Final PLP thinking

Today was the final face to face meeting for our Dublin-Dallas cohort during our year-long immersion in PLP thinking. I was fortunate to be on a team of five other very smart educators from my school, and it was a delight to spend this entire year learning alongside these ladies. We all grew a lot and more importantly, over this time, we have developed an action research plan for our building that addresses collaboration in our building - we looked at the structures already in place, and thought about how we could "grow" these structures in breadth and depth. We're all looking forward to putting the plan into action starting this summer.

Our Dublin-Dallas cohort has met multiple times throughout the year in Elluminate sessions online; each 2 hour session focused on certain topics to help push our thinking when it comes to connected learning. As nice as those sessions were, today's face to face session was incredibly powerful. It is a little ironic how much I valued this face to face time, when all year long I've been trying to stretch my connected learning.

I've really learned to push my own personal boundaries of learning as well as my students - this was the year we shared a blog with a class in Maine to talk about a book we were both reading aloud. Then, in celebration of all our thinking, we had a Skype book chat on the final day of the book. My goal has really been to break down the 4 walls of our classroom when we think about how we learn. This was a year that students started bringing electronics (iTouches and iPads) to school to enrich what was already going on in our classroom. I watched amazed recently during writing workshop at how students had multiple tabs opened on their laptops while working on their final project, and right beside the laptop lay their iTouch or iPad, ready with notes they had taken or videos they wanted to import. Another student had a flip video where he recorded himself at home explaining the touch screen of an iTouch. There is no longer a dividing line between what happens at school and what happens at home. The walls of our classroom truly are coming down.

But back to today - today consisted of all groups sharing their action research projects, then breaking apart to discuss topics of interest to us (iPads and project based learning were just two of the choices), we moved on to more breakout group conversations to discuss the roadblocks to implementing 21st century thinking (great discussions!), we talked about our digital footprints, and finally we came together to form action plans for the issues we identified as top priorities.

So much big thinking, and not enough space here to share it all. However, if you want to "poke the box" of your own learning (a phrase one of our co-leaders, Will Richardson used frequently), I am including my notes from today that I put on google doc. If you really want to stretch yourself, go the the PLP website and look at their offerings for the coming year.

A huge thanks to my GRE team, the other PLP cohorts, Will Richardson, and Sheryl Nussbaum Beach for making this year such an important one in my own learning.

Reflections on 21st Century Learning

I have been fortunate enough to take part in a unique learning opportunity. Along with five other teachers in my building, I will be participating in a year-long learning experience with PLP (Powerful Learning Practice) facilitators. What makes this a truly unique opportunity is that the six of us will be joining with other groups of teachers from across the country to think about 21st century learning / literacy practices in our classrooms and our schools.

Our first meeting will be a face to face meeting with all the participants on October 1 at our school. As that day-long experience is approaching, I started to reflect on where I am personally with my own thinking in regard to 21st century learning / literacy, and also how I have incorporated that thinking into our regular classroom routines.

I personally use several Web 2.0 tools on a regular basis -- socializing on Facebook, following topics of interest to me on Twitter, maintaining a blog about children's books here with Bill at Literate Lives, keeping abreast of other bloggers on my Google Reader, bookmarking topics of interest on my delicious.com account to refer back to at a later date, tracking my own reading (as well as the reading of others) using the Good Reads site, and using a wiki with my students as another platform for composing/revising/editing pieces.

What I've come to realize is that I personally have a difficult time balancing all those tools and all the work that goes into being a classroom teacher. One of my biggest hopes for this year is that I will learn how to integrate these tools in a way that is more efficient and meaningful. When I use those tools I mentioned one at a time, it could easily take an entire morning or afternoon, and that isn't even taking into account the fact that I will most likely get sidetracked by something else of interest while I am perusing these tools.

We've been asked to do some "pregame" activities before our first meeting next Friday. There have been many amazing videos to watch, blog posts to read, and several thoughtful articles all focused on the topic of Web 2.0 tools in the school/classroom, and whether or not we are giving our students the best tools to be successful in the world in which they live.

One of the videos I watched focused on the idea of "connectivism" -- all the connected ways in which students can learn. This video and others focus on some different roles for teachers. The ones that really spoke to me were the ideas of teachers as learning architects, teachers as modelers, and teachers as learning concierges. The point was made that we can't "do" school the way we've always done it; we need to rethink the ways we enable students to learn.

But I think the biggest concept I am taking away from what I've read and seen so far, are the 3 C's -- contribute, create, and collaborate. These words are what Web 2.0 tools allow students to do. Learning should no longer be a passive activity, but rather one in which the students actively participate. They need to create things on Web 2.0, they need to contribute to ideas that are already out on Web 2.o, and they need to collaborate with others using Web 2.0 as their toolbox.

Now, if I can just figure out that balance thing when it comes to Web 2.0 tools, that would be great! My goal will be to increase my efficiency as I use these tools, and to help my students see the power of being part of a larger community than just our classroom when it comes to learning. I am grateful to be learning alongside some very smart people as we all tackle these type of issues and are introduced by PLP to a world of new possibilities.