CHANGEd: What if we committed to visiting our peers more often? 60-60-60 #47

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Thanks to Megan Howard’s riffs on the 60-60-60, I am bumping a scheduled post. She has me thinking about interdependence and making certain that we close the gap between metaphors and action. In fact, schooling has been a very silo-ed endeavor for practitioners…for a LONG time. Kathy Boles, at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, calls school the egg-crate culture (think of a school building and the dozen eggs in your frig!).

So…how do we school folk work to become interconnected, interdependent practitioners? How do we take action to become more advanced professionals? One major, critical step is simply to visit each other’s classrooms. Yep. In fact, if anyone thinks that the Junior High School where I currently work has moved closer to 21st C education in the last decade, I would argue that the journey really began with peer visits – just committing to visiting each other’s classrooms and practices on a regular basis.

If you say that your school and your teachers are great, then take advantage of the single most valuable professional resource that you have at your immediate, daily disposal…take advantage of having each other just steps away. Connections don’t just happen…we make them happen.

Go. Do. Visit. Share. Learn. Grow. [Rinse & Repeat!] It’s good for the head and the heart! And with practice, the mindset spreads, other interdependent innovations emerge, and the ripples in the pond radiate outward. The tribe bonds and grows.

CHANGEd: What if…60-60-60 Project Explained

CHANGEd: What if teachers were thought of as the brain and heart surgeons that we are? 60-60-60 #46

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My graduate school mentor means the world to me. I could fill multiple 60-60-60 series with all that I learned from him. He guided from four pillars of philosophy. One of the pillars he evoked from this statement:

We who cut mere stone must always be envisioning cathedrals.

I always think of Dr. Pajares’ insistence on this visioning when I think of two other quotes of which I have become fond:

In the last 20 years, we have learned 90-95% of what we know about the brain.

And…

They don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.

We teachers work on hearts and minds everyday. What if teachers were thought of as the brain and heart surgeons that we are? How would we approach our own professional learning and growth, each and everyday, if we perceived ourselves as akin to brain and heart surgeons instead of mere experts in a subject area? How might we structure our learning spaces and experiences? How might we build our teams of “operators” and support staff? How might the way in which we view ourselves change the way we work? How might the way in which we are perceived by others change the way we work?

CHANGEd: What if…60-60-60 Project Explained

CHANGEd: What if we “called the electric company” more often with gratitude? 60-60-60 #45

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Can you imagine working in an industry that achieves great success yet receives a disproportionate number of calls of complaint? I bet my electricity works 360 out of 365 days of the year. But when do I call the power company? When things aren’t working. I wonder what it’s like to work at the power company? Are we too much a culture of “no news is good news?”

Do we celebrate success enough in schools…in our colleagues…in our students? Do we spread those positive stories enough and amplify the many victories? Do we mark papers and give feedback that is more mistake and “fix this” oriented or more bright spot and “build on this current strength” oriented? What do we highlight on report cards and progress reports? Do we “pick up the phone” enough when things are working?

My lights are shining, my coffee maker is brewing, and my refrigerator is keeping things cold. I think I’ll go make a call.

CHANGEd: What if…60-60-60 Project Explained

Related Work that I Investigate for Relevance to this Idea:

CHANGEd: What if we slowed down and let strong bonds form? 60-60-60 #44

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Has the new American greeting become, “Did you get my email?” Have we unintentionally resolved that “Busy” is the standard response to “How are you?” Have agendas become more driving than relationships? Is the working lunch the result of crowding time at the margins? Do five minute pass times really allow people to shift gears and catch their breaths? Is it healthy for a student to have a 7:00 a.m. meeting and remain at school until 7:00 p.m., or later, on a regular basis?

What if we slowed down? What if we gradually and purposefully replaced some quantity with quality? What if we served fewer items from the buffet to our plates, but what if we served more of fewer items? Would we stop and talk to each other more? Would we look each other in the eyes rather than walking by with that “I gotta get somewhere fast” gaze on our smartphone screen?

What if we offered fewer “subjects” because we understood that they are all connected and integrated anyway? What if we realized that the BIG issues in the world will not be solved through one siloed discipline…and what if we realized that they will ALL be solved through empathy and relationship?

CHANGEd: What if…60-60-60 Project Explained

CHANGEd: What if we schools collaborated more purposefully? 60-60-60 #43

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In all of the talk about 21st Century learning, one would be hard pressed not to hear “collaboration” mentioned. We expect students to learn to collaborate, and we structure more opportunities for students to co-labor. Certainly, we expect our teachers and faculties to collaborate more deliberately. What if we schools collaborated more purposefully? Isn’t more intentional school-to-school collaboration the next (and critical) ripple in the pond? [Maybe it should have been the first!] When do we put aside unique branding, competition, rival mascot bashing, and realize that deep, systemic educational transformation will demand that we work together.

When Hollywood has a big issue to address – an humongous asteroid hurtling towards Earth or an evil Empire building a Death Star that can destroy planets, for instance – they always create a crackpot team of amazing strength-diversity, and they co-labor to save the day. When might “School Wars” hit the big screen…not because we are battling each other – public vs. private, private vs. private, etc. – but because we are teaming and collaborating to make big, needed change in our universe?!

“Use the Force!” (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

CHANGEd: What if…60-60-60 Project Explained