This Message Center is organized and operated by David Vitale I found this excerpt while perusing the NSDC site and think it accurately reflects the mission and vision behind the online tools discussion group this year.  Of course, the title of this post playfully imitates the once common Saturday Night Live segment of the same name.   

Conversations among educators are an important and underused professional learning tool to promote continuous improvements in teaching and student achievement. But not all conversations are created equal in their ability to affect what educators believe, understand, say, and do on a daily basis.

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.

Because many leaders believe that speakers and training sessions are the most effective means to influence practice, they don’t fully appreciate nor take advantage of the many opportunities for meaningful conversations that occur each day to promote educators’ learning. While conversations that produce learning may take place in various types of meetings, they may also occur in relatively brief, one-to-one informal exchanges in hallways or over a cup of coffee or meal. 

The point is that not all professional learning (or classroom learning for that matter) takes place in formal or planned "episodes".  And no sustainable action will ever be realized if the group or organization fails to identify core beliefs on which to operate. 

posted May 9, 2009 | comments « back to Message Center home

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