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One of the amazing aspects of the digital world is how visible we all are, in so many ways, whether we want to be or not. If we want to participate in the global community, using it as a place to learn and grow, we have to be willing to be seen and known, to leave a digital footprint. The community of educators online is a growing and active community, and with every update that we post, every email we send, every mention that is posted about us, we are connected and made visible in the larger world. We leave our tracks behind us for others to follow.

In a village, it has always been through knowing each other and using the strengths that each can offer, that the village has been able to provide for its members. It is through this personal knowledge and connection. The goal of a village has always been to survive, to weather the challenges with which it is presented, from drought to famine to war and to draw together to overcome each one. Each person in a village, who has been known from birth, must be taught the skills necessary to aid the group. The role of an individual is not to achieve personal success, but instead it is to contribute every possible talent and skill to help in the village’s survival. As each member works together, the village as a whole is viable.

We are now part of a global village, creating digital footprints that identify who we are and what we can contribute to solving the challenges of our day. In the village of education, there are countless problems that face us. No matter where we are teaching, big or small school, public or independent, the world is changing too quickly for each individual teacher to stay ahead and master all that is necessary to give our students the best education. We must draw together, allow ourselves to be known and to learn from each other. There is amazing wisdom and energy in the global world of educators. As we take the time to become a part of that community, we can begin to find solutions to the challenges that we face. We can begin to understand that we are not alone.

We need to listen carefully to the voices of wisdom among us, to gain from their experience and insight. As we read each other’s blogs and follow each other on Twitter, we can identify those leaders who can help move us forward. If you have someone that you know of who has enriched your learning and added to your understanding of how to be a better teacher, please share that. Together we can develop a global village that can successfully take on the challenges it faces!

I just listened to a interview with John Seely Brown and John Hagel on their new book, The Power of Pull, that got me thinking about imagination. One of the points that they made was that today’s students need to be able to imagine, that in an ever-changing world, they must be able to think beyond the world that they have now and imagine a different one. It is almost like going back to their early years of creating fantasy realms, where anything was possible. They need to move beyond what is and picture what could be.

This is such a challenge for teachers who were trained under a system that, in Brown and Hagel’s terms, “pushed” the given curriculum to the students whose job it was to receive and master it. What was necessary and even critical for success was known. It had been proven to work over previous decades and therefore should be passed along to the next generation. Much as hunter-gatherers trained their children to know the edible and inedible plants and the migration routes of critical herds, today’s teachers were trained in the vocabulary and knowledge of the 20th century, given the tools to succeed on SAT’s and MCAT’s, so that we could make our way in the world.

While there is definitely still a need for many of those skills, the reason for teaching them has shifted. It is no longer the case that simply following a given track, provided by a teacher, will necessarily lead to success. The goal posts are now moving, moving in ways that we not always apparent in the days and months ahead of time. What was relevant, even critical, for past generations may no longer be pertinent at all. Teachers now must not only teach their content area, but also begin to identify what has lastly value. This is a tremendous shift, one for which most of us were never trained.

One of the keys is to unlock our own imaginations, to remember what it was like to dream, to have no holds placed on what could be. As we allow ourselves to become learners again, to return to a place where we are not in control and there is not limit to the horizon, we may be able to guide our students in their own explorations. We must combine all of the wisdom that we have gained through our own experiences and learning with a renewed sense of wonder, so that we can direct and enhance the learning of our students.

As a middle school teacher, I want my students to dream their own dreams as well as be exposed to the dreams of others. I do not want them limited to the horizons of a teenager. As teachers, we need to constantly be broadening their exposure to new ways of thinking. While middle school passions may turn into lifetime ones, they may not, so we must help them continually access their own imaginations and share the imaginations of others with them. We need to not simply be “pushing” facts at them, but also be sharing and imagining together. Then, together, we can dream big dreams.

After reading Tyler Rice’s “My Educator’s Oath,” I wanted to create my own. Here are my goals for myself this year!

1. I will treat each student as an individual, unique in her strengths and in her needs. I will avoid making assumptions about her and use my best skills to investigate and understand her.

2. I will seek to encourage all of my students to ask questions and to investigate, to present their ideas and to defend them.

