Education Rambler

This week I will be attending the Flippen Leadership Series by the Flippen Group.  Having been through their Capturing Kids’ Hearts program two years ago, I have to say that I think they have a lot of really important things to share.  Most of all, I’ve noticed that every Flippen employee I’ve encountered to date has modeled leadership.

In preparation for attending this seminar, I’ve done a lot of thinking about what good leadership is.  I’ve had plenty of conversations about leadership and heard plenty of theories on leadership.  Some people believe we must hold a position or title to be a leader, while others believe leadership is something that comes from within regardless of our position.  Taking both of those together, I suppose I believe it’s possible to have a leadership title in an organization and not be a good leader.

If I ask myself what I believe leadership is, or if I press myself to commit to a definition, I have been gravitating toward a very broad and inclusive definition.  That is, I don’t believe someone has to have a title or position of authority to lead.  When it comes right down to it, I think leadership is having the power to influence and making the choice to act on it.

That definition, though broad, carries a lot with it.  Everyone has the power to influence, and some of us make the decision to act on it, and by that argument everyone has the potential to be a leader.  I think the question I’m mulling over now–and will mull over even more this week–is what makes a good leader?  What are the qualities a leader has to have in order to be effective over the long haul?  Besides the power to influence and making the decision to act, what are the “hows” attached to that action that determine what type of leader someone is?

Attending NECC 2008, I was not surprised to see so many vendors and presentations mentioning the concept of 21st Century Skills.  It’s true that we’re in the 21st Century, and many people have seen the proverbial light when it comes to the concept of a flat world, but I’m concerned that 21st Century Skills may become too diluted as more and more vendors bend 21st Century concepts to fit their products.

I’ll first state that I have personally subscribed to the framework of 21st Century Skills proposed by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.  I find them to represent a wide range of skills which I believe to be necessary for success in navigating the world of the 21st century.  One of the skills listed is the theme of global awareness.  Walking around NECC I saw many vendors taking advantage of 21st century buzz words, but didn’t necessarily see the vendors “walking the walk” though they had certainly been coached in “talking the talk.”

The best example of global awareness was at Tuesday’s keynote event with Jim Carleton and Mali Bickley.  Jim and Mali described themselves as educators who had lost their fire and passion for teaching, but were lit up again by global connections through technology.  A theme of their conversation was that their connections weren’t so much about the technology, but about the connections technology afforded them.  It wasn’t about specific products, and it wasn’t about which tools are better tools.  It was about the end result: students learning about students from other parts of the world.

Learning about students from around the world sounds like an easy thing to do, and on a surface level it probably is.  Jim and Mali described how at first their students were writing to their international student colleagues about day-to-day things like favorite foods and favorite colors, but then it got interesting.  Suddenly themes like war, peace, and culture came into play in ways that Jim and Mali probably only half anticipated.  THIS is where the true global awareness developed.

Global awareness is like reading comprehension.  In reading we talk about surface understanding, and really deep comprehension.  I think most educators would agree that we need to develop surface understanding to get to the really good thinking around what students read, and we should never settle for surface comprehension to be good enough.  Mali and Jim started with global awareness at a surface level and took it much, much deeper.  It wasn’t good enough to have students trading trivial information–though this is an important first step in building the relationships–the global awareness their students exerienced built true global awareness about the lives and experiences of students with vastly different lives than many students living in North America.

Jim and Mali’s presentation inspired me to think more about global awareness and the power it brings.  I look forward to seeing true global awareness in the years to come, and hope we all can remember not to settle for the surface, but get to the good stuff!

Thinking about the information you just read regarding LoTi, what do you think the implications of LoTi are for classroom use of technology?  Do you see yourself as being willing to “up the ante” in order to move to another level?  Should Level 6 be the goal of every lesson?

To refresh your memory of LoTi, click here.

This is the fourth year in a row as a staff specialist for professional development, which means it’s my third school year of not starting the year with a group of students with whom I’m charged to educate and nurture through another year of learning.  But it’s in the air, and I can feel it!

When I walk through the halls of the schools I’ve worked in the last few weeks, I can smell the aroma of freshly constructed bulletin boards and see the shine of freshly waxed floors.  I hear the chatter of teachers as they discuss the new this or the new that, and who had the most weddings, births, and vacations over the summer.

What I think I miss the most about the start of a new school year is the clean slate you can begin with each year.  Even if some of the students are the same, you’ve had the summer to recharge and get excited about changing something just slightly so that you can reach one more student in a better way.  I was happy, though, to see that most of the teachers I’ve worked with in the last three weeks are truly excited about getting back into their classrooms and getting into the daily shuffle with kids.

I love my role as a staff specialist.  I guess I’m writing this because I get asked often whether or not I miss working with kids on a daily basis.  My answer is yep, but I’m also glad I took a chance on something different.