At my new company, we track our time. I imagine many companies track how time is spent. For me, in these two weeks, during an 8-9 hour day, I probably spend 3 minutes total going through the exercise of tracking my time. So, it’s easy. The software we use makes it easy. There are pre-poulated pull-down menus and sub-menus. There are wonderfully granular levels of such activity as “research.” There are text fields so that I can add commentary, too. Then, I can look at reports of how I am spending my time. Of course, my coaches can also view how I spend my time, and I totally and completely trust them to do so.
What if we teachers tracked our time like this? Recently, at lunch with a colleague, I mentioned how surprised I was to learn that I am loving my self-tracking of time. Because I have spent 20 years in schools, and because I love to integrate most of what I am learning with school life, I could imagine us teachers tracking our time. I could imagine content-oriented pull-down menus and sub-menus. I could imagine skill-oriented pull-down menus and sub-menus. I could imagine methodology and pedagogy menus and sub-menus. I could imagine running a report after two weeks and seeing for myself, “Wow. I spent 78% of my teaching time this week lecturing. Is that a good thing? How might I re-balance my methodology and approaches given my SMART goal and desired outcome for the year?”
Of course, I also imagined students tracking their time. In the spirit of making education “more pull, than push,” I would love for a student to share with me in an individual conference how he or she had spent his/her learning time during the week or two-week period. I could imagine doing this with advisees, so that I could discover with them how they are exploring their interests and spending time in their structured school-learning environments. I could imagine seeing the cross-polinations and synergies among class-content time recordings and self-directed time recordings.
In many ways, I see my time tracking as related to the tips shared in an article that a colleague sent to me about 11 secrets of leadership. My time tracking allows me to record reality in short bits, and then I can study my time to be more proactive about how I structure my days to further leadership and learning.
Time is a valuable resource. In fact, time may be the most valuable resource. I am thrilled to have a better handle on how I spend my time so that I can be purposeful, intentional, and strategic about making the most of my opportunities to create impact and to make a difference.
How are you spending your time…your time learning…your time teaching…your time working?
[Interestingly, after talking about this with my friend at lunch, he sent me a link to Lesson Note, a digital tool for tracking class activity, particularly as it relates to “lesson study,” an action research collaboration in learning communities for which I am a strong and dedicated advocate. However, the kind of time tracking that I am sharing above is very different and only distantly related to Lesson Note tracking. The type of time tracking I am discussing feels more self-initiated and self-directed. Of course, Lesson Note could be used in very positive and powerful ways, too, if a team decided to employ such a digital resource to advance their work and understanding about their teaching.]
Education needs to work by pull, not push. – Charles Leadbeater
If you are interested in educational innovation, school reform, or learning enhancement, WATCH THIS! With all of the TED talks that I view, I have never seen this one – “Charles Leadbeater: Education innovation in the slums” [18:58]. It was captured over two years ago. Charles Leadbeater makes a compelling case for pull vs. push education.*
[To me, the story of how I found this is fascinating. After re-reading the first 16 sections of Seth Godin’s “Stop Stealing Dreams” for about an hour, as part of continuing research, I was exploring possible TEDx speakers. Within search engines and tools, I was grabbing combinations of “innovation” and other words. I stumbled upon Leadbeater’s April 2010 TED talk, and I was intrigued by the sidebar because of a recent podcast I has listened to about the Future of Cities and what we can learn from slum evolution. As I started listening to Leadbeater, I was blown away by the connections among Leadbeater’s stories and the way in which Godin begins “Stop Stealing Dreams” with the Harlem Village Academies.]
Four years ago, FedEx identified Access—the idea that greater connections between people, businesses and nations create a virtuous cycle. “The ability to make wider connections spurs innovation and entrepreneurialism, and enables gains in productivity,” said the first issue of this magazine. “Businesses are born and expand, communities and nations reap the benefits, and a thirst for still greater Access results.” http://about.fedex.designcdt.com/access/WhyAccessMattersNow
E.M. Forster wrote in Howard’s End, “Only connect.”
Seventh/eighth grade teacher Clarence Fisher has an interesting way of describing his classroom up in Snow Lake, Manitoba. As he tells it, it has “thin walls,” meaning that despite being eight hours north of the nearest metropolitan airport, his students are getting out into the world on a regular basis, using the Web to connect and collaborate with students in far flung places from around the globe. The name of Clarence’s blog, “Remote Access,” sums up nicely the opportunities that his students have in their networked classroom. http://weblogg-ed.com/2011/personal-learning-networks-an-excerpt/
I read many blogs and follow many tweets that suggest we should all connect, share, and collaborate more often. I agree. However, many times we say it and it sounds good, but we never get to see examples while trying to keep up with the real time tweet deck. It quickly turns into platitude chat. So I decided to welcome you, the reader, into my classroom and showcase what a typical, connected class looks like. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/connected-classroom-information-literacy
Frankly, if you are not a connected educator at this point, you may not have an awareness that we are at a critical juncture in education. These driving questions must be answered. If you are not a connected educator, how can you support your own professional growth and the success of your children if you are not constantly questioning, re-evaluating, and striving for improvement? http://lynhilt.com/getconnectedmakeadifference/
[Disclaimer: This post may not make any sense to anyone but me. I am researching 21st C education trends, project-based learning, social and civic responsibility, school transformation, and Common Core State Standards. All through the lens of strategic re-design of school of the future. What follows below is some of the thought-board I am developing, and I felt compelled to share at least some of what I am discovering and thinking about…]
Today, during a Skype conversation with a trusted and highly respected educational colleague, I heard a couple of interesting threads of commentary that have led me on a fascinating research exploration for much of the day.