3. I will remember that learning is hard work.  I will work on pacing my classes so that there are times of intensity and times of play.

4. I will present new ideas and skills in many different ways so that students have an opportunity to learn them through diverse methods. I will surprise and engage them.

5. I will not assume that something is “easy” until I am sure that every student understands it.

6. I will make sure that there is a purpose to every assignment and every task that I give. I will avoid giving work simply to have something to be done for homework.

7. I will not teach a lesson simply because that is how I did it before. I will evaluate and critique before class, looking for the ways to make each one better.

8. I will identify what the learning is that I want the students to do and will explain it clearly to them before they begin.

9. I will grade assignments as quickly as possible, getting them back in time for the students to learn from their successes and their mistakes.

10. I will share my own love of learning, being open about the challenges and the joys involved in it.

11.  I will laugh at my mistakes and never try to hide them from my students. I will apologize when necessary and model a willingness to learn from them and move on.

12. I will not allow myself to become stagnant or complacent. I will spend time each week connecting with other educators, seeking to learn and grow in my own practice.

And a new year starts!

Last night was an amazing experience of the power of educators working together to help students and support each other. For the hour of #edchat, a conversation on Twitter at 7:00 pm every Tuesday, ideas and excitement was flying! (If you missed it, check out the archive!) Here it is, the middle of August, a time when many teachers are filled with dread and pre-exhaustion worry. It is when we face all of the tasks that we do during the school year, that are now lying like discarded balls on the floor. We know that we have to get them all up and floating effortlessly. It often seems like an impossible task. As a friend described it, “August is like a month of Sunday evenings.” We all know that School is coming towards us like a tidal wave.

And yet, last night’s conversation was filled with energy and determination. Teachers were sharing their ideas about what makes an effective teacher, speaking from a wealth of experience, sharing tips and insights into how to make each day the best that it can be for the students. Rather than dreading the return of the kids, these teachers were excited to once again share and grow with the children in their classrooms. They had, in many cases, spent the summer focused on how to enhance their best practices and to improve on the weak spots in their curriculum. None of them was complacent about what they do. They were dedicated to learning and to improving their practice.

There could not possibly have been a better way to spend a late August evening than with these educators. I left with a whole new excitement about the coming year. It is an excitement that combines my own teaching with the joy of having colleagues with whom I get to share the journey! A year ago, I qualified as mostly a Lurker on Twitter. I followed many educators, but I had only just begun to enter into the conversation. Now, my practice and in many ways, my life has been changed by the interactions and relationships that have grown up among the people I have “met,” some simply online and many now in person.

I have worked harder than I ever thought I would, because I have partners in this adventure. They cheer me on to do my best for the kids, and I, in turn, cheer them on! We are on a journey to figure out how to make education in the 21st century the best that it can be. None of us has the answer, but none of us is sitting on the sidelines. We are experimenting and trying to find what works. Sometimes the lesson is a failure, but because we are not alone, we can share our attempts and get feedback from other teachers. It is all about Shared Growing and Shared Wisdom.

Last night reminded me of how important all of you, my face-to-face colleagues and my PLN partners, are to me. So this is a Thank You to all of you who have shared with me this year, and a Welcome to all that I will share with in the coming year. The energy and support that we give each other makes us better educators and provides an exciting environment within which the students can learn.

Reflections on “Outdoors and Out of Reach” in the New York Times and PBS Frontline “Digital Nation.”

I have been pondering what it is that we need to teach students about multitasking, and the pull of wanting to stay connected and engaged with so many people, jobs and mountains of information all that the same time. As my son commented, “What used to be a shout down the hall from a colleague has become the entire world shouting at us, all with a volume of urgency.” There are always messages coming at us, and we have to figure out how to work the most effectively in the midst of them all. The barrage is not going to stop, so we have to create spaces for ourselves where we can work to our best ability. And we have to teach our students how to create those spaces for themselves. We, and our students, are multitasking all of the time. We talk and text; write blog posts and check our email or the weather; we walk the dog and respond to phone messages. We have been and are creating a world where there is access to everything all of the time.

