Reframing Community.
Weak signals for change amplifying as legacy thinking pushes back.
In 1947, piloting the X-1 rocket plane, Chuck Yeager became the first person to travel faster than the speed of sound. He related that in starting the run, the air was smooth. As he accelerated, the air became very choppy with the X-1 vibrating violently. With courage, Yeager continued to accelerate until the X-1 was traveling faster than the speed of sound. Those on the ground reported hearing a loud explosion when Mach 1 was achieved. Captain Yeager reported later that once breaking the sound barrier, the air again was calm and the X-1 flew steady and true. It seems the forces of nature tried to hold him back, but with the technology of the X-1, and courage, mankind moved forward.
It seems mankind is again at the point of a breakthrough, with traditional legacy thinking creating extreme turbulence and push back. Like Chuck Yeager, we must have the courage to accelerate through the turbulence, push forward, and trust it will be smooth on the other side.
Redefining Community and Local Control.
With the advance of access to the internet, in some jobs people no longer have to live in the same physical vicinity as their employment. They are able to choose anywhere in the world to live, as long as there is high speed internet access. Historically folks have moved for work, but now work will move with the employee to wherever they want to live. Florence, Alabama is actively recruiting professionals to relocate and work remotely from the Shoals. Lifting up their low cost of living and great quality of life, economic developers are even paying up to $10,000 towards moving expenses.
This has potential to signal a migration from cities to rural areas. Leaving overcrowded cities for cleaner, wide open spaces, would be a game changer. This transformation of community would impact community planning, city services, churches, and schools. This will reframe the definition of community to have both a physical and a virtual component, and greatly impact schools.
Historically, a community was defined by its physical location. Families and individuals selected communities by seeking those with neighbors like themselves or for employment. Community norms, perspectives, and values emerged both deliberately named and subliminally practiced. Locally elected school boards and the schools themselves reflected these named and subliminally practiced (or overt and covert) norms, perspectives, and values. With school district funding primarily coming from local tax revenues, supplemented by state aid and some federal funding for specific programs, it is local dollars that fund the local schools, and thus shape the culture of the school.
What does community mean for educators: teachers and administrators?
Schools are an extension of the community, and school culture reflects the defined norms, perspectives, and values of the local community. School funding is limited to the community’s ability to tax, with expenditures reflecting the community’s culture. This limited funding impacts the district’s ability to provide professional development for teachers.
Most community patrons, because their perspective is limited to their own experiences in school, see school for what it was, and it is hard for them to envision what it could be. They hold on to the past and many times do not understand the need for training teachers on new emerging pedogogy. Statements like "when I was in school" or thinking "it was good enought for me" adds to the turbulence for change.
I keep thinking about those who are now seeking both a physical and digital community, like Florence, Alabama is touting, along with parents who are not comfortable with sending their children back to school without a COVID-19 vaccine, and how this provides an opportunity for schools to be re-envisioned and reframed.
Leaving the old and reaching for the new.
“Breaking the sound barrier” next generation schools will be networks for learning, collaborating digitally via the internet, plus face to face; but will not be confined to a bricks and mortar location. Leveraging technology, teachers will individualize, personalize, and differentiate instruction, linking learning to student’s passions, aptitudes, attitudes, and abilities. Learning how to learn, unlearn and uplearn, apply knowledge to real world predictable and unpredictable situations, connect and collaborate locally and globally with next generation, children could receive a world class education to and from anywhere on the planet. There is an exciting potential that sorting learners by age, gender, ethnicity, or poverty will give way to clustering students by creativity, passions, empathy, and the ability to connect and communicate.
If this be the new frontier, how do I prepare and get there?
As mentioned earlier, local funding for professional development is limited, and many times dependent on ‘one-time’ money provided by state grants, federal grants, and or other sources. Current CARES Act funding in response to COVID-19 does include financial resources for training.
Budgeting and planning for district ongoing professional learning is normally designed as one-and-done, top-down, by Central Office staff with little teacher voice or choice. Ideally, professional learning for teachers should model how students learn: individualized, personalized, and differentiated and include voice and choice. Sadly, this does not happen with regularity. In many instances, district provided teacher professional learning opportunities are limited to local district discretion and subject to community norms, perspectives, and values.
An additional disconnect has emerged. Because of COVID-19, the public has assumed that if schools move to online learning, teachers will know how to teach in this modality. In reality, most do not; and in many instances students do not have access to high speed broadband internet. With only sixty+ days between the end of the last school year, and the beginning of the next, with already a shortage of qualified teachers, factoring in returning teachers whose health and age make them susceptible to COVID-19, education in the United States is approaching a flashpoint. This is the opportunity for teachers and community stakeholders to seize the moment and reframe schools to be viable and relevant. Teachers who can reinvent themselves can lead, become change architects and pathfinders.
Change yourself first! Become a CONNECTED EDUCATOR
“If you want to change the world, first change yourself, then tell others how you did it. Never demand that people change. Inspire them to change using your own change as an example instead.” Dan Pearce, Single Dad Laughing
As I participate in twitter chats and connect in conversations with educators from around the world, my observation is that educators are realizing that global change is here. This realization is happening organically, one teacher, one administrator, and one school at a time, with many feelings isolated. Realizing and embracing change is one thing, navigating through it is another.
Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach is a longtime friend and a highly respected collogue. For 20+ years she has been on the cutting edge, leading the transformational change of education. Her foundational belief is that teachers learn best from teachers. In her book, The CONNECTED Educator (2012) not only does she lay out how to use technology tools to enhance learning, but more importantly, she shares the design of how the local professional learning community, linked with the teacher, creates a personal learning network via social media. This creates a powerful global community of practice for collaboration, innovation, and creativity.
Sheryl’s work is made operational by her TEAM at Professional Learning Practices. The PLP TEAM is actively creating communities of learners, connecting and supporting teachers and administrators. From hosting Twitter chats to free on demand ‘how to’ webinars, to working alongside districts to co-create year-long professional learning, PLP is building teacher efficacy and capacity. Sherly and the PLP TEAM take local learning communities and coach them on how to connect to a global online community of practice. This empowers and creates capacity and a powerful synergy of educators. Check it all out at plpnetwork.com and dive deeper at bit.ly/CLExp
GROWTH RINGS
The world was already changing, but because of COVID-19, the rate of change accelerated exponentially. Now the world is going through extreme turbulence, affecting everything all the way down to the community and individual level. Mankind has entered this turbulence of societal and community change and now requires imagination, creativity, and innovation.
New norms and conditions are emerging. Unlike Chuck Yeager who flew solo in the X-1 to break the sound barrier, being one of the CONNECTED EDUCATORS means not having to fly alone. Sheryl and the PLP team stand ready and committed to help. It is up to us teachers to summon courage, connect, leverage the internet and digital devices, and lead.
You can connect with Sheryl and the PLP Team on Twitter at:
@snbeach
@PLPNetwork
@aprilpc
@chris10dodd
@blomingedu
#plpnetwork
#ConnectedEducator