One of the folks here says PBL is dead. I don’t agree, but there is some strong movement against it.
We call him Pele because he knows where the ball is going, and the ball is currently going to the Common Core State Standards.
You breathe rarified air, and there are tremendous hurdles to implementing PBL in an environment overrun with standardized testing and the Common Core.
While I think that significant, meaningful PBL (capital P) has been largely non-existent in the heavily industrial-age influenced school system of the 20th century, I think PBL has thrived as a human learning paradigm for millennia, and I think PBL is alive and well as a learning methodology. In fact, I think PBL dominates learning before formal schooling, and I believe that PBL dominates the workplace of almost all jobs (if not, ALL jobs). I believe that school transformation and enhancement will necessarily include and integrate PBL. Furthermore, I think the Common Core State Standards not only support PBL, but I believe they demand it! [And I continue to mean capital-P PBL!]
Intriguing videos from Hunt Institute YouTube channel regarding the CCSS:
The English Language Arts Standards: Key Changes and their Evidence
At the end of the video, David Coleman speaks of “reading like a detective and writing like an investigative journalist.” From my own studying and implementation of capital-P project-based learning, I can think of few other methodologies that create the space and opportunity for student learners to be detectives and investigative journalists who are wrestling with real-life issues that need addressing and innovating.
Literary Non-Fiction in the Classroom: Opening New Worlds for Students
Watching this piece was fascinating! I was both inspired and frightened stiff. On the frightening end, I pictured teachers who take David Coleman’s analysis literally as the recommended pedagogy for deconstructing Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birmingham letter and removing many possibilities for self-motivated discovery and heart-touching. At the inspiring end, I was moved by MLK’s language and by thinking about a group of students searching for this letter after engaging with a community issue about fairness, justice, equality, and rights. I imagined this letter as a digestible resource for students who created a need-to-know about the letter because of the context with which they approached the letter. [Interestingly, I never experienced this letter as part of my formal, school-based education. In fact, I am embarrassed to admit that this video viewing may have been the first time I read the entire letter. The content reminded me of many of the reasons that I am working for school reform and transformational enhancement.]
Quotes from the CCSS website that point to PBL:
Research—both short, focused projects (such as those commonly required in the workplace) and longer term in depth research —is emphasized throughout the standards but most prominently in the writing strand since a written analysis and presentation of findings is so often critical.
– Writing: http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/key-points-in-english-language-arts
An important focus of the speaking and listening standards is academic discussion in one-on-one, small-group, and whole-class settings. Formal presentations are one important way such talk occurs, but so is the more informal discussion that takes place as students collaborate to answer questions, build understanding, and solve problems.
– Speaking and Listening: http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/key-points-in-english-language-arts
The standards help prepare students for real life experience at college and in 21st century careers.
– Language: http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/key-points-in-english-language-arts
The standards stress not only procedural skill but also conceptual understanding, to make sure students are learning and absorbing the critical information they need to succeed at higher levels – rather than the current practices by which many students learn enough to get by on the next test, but forget it shortly thereafter, only to review again the following year.
– Math: http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/key-points-in-mathematics
The high school standards call on students to practice applying mathematical ways of thinking to real world issues and challenges; they prepare students to think and reason mathematically.
The high school standards set a rigorous definition of college and career readiness, by helping students develop a depth of understanding and ability to apply mathematics to novel situations, as college students and employees regularly do.
The high school standards emphasize mathematical modeling, the use of mathematics and statistics to analyze empirical situations, understand them better, and improve decisions. For example, the draft standards state: “Modeling links classroom mathematics and statistics to everyday life, work, and decision-making. It is the process of choosing and using appropriate mathematics and statistics to analyze empirical situations, to understand them better, and to improve decisions. Quantities and their relationships in physical, economic, public policy, social and everyday situations can be modeled using mathematical and statistical methods. When making mathematical models, technology is valuable for varying assumptions, exploring consequences, and comparing predictions with data.”
– Math: http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/key-points-in-mathematics
Literacy equals mastery across academic disciplines.
– Callout in Hunt Institute video about CCSS
At the intersection and confluence of 21st century education and project-based learning, we would have:
This morning, I discovered Kelli Anderson. She is brilliant, and I will be thinking for days on end as a result of watching her TEDx talk. Her designs leverage pathways between the expected and unexpected. [This makes me think of water and butter again.] In addition to being incredibly creative in their own rights, Kelli’s design philosophies seem to encourage re-examining the familiar and the everyday across many domains. Her advice and inspiration could certainly be applied to what we have come to expect from “school.” What if we expected more? What if we tweaked and re-designed to build something even more creative and purposeful for the next decade? What if we harnessed “disruptive wonder for a change?”