The challenge for teachers, however, is teach students who love to multitask to work effectively. As we are moving increasingly into a technology filled world, we must learn to work to the best of our abilities within the cacophony that surrounds us, especially since, the current research is showing that we do not actually multitask as well as we think we do. To quote an Stanford professor, Clifford Nass, “It turns out multitaskers are terrible at every aspect of multitasking. They get distracted constantly. Their memory is very disorganized. Recent work we’ve done suggests they’re worse at analytic reasoning.”

One of the fascinating parts of the report was that those who were tested to see if they worked as well while multitasking refused to believe the results. They were convinced that they had done just as well when doing many jobs as when doing simply one. This is a powerful mythology that we need to address in ourselves and in our students.  We imagine that there is no difference in our work when we flip our eyes up to our Tabs to see if we have a new email or switch to quickly check the weather or the ballgame score.  It takes up space in our Working Memory to be thinking about checking those Tabs, space that no one can afford to lose. “To the extent you have less working memory, you have less space for storing and integrating ideas and therefore less to do the reasoning you need to do,” says Art Kramer from the University of Illinois.

So how do we teach students to focus on one task at a time, when the shift in their email from nothing to (1), will scream “Urgent” to them?  The slight pounding of their curiosity will begin, taking up valuable space in their memory. While the email may simply be that they have received a coupon from Staples, there is no way for them to know that without clicking over and seeing what has arrived. The call of that (1) on the Tab is so powerful. It might be important; it might be life-changing, creating a powerful the Siren call.

My first thought is to start the year with a discussion of these studies, perhaps have the students watch the Frontline show. I also want to give them 2-3 minutes at the start of class to check their email and then close it, acknowledging that their desire but modeling how to control it. For the first few weeks, I want to check all of their screens before continuing on. While I know that some of them will easily reopen whatever they close, it will set a standard for those who want to learn and connect with the class. I am thinking of showing them Google Tasks, in their email and suggesting that they begin to keep lists of what they want to do and when they want to do it, as a way to identify what is important and why.

I have spent a long time thinking this summer about what I want for a class website and whether what is appropriate for one class will work for all of them. Here is my thinking so far. Every class and every website needs to meet the specific needs of the teacher and the students who are going to be using it. What works for one teacher may well not work for another; what is effective for one class may prove confusing for another. A few of the ones that I have been experimenting with are Google Sites, Edmodo, iWeb and Wikispaces. All of these, and many others, can meet a teacher’s needs. It is simply a matter of identifying what is the most important for the students and the teacher, and then matching those with the tool.

Questions to Consider in Choosing a Type of Site

What do you want from the website? Here are just a few goals that you might have:

• to introduce new units
• to provide information
• to store important links that you want the students using
• to share images with the students
• for students to work as editors, adding content
• for students to express their learning
• for student and teacher collaboration

These are just a few, but each goal you set will affect the kind of website that is needed. An important thing to remember, as you go through this process, is that you can always change the tool if it isn’t working out. It is a really important lesson for us to model for our students that in the 21st century, needs and strategies are changing all of the time. We need to be able to adapt to success and to challenges. If the tool you choose does not meet the needs of your students, then change it.

Here are some questions to ask yourself as you play around with some of the tools out there. Try the ones I mentioned, but definitely search for yourself.

Will this be an effective hub for the class? Will it be easy for students to find the important information? Think about what you want the students to get from the website. Will it provide what you want them to have in an efficient manner?

Can it hold all of the necessary links, documents, calendars and more that a student needs to succeed in the class? Most sites will hold all that you want, but be sure to investigate what it looks like after it has been loaded. Is it easy for them to understand? Some do not look like what a student would expect.

How is the website organized? Does the organization match the grade level that you are teaching? Does its organization work with the way you, as a teacher, think about the class? There are lots of tools, so take the time to experiment with which one works the best for your learning and teaching style.

Are there pages or is it a blog-style? Can your students find what they need on the pages or within the blog? For some classes, having the pages organized by units is very helpful; for others, an ongoing blog with the ability to tag is the most effective.

Is it easy to add pictures to your website? Picture are critical to making a website visually appealing. You need much more than text. Try adding photos to the site. Is it challenging to move them or manipulate them? Students love seeing their pictures on the website, so make sure that you can add them, even if it is just the backs of their heads.

What tools or widgets can be added? Can you add Google Maps, or YouTube videos, etc.  Depending on the purpose of the site, these can enrich the students’ experience.

