What if we valued teacher teams as much as sports and music teams? How often does your school football team practice? How often does your band or orchestra rehearse? How often do your teams of teachers rehearse and practice together? Do you even think of your teachers as collectives of teams? School transformation will happen when we commit to rehearsal and practice.
What if national organizations created conferences like the classrooms for which many advocate? What if NAIS, ASCD, Learning Forward, etc. insisted on more variety than rooms only set up in rows and columns of chairs? Maybe schools need a national conference center that models/practices traits of 21st century learning spaces and methodologies. Leading by doing could get more to understand/follow.
Example of a conference that came closer to modeling constructive PBL and collaborative design rather than ironically sage-ing from the stage (could such a model work for a 1500-4500 person event?):
What if…we really engaged storytelling? In A Whole New Mind, Dan Pink declares the invaluable nature of story. Countless experts implore us to develop storytelling’s power in communicating. On Thursday, @epdobbs and I participated in NPR’s StoryCorp. This priceless experience keeps me thinking about how to utilize story more deliberately in our educational designs and transformational efforts to enhance school.
What if…faculty meetings were more like fashion shows? We could “runway” teaching and learning ideas and mesmerize our teams with the creations of colleagues. Exciting trends for the season could surface! And we could stop talking of “stealing” ideas from other teachers and change our verbs to co-laboring, exchanging, and inspiring! The fashion industry is one of the most innovative…
What if…we teachers shared more publicly? At #NAISac12, I blessedly spent time with John Hunter. His TED talk is incredible! This summer, I’ll attend a Martin Institute workshop with him. During his keynote, he said he’d used World Peace Game for over 30 years. What other amazing practices are out there?! Let’s share and learn more with each other!
[59 words + “Examples” below = 60! I’m not counting the bullets!]
Examples:
