A holiday thought….

I have taken some time out and am currently on a week vacation leave from work. I have been travelling a great deal this year and needed to just take some time out to recharge. I haven’t been reading much in the edublog world but have had time to think through some interesting experiences so far this year. As many may know I spend a lot of time in different schools all over my country. I get to see the good the bad and the ugly of most schools as I can end up spending an entire week at the school.

I guess I am starting to ask the question…. “so what does make a good school?” I am intrigued to watch the school 2.0 movie that was presented at the K12 online conference. If you haven’t seen it have a look and take some time to think it over, there is a lot of great thought in it.

* The Video — http://k12online.wm.edu/School2.0.2.mov
* The Conference Page — http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=77
* Chris’ Blog — http://www.practicaltheory.org/
* Marcie’s Blog — http://ecram3.blogspot.com/

During my travels I believe I have come across schools that can fit into 1 of 3 categories.
1) What worked for me WILL work for you (Old School).
2) The desperate to keep up school (Follow the trends).
3) The innovators (What if we tried it this way?).

Unfortunately, category number 1 is probably the largest category. Too many schools that I have visited this year have leaders who have done it the same way for their entire lives and the mere fact that the school board still wants them to run the school means that how school was done last decade is how it should be done today. It saddens me to see so many schools that have young innovative teachers run by “old school” leaders who are not interested in any change. This is not about embracing technology it is about embracing effective teaching methods for the students of today. Students today do not respond the same way as students of 10 years ago. And for some reason I get the impression from many school leaders that this just doesn’t matter. In fact I think the schools that realise this sometimes try and fight an up hill battle of trying to make their students fit the mould they were use to 10 – 20 years ago. The concept of thinking that we can make students conform to the ways that worked last decade probably has something to do with a large number of student drop outs. My wife works with students who are at risk of dropping out of school and the amount of times I hear sad stories from her about how the school refuses to meet some of the most basic needs of kids today just breaks me. I can’t see the need of students being truly thought of in these types of schools. Unfortunately, these types of school leaders refuse to consider their student’s world and how it has changed. I could write so much more about this but it just hurts me to see schools still being run by people who are so blind to their clients. If a business refused to see the needs of their clients it would fail…. Furthermore, if a business tried to tell it’s clients how it should and shouldn’t operate it would very quickly find itself with out work. Where I believe schools like this survive is in the rhetoric they obviously serve up to blind parents. I believe the keys to solving the issues in these types of schools fall in a few areas…
1) Most importantly, training new leaders for the future that understand that students of today are different to the students of last decade, and we as educational institutions need to understand those differences, being open to embrace much needed change.
2) Parents need to be educated about what is important in the educational process for their child. Perfect example of this that I saw in a school brochure – “Our computer program is dedicated to teaching students the Microsoft Office line of products as it is the business standard of the coporate world today…. Our school is about preparing students for the world today.” How many parents would question that with – How do you know what the standard for the real world will be when my 5 year old is about to head off to college/university? I laugh when I read statements like this because if someone took time to think it through they would very quickly realise that it actually is stating that they have no idea how to prepare your child for the world they will enter in 12 years time.

Category 2….
The “desperate to keep up school” is also quite common. These are the schools that see the latest trends in education and what other schools (often more affluent than their own) are doing and do what ever they can to copy and keep up. For example, I have seen a massive amount of schools rave about IWB (Interactive Whiteboards) and how great they are. Then you go to a small school that is trying to keep up and they blow a massive amount of their small budget on 1 IWB just so they can say that they have a IWB. No one in the school has questioned if it was going to help the students learn, they just knew that it was popular amongst other schools and that they didn’t want to be seen as being left behind. What I think often happens here is that a huge amount of fuss is made over a tool that does serve any educational purpose…. (Except for the fact that they probably wasted a major part of their budget – which in essence in a learning experience for future reference). Another example of this is schools that just dump old computers into as many rooms as possible so it looks like they are using computers in education. Most of the time these machines don’t work and they are not used for any beneficial purpose.

The final category is the innovative schools…..
These schools excite me as they have leadership and teaching staff that have a vision to do something different. They are not concerned about what other schools are doing and trying to keep up with the latest gadget. They are methodical in their approach to implementing new strategies of teaching and learning and justify change with up to date evidence. These schools understand that students have changed and therefore the ways we teach and learn must also change. What I enjoy about these schools is that they have found the balance between using technology to enhance learning and what actually engages students of today. Just because a new gadget comes out and is sold into the education market, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will engage students. It is not about the technology, it is about the learning. These schools wow factor is in the learning that takes place, it is not found in the stuff that is in the school. These are certainly few and far between but I think as we start to have more awareness drawn to the basic issues of learning in the 21st century and the way in which we can teach and learn in inexpensive and effective ways, we will begin to see a change in the mindsets of school leaders.

It has truly been an amazing experience this year. While the travelling gets to you after a while (I think Dave Warlick said it best….. My year has been a mosaic mishmash of hotel rooms), the opportunities to spend time in a number of different school environments has given me insight into learning and teaching that I couldn’t have otherwise got so early in my career. I turned 27 today and have spent time reflecting on how lucky I have been to experience so much so early on in life. I can’t ever see myself doing anything but education. Having an impact on the minds of tomorrow is something that is just so powerful. As I head toward the end of this packed year I will continue to reflect on what has been a massive learning curve for me. I would like to hear some comments on these thoughts.