Can you have conversations and collaboration on your site, if you want it? If you decide during the year that you do, can it be added? Online collaboration is an important skill for students to develop. Is this a place where you could begin to teach it to them?

And last but not least: Will this site appeal to my students? Will they enjoy the experience of using this? This is really important, because we have very savvy students. They are familiar with all sorts of websites, and if the tool feels too dated, they will not be drawn to use it.

There are so many more questions that each teacher will have on what is the best tool to create a classroom website, but these are a starting place.

I have now been to two unconferences for educators, edcamps, and I want to encourage any educator who has the chance to attend one. First let me explain what an unconference is for those who have never heard of one. It is a free conference that is organized to give the participants an opportunity to share their ideas and questions with the other people who attend. It is not about keynote speakers and major presentations; it is also not about vendors and big name sponsors.  It is a conference that is based around the idea that teachers teaching and sharing with each other can be a very powerful way to learn. An unconference usually starts with 1-2 hours to socialize and to plan presentations. It is an opportunity to catch up with friends and to make new ones. It is a time that allows teachers space to pull together ideas that they might want to share or questions that they might want to frame a conversation around. It gives all those who attend that wonderful commodity of Time.

As people decide that they want to share a new idea or tool that they use, or that they have a topic for a conversation that they want to facilitate, they go and sign up for a session, choosing a time slot that works for them. The board slowly fills up with the variety that is represented amongst the educators at the conference. It can be anything from “How to Build a Classroom Website and Why?” to “Is it Possible to teach creatively with the demands of testing?” Each educator then chooses what he/she wants to learn about and discuss and heads to that session. One of the primary rules of an unconference is “The Rule of Two Feet.” If you get to a session and it is not meeting your needs or is too easy or complicated for what you are after, you simply move to another. The point of the day is for everyone to learn and grow. It is not an insult to whomever is leading the session if you vote with your feet; it is simply a sign that they need something else at the moment.

There is an amazing power and energy in an unconference. Teachers are giving up their free time to come and talk to one another. Those with something to share, offer it and those in need of help, ask for it. As those who attend collaborate, there is a powerful energy created. The isolation of the classroom teacher is broken. There are suddenly lots of people who want to help and support what is going on for other teachers. The first edcamp was in Philadelphia last May. There are now many more popping up around the country. Check out the edcamp website, for a location near you or to get information on how to start one. There are lots of people who have been involved who would love to help.

We all remember those summers of old, when we were kids or when we first started teaching. We counted the days until the end of the school year, eager for the peace and quiet, with no assignments to complete and no deadlines, just hours and hours of time. When I first started teaching, summer was a wonderful time of dropping all of the balls that I juggled during the year. I walked away from my classroom, having refiled all of the papers and organized all of the book shelves. I was done until I started again in the Fall. I closed the door and didn’t look back. Summer was for refreshment, to reenergize after the months of focusing on kids and their needs. It was time for myself, for reading books that captured my imagination but had little intellectual value; for gardening and pruning; for spending time with friends and talking over tall glasses of iced tea. I am not sure where that summer went, but it has flown into a distant past.

In today’s world of 2.0 learning and change, summer is a time to catch up on all that I need and want to learn before it is time to start back in the classroom again. I have lists of articles to read, dozens saved in my Diigo files that I bookmarked all year. There are tools to experiment with and websites to build. I have two week-long conferences to attend, 3 workshops to teach, an online course to complete and a new curriculum to develop, all before Labor Day. And I do not think that I am unusual.

Teachers in today’s world have to use their summers for professional development and enrichment. It is imperative for us to stay abreast of the latest thinking about how to educate the students in our classrooms. We do not know the world that they will look for jobs in, because it does not exist yet. If we want to give them our best, we need to be constant students ourselves, modeling active learning so they will know how to grow and adapt to their changing world.

If we take off a year or two from learning what is out there for education or if we simply stay with what is already familiar, we will not be able to provide what is the best for our students. As Alvin Toffler said, “The illiterate of the 21st century are not those that cannot read or write, but those that can not learn, unlearn and relearn.” We need to commit ourselves to being active learners, pushing beyond our own boundaries, unlearning the parts that no longer best support our students, and adding what will accomplish it. We need to stop allowing ourselves to teach our students skills of the 20th century, because we were not willing to learn the ones of the 21st.

