21st C Learning | it's about learning

Lately, if anyone has been waiting on me to return a voice mail or an e-mail, allow me to justify my delay in returning your communication. This 2008-09 academic year marks my sixth year as Junior High School principal at Westminster. For the first time, though, I have set aside most of September to meet with each of the eighty Junior High teachers and support staff and to listen to these educators explain the goals that they have set for the year. WOW! I will soon complete the first week of meetings. What a blessing it is to hear our remarkable teachers review their 2007-08 student course evaluations and relay to me their strengths and challenges as teachers. Everyone thus far has detailed the reflective lessons that they are gleaning from students’ feedback. Most impressively, each teacher is communicating concrete ways in which he or she plans to enhance the curriculum, to connect better with students, or to increase one’s responsiveness to the specific needs of the various learners in class. Every afternoon, I have left school feeling enriched by the conversations and insights that the Junior High faculty are sharing. Clearly visible, these teachers maintain superlative hopefulness for the learners that they feel genuinely called to teach. A positive atmosphere permeates my office because of the ambitious work that the Junior High teachers commit to undertaking during this wonderful and critical time in the lives of our middle school students.

During the mornings of July 21, 22, and 23, I participated as a student in a Center for Teaching Summer Institute with the title above. In short, the class was fabulous. Taught with genuine expertise and enthusiasm by Chris Bishop and Jere Wells, the institute offering explored various Web 2.0 technologies. The content foundation for the class rests at a wiki which one can reach by clicking on the title of this post; the site is a remarkable self-learning tool. In addition to learning richly about Web 2.0 technologies and better equipping myself to be an improved technology and pedagogy resource for my exceptional faculty, I found the experience of being a student again to be invaluable. What better way to remind myself about the complexities, conditions, and conquests of learning than to put myself in the student role. As I sat beside Angela Jones, I became even more excited to imagine how she might utilize all that she seemed to learn during our three days of instruction.