interesting.....looking forward to Philly ISTE 2019!