This Message Center is organized and operated by David Vitale Reflections from the annual AWSA leadership conference at Monona Terrace,  June 17-19:

It’s people, not programs that make a difference in change initiatives.  Although many of us attend conferences to pick up a new tip or trick that will help us with a particular challenge, the fact remains that effective change is a result of a constant examining of our behaviors and attitudes against the outcomes we see in our school buildings.  This theme was most prevalent for me as I listened to our presenters during the three day conference. 

Douglas Reeves has a knack for conveying complex aspects of organizations in ways that translate into actionable steps toward improvement.  His holding up of a chair to illustrate a point in his research that professional development is most transformative when professionals are allowed to sit and talk about teaching and learning was a very powerful gesture. It brought to mind a passage from the National Staff Development Council that is excerpted below:

Conversations in which leaders practice deep, committed listening and display an openness to being influenced by the perspectives of others reduce defensiveness and resistance to new ideas. Through such a process—which is far easier to describe than to consistently do— educators come to better understand one another’s assumptions, deepen their understanding of important values and ideas, and gain clarity that leads to new actions. 

Too often, we look for the next “silver bullet” that will slay the arduous demands and seemingly insurmountable challenges we face as educators.  It doesn’t exist.  And both Reeves and Vera Blake emphasized that change will be uncomfortable and we should expect it and embrace it as such.  

I hadn’t seen Marc Prensky prior to the conference, but had read some of his research in journals on technology integration and 21st century learners.  The theme of his presentation reflected the basis upon which recent efforts have been made in Watertown to bring new tools, opportunities, and outcomes to students and teachers via the Student Center.  Many of these outcomes are what Prensky shared with us as being vital for development in students who live in a digital age.  Yet, inexplicably, many schools continue to operate on an Industrial Age model of assembly lines and time on the clock.  The dissonance that results when old models meet new participants will continue to be a challenge in all future change initiatives.  This increasingly evident challenge was further illustrated on the final day of the conference when Neil Howe shared the characteristics of Millennials with the teaching practices of Baby Boomers and Generation Xers who generally make up the majority of today’s teaching corps. 

A system of schooling that continues to perpetuate the teacher as an expert whose job is to transmit knowledge to students through passive experiences such as lecturing, note taking, reciting, reporting, drilling, and practicing or repeating will surely raise questions about its value by students (especially boys who, according to Howe increasingly report to dislike school). Not surprisingly, these activities occupy the lower levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.  Millennials generally view collaboration, communication, and problem-solving as “the way they learn” yet school systems often compartmentalize and engineer learning opportunities in ways that best serve the system through its contracts, bus schedules, staffing, etc.

Teacher-leaders and administrators were given very relevant and thought-provoking opportunities to effectively institute change at this year’s leadership conference.  Our group of administrators (Doug Keiser, Kent Jacobson, Ivan Thompson, Jenny Borst, Curt Mould, Daniela Stuckey, Erin Meyer, Brad Clark, Andy Bare, and I) will use this opportunity to help reflect on current practices and how the status quo might be challenged to produce outcomes for students that will continue to make our district relevant to students and families well into the future.  

posted June 20, 2009 | comments « back to Message Center home

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