Blogging From The Leadership Academy Day 1

For the next three days I will blog from the “Leadership Academy”.  The Leadership Academy is a joint effort between IU’s 8, 10, and 11.  Once a year all schools in the three IU’s (56 school districts) have an opportunity to come together to learn and share.  Every year there is a theme in which we center our learning around.  This year the theme is “launching ideas”.  Educators and the education system has always been inundated with ideas and reforms.  Some of these ideas have been better than others.  Regardless of their potential effectiveness, incorporating a new idea into a system is a challenge.  Oftentimes school districts will implement a new idea only to panic after the “implementation dip” that inevitably occurs and will abandon the idea.  It is very difficult to judge the true effectiveness of an idea or a reform if we do not allow enough time for the idea to get embedded in the system.  This year, we felt that spending time learning about project management and implementation would benefit all of our schools. 

Our society is changing from a command and control system where people are told what to do to a system where collaboration, collegiality and teaming are paramount. In the industrial model, there is a control structure in place to assure that what the “higher ups” deem necessary will occur in the way they want it to happen.  For example, think about how reading series in elementary school are often so scripted that teachers just read from a script.  This type of system is no longer viable IF you care about learning.  Organizations now must concentrate on collaboration and teaming to effectively change our practice. The result of this change for education is that the best ideas for learning will come from the people within the system.  We are coming to realize that a great idea does not have to be a “big idea”.  Ideas that lead to significant system change often seem small.  In other words, organic ideas coming from the people within the system is the future of system change.  Educators must be thoughtful about how they implement a new idea regardless of the origination of the idea.  The goal for this leadership conference is to share strategies and best practices centered on project management and idea implementation.  Changing learning to a system that is radically learner centered takes creative idea generation and thoughtful implementation practices.  The leadership academy is an important start for that change.

MCL National Summit Day 3

Let’s cut to the chase.  If you profess to be “for the kids” then the current system of learning is simply unacceptable.  Let’s change the current system so the learner is truly the focus. Educators have a moral obligation to change the system.  We must change it from a system where content is king to one where the learner is the intense focus.  How many learning facilitators are still concerned about “getting through the book” or “covering all of the curriculum”…,..too many.  If you have these concerns, then you are still a teacher.  The belief of a teacher is that your job is to dispense information to children in hopes that they may remember something.  However, the students remembering something is not your number one goal if you are a teacher.  A teacher is concerned abut curriculum and covering content.  A learning facilitator, on the other hand, focuses all of their energy on the learning of the student.  Barriers of time and space are irrelevant to a learning facilitator.  Grades and grade levels are immaterial to a learning facilitator.  The learning experience for the learner is paramount and takes precedent over everything else. If we are truly going to do what is best for kids and communities then let’s be committed to change…

MCL National Summit Day 2

The operative word to describe my reaction to day 2 of the National MCL Summit is “Community”.  There are 300 people attending the Summit who have “MCL in the veins” as Bea McGarvey likes to say.  When people undertake the significant system change that MCL requires you often feel like you are the only one out there fighting for a learner centered education.  When you are at the Summit you are with people who are not only passionate about the work but they are also engaged in the “reality” to make change occur.  Many times today as I listened to schools from all over the United States talk about their MCL journey, I noticed people in the crowd shaking their heads in agreement as they listened.  It is reassuring to all of us when we can talk to people who have walked in our shoes.  

People also used the word “heroic” to describe the work in schools that they are learning about.  This is worth some reflection. The work that we do for learners is the most important work in society.  Regardless of what any naysayers claim, educators work to better the future society.  We do this by impacting kids in the present.  When you see 300 people in one place who are turning themselves inside out to provide the best learning experiences for kids, then you see heroic action.  This is just my opinion…