High School's New Face
I have the good fortune of being at this conference with a team of highly motivated, extremely talented and incredibly creative teachers that cannot hold back their enthusiasm for changing our high school. My challenge, as the leader of the district is how to support this change...not with this highly motivated and creative teachers, but with the entire faculty in our high school. We want to move beyond the "why" to the "how" and for some of us.......How fast we make it happen?
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Where to begin?
As a leader in schools, change is one of the most challenging aspects of the job. There are many things that are to be considered and the research is full of caveats, timelines, and processes for change. I need to make one immediate assumption and that is that deep down, every educator knows that students have changed over the years. Their values, their interests, the way they communicate and gain information. No longer does it suffice to say that "you need to learn this because you will need it someday". Years ago (when some of us were students) that answer was enough to motivate us or at least give us a reason for what we were learning. Students of today are constantly challenging what they are learning and why they need to learn it. They seek to make real-world connections (purpose) for their learning. We owe it to them to be able to anwer that question.
One of the first challenges becomes, can we answer their question? Can we tell them what awaits them after high school, after college? What it is they really need to know to be successful, productive citizens, consumers, professionals? The information is out there.....Just one example is the highly publicized, and increasingly respected perspective in Friedman's book, "The World is Flat". Is the answer a global society where individuals will need to communicate and compete with the likes of India, China and Eastern Europe? Is their competence in algebra, geometry and trigonometry, biology, US history, etc., truly what they will need to be successful?
Or does being successful mean being able to seek, interpret and apply new knowledge? Is it to demonstrate critical thinking? Is it the ability to set goals, make a plan for attaining those goals and knowing what it takes to accomplish their goal? .................something to ponder.
Do students in the 21st century learn in the same way we were taught? How much faster can students access information? How much faster do students expect to obtain information? What motivates them to learn?
There are increasingly more educators and leaders in schools that know the answers to some or many of these questions. Information needs to be meaningful. Students are information seekers but use technology to gather it...not a card catolog in a library.......they have access to information like no other generation before them. Their textbooks come with CD-ROMS to extend their learning. Textbook companies support their textbooks on the web. Students share homework assignments and exchange answers while instant messaging each other on myspace.com, aol instant messenger and a host of other vehicles on the world wide web.
And so the challenge is, how do we integrate the needs of students with respect to how they learn, what it is they really need to learn and show them the relevance of what it is we are teaching? How do we begin to make these changes in schools? In schools that have been teaching the same way they have educated students for hundreds of years?
From a leadership prospective, how to we introduce to our teachers the need to change how it is we do business? How do we effect change in a system that is resistent to change, that has "results" i.e. test results, that show 'we're doing a good job'? How do we as leaders support the teachers that are ready to embark upon 21st century teaching? Do we start with small groups of teachers that are interested and willing? Do we make decisions (research supported of course!) that change is inevitable and essential and just direct teachers?....... "we need to do it differently, this is what we need to do, now lets talk about how we're going to do it?"
Obviously, I have some personal ideas on how this change can take place. Change as a construct has research that supports the notion that with respect to "change" in schools, for change to be institutionalized, it will take 3 to 5 years............................can we wait that long?...............should we wait that long?
The purpose of this blog is for folks to share their ideas with respect to changing high schools. Not only am I interested in what you are changing...............I am more interested in the process of change. Who do you get on board? When? How long do you take? How do you introduce the concepts to a faculty in a school district?
One of the first challenges becomes, can we answer their question? Can we tell them what awaits them after high school, after college? What it is they really need to know to be successful, productive citizens, consumers, professionals? The information is out there.....Just one example is the highly publicized, and increasingly respected perspective in Friedman's book, "The World is Flat". Is the answer a global society where individuals will need to communicate and compete with the likes of India, China and Eastern Europe? Is their competence in algebra, geometry and trigonometry, biology, US history, etc., truly what they will need to be successful?
Or does being successful mean being able to seek, interpret and apply new knowledge? Is it to demonstrate critical thinking? Is it the ability to set goals, make a plan for attaining those goals and knowing what it takes to accomplish their goal? .................something to ponder.
Do students in the 21st century learn in the same way we were taught? How much faster can students access information? How much faster do students expect to obtain information? What motivates them to learn?
There are increasingly more educators and leaders in schools that know the answers to some or many of these questions. Information needs to be meaningful. Students are information seekers but use technology to gather it...not a card catolog in a library.......they have access to information like no other generation before them. Their textbooks come with CD-ROMS to extend their learning. Textbook companies support their textbooks on the web. Students share homework assignments and exchange answers while instant messaging each other on myspace.com, aol instant messenger and a host of other vehicles on the world wide web.
And so the challenge is, how do we integrate the needs of students with respect to how they learn, what it is they really need to learn and show them the relevance of what it is we are teaching? How do we begin to make these changes in schools? In schools that have been teaching the same way they have educated students for hundreds of years?
From a leadership prospective, how to we introduce to our teachers the need to change how it is we do business? How do we effect change in a system that is resistent to change, that has "results" i.e. test results, that show 'we're doing a good job'? How do we as leaders support the teachers that are ready to embark upon 21st century teaching? Do we start with small groups of teachers that are interested and willing? Do we make decisions (research supported of course!) that change is inevitable and essential and just direct teachers?....... "we need to do it differently, this is what we need to do, now lets talk about how we're going to do it?"
Obviously, I have some personal ideas on how this change can take place. Change as a construct has research that supports the notion that with respect to "change" in schools, for change to be institutionalized, it will take 3 to 5 years............................can we wait that long?...............should we wait that long?
The purpose of this blog is for folks to share their ideas with respect to changing high schools. Not only am I interested in what you are changing...............I am more interested in the process of change. Who do you get on board? When? How long do you take? How do you introduce the concepts to a faculty in a school district?
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