DISQUS

Drape's Takes: Teaching Teachers that Teach Teachers

  • Robin Ellis · 6 months ago
    I think it is a good idea to blend the two, you will be building a PLC, but you also want people to understand the changes which are taking place all around us, and the expectation ( I am assuming) that those you have hired are open minded educators willing to take risks and stretch their own thinking. I agree with Jethro, it isn't about the technology, it is about student learning , but isn't it also about the learning of those you have hired?

    The suggestions some of us made would hopefully push ideas of conventional classrooms and pedagogy, open the door to conversations of how the changes in the world today, due to the technology, have changed how we live our lives in some respects. This is all about building a PLC, but I think, and Darren please correct me if I am wrong, a foundational goal of this PLC is to also build a culture of change.
  • Darren Draper · 6 months ago
    Right on, Robin!
  • Michelle Baldwin · 6 months ago
    *Grown Up Digital - Dan Tapscott
    *Engage Me or Enrage Me - Mark Prensky
    *Where We Stand (PBS) video series
    *Understanding Digital Kids I and II - Ian Jukes (more fun to watch him live/in person, but the printed resources are great, too!)

    For me, it's not about simply helping teachers understand the skills kids must have to be successful now (compared to 10-20 yrs ago), it's also about changing school to be more about learning and discovering... and being excited about that! Our kids truly ARE different now. They need different schools.
  • Russ Lauber · 6 months ago
    Draper...to quote you: "You're killin' me..." (you speaking to IT services on PK's phone while trying to bring his laptop up-to-speed...and now, YOU'RE killin' ME...c'mon...give us SOMETHING we can 'hang our hats on'...you've very quickly lost your focus as an 'in-the-trenches' sort of guy, and like everything else I'm reading, spouting verbiage we cannot, or will not EVER use without some LEADERSHIP in the buildings we exist in...we're dying out here, and NO ONE is listening...I know you think I've lost my mind, but talk to Lisa Prudden or Aaron Hadfield...two of the finest educators (and I KNOW you already KNOW this...)... to grace the halls of ANY institution...HELP! HELP! QUIT giving me Uncle Barry's solutions, and convert me to @canyonsdaves...
  • Darren Draper · 6 months ago
    What is your understanding of what we will be doing related to providing technology support in the buildings?
  • jethrojones · 6 months ago
    Darren, when you asked this, I had a hard time coming up with *one* thing teachers of teachers should read. I see that you have compiled this list, but I would assume that you would still take one thing from the list, and push that to your people. So, it has to be powerful. I didn't watch one video or read one article to get me to where I am today. It took a lot of reading, a lot of writing, and a lot of thinking and pondering as well.

    If we want our teachers of teachers to read ONE thing, it better be something worthwhile. It better be moving. And it better make them want to do whatever it takes to accomplish a goal (which the required reading would probably suggest).

    If we are going to have teachers of teachers read something that we want to sink into their souls, it should remind us why we are in education. We are not here for the technology. We are not here for us. We are not here because we have a calling. We are not here so we can brag about being "in the trenches" and suffering for the good of others. We are here to help kids LEARN. Nothing else is as important as that one thing. If the technology doesn't help them learn, toss it. If what we are going to do as teachers of teachers doesn't help students learn, then we need to change.

    Based on those way-too-long introductory comments, I suggest Learning by Doing. It is not an article on the internets, but you can read articles by the authors at AllThingsPLC.info, if we must have a web reference.

    Learning by Doing will inspire our people to do what needs to be done to help the students learn. That is my official vote.
  • Russ Lauber · 6 months ago
    Once, again, for the HEARING IMPAIRED...I'm from Missouri...SHOW ME...SHOW ME...SHOW ME!!! Like Agent Mulder, I WANT to believe, but I've been in the trenches long enough to be skeptical...Carl Sagan said, 'Skepticism is the science tool we winnow great truth from great folly'...well? The scientific method exists solely on the 'null hypothesis' (c'mon, Draper, you KNOW this!!)...it is not up to the skeptics to prove the worth of a NEW finding, it is up to those claiming a corner on the knowledge market to SHOW US...