I used to struggle in August with how I would pick up all of the balls that I had so eagerly let fall to the ground when I left school in June. From the 1st of August on, the task loomed over me, knowing that somehow I had to get them all flying again. Now I am finding that I have to find time to say “Stop,” to carve out time when my hands aren’t flying over my keyboard, communicating with people around the globe on how we can best do our jobs. Summer has become my designated time to be a learner, a student once again. And now part of my task is to remember to take the Down Time, because the learning and sharing is exhilarating work! I hope you will all join me in it! Please, let me know how you grow and learn in your times off!

One of the ongoing questions when I was in Denver at the ISTE conference was “What is a PLN? ” and “What is its value?” The conversation started on Saturday with a discussion about what does it mean to say that you have or are part of a PLN. What is “personal” or “professional” about it? Are people who use the term actually “learning”? And what does it mean to say that it is a “network”? This conversation was followed up by one  on how Twitter is used by educators. He is looking at the different Tweets and whether or not they are social or professional, and whether or not they are valid and informative. All of which got me to thinking about what PLN means to me.

I use Twitter almost daily to listen to the conversation and to share my ideas. In my experience, it started out simply as a forum for learning. I used it as a means of professional development. I found educators to follow who were sharing resources that I would never have seen. When I read an article that was informative or insightful, I retweeted it, sending it on to the people who followed me. I have Google Reader set up, but I do not use it anywhere as much as I use Twitter. That is partly because my Reader is more intimidating – even though I am the one who set it up! There are always more articles there than I can face reading. On Twitter, I can just pause for what grabs my eye. I know that this means that I am in charge of my learning, rather than having it be more objective, but I find that I am reading more than I ever was before from professional resources. I think that many people start on Twitter for this reason. They want to learn and grow in an ever-changing world, and Twitter is a known resource for helping that growth.

Is it truly professional? Past of the discussion was that much of what happens on Twitter is social, rather than professional. While I initially questioned that, I am beginning to understand what he means. After two years or so on Twitter, there are many people that I interact with there who have become my friends. They are not simply small Twitter photos but are unique individuals, many of whom I have now met and shared face-to-face conversations. Those that I have not met face-to-face are people whose ideas I could easily identify. I care about them as people, rather than as simply sources for my own learning. This has turned my time on Twitter into a social experience. I am still learning from it, but I am learning from people that I consider colleagues, not simply people to follow. It has changed my sense of my time on Twitter, adding weight to what I learn there. I know who I trust the most among the people I follow. (When I have time, I will actually take the time to review whom I follow.)

The final issue was about the use of the word “network.” Is it a network or is it a community? “Network” was being used to describe an impersonal connection that simply was based in professional interactions. For me, that is exactly what Twitter was when I started. I went there simply for my own growth and took from it whatever interested me. It was not about developing relationships. Over time, however, those relationships grew. There were people who responded to me and shared their ideas and work with me. Through those exchanges, we made tentative and then deep connections. They responded when I asked a question, and I responded when they did. Impersonal connections turned into relationships, which are at the heart of community. Some of those are still very slight, but there are others that have become rich and deep.

While some of the conversations about what a PLN is were simply about semantics, it is worth the time to consider what it is that we are talking about when we use the term. Are we using it in a way that will draw others in or simply to make them feel left out? Do we want to open our community or keep it exclusive? When we talk about Twitter, are we opening doors or making ourselves look exclusive, part of a slightly odd “In Crowd”? That part of the conversation is very important, if we believe that the best education for our students comes from reaching beyond the walls of our classrooms and interacting with educators around the world. We need to make the doors to this group wide open and inviting. Are we doing that?

I leave tomorrow for the ISTE (International Society of Technology in Education), the organization that published my article, “Join the Flock”, about using Twitter to build a Professional Learning Network. I created a website to record what I am learning there, which you are welcome to visit. I may have time to write a reflection while I am there, but I am not counting on it, as my time is going to be very busy. I will definitely be getting lots of ideas for future posts. If you are going to be at ISTE, send me a tweet, @hadleyjf. I would love to meet you.