This past Monday and Tuesday I had that chance to spend some quality time in Fairfax (Westish Marin). If you haven't been, it's worth a drive down Sir Francis Drake to see the redwood trees meet the oaks, and the blue sky meet the grass. Tucked in deep within a canyon is the newly remodeled White Hill Middle School. All of this added up to make for one heck of a two day event with new friends, fun, some shenanigans and some big take-aways.
1. Communication Across Multiple Media
Each session I attended at either the Edcamp or the Summer Institute had a thread of communication. This could be peer to peers, teachers to students, parents, admin to student. Also, communication around a school can and should take place by way of different means: Social media, blogs, face to face, hand written notes and letters, Audioboo's, airplane writing (we don't see this enough anymore). When the means of communication are examined deeper, being a kind communicator who contributes to the conversation and acting like a positive citizen, digital or not, was a part of many conversations. It was good to hear this resonating amongst K-12 people. A specific nod to Eric Saibel for bringing up the idea that expecting solid digital citizens in high school without proper foundation during elementary is off base, and that it is our responsibility to teach these foundational skills with enough momentum to carry forward well beyond elementary.
2. Aha!
"Don't steal the kid's aha! moment." Eileen Smith is a dynamo of a presenter and I'm guessing she brings this same enthusiasm each day as a principal in Novato. While my colleagues and I were trying to understand a 4th grade math problem enough to share out our thinking with peers, she was on ice skate jamming throughout the room. She had questions, ideas, small tips, but not an answer. There is discovery in learning. We should remind ourselves of this daily and wait for our students to yell, "AHA! I know how to do this!"
3. Fail up. Learning is messy. Honor process. A Growth Mindset Grows. A Fixed Mindset is Fixed.
Process above all else is going on my wall next year as a reminder that we will get there, but the route we take might be different. Probably a bit messy, usually loud but fully engaged. From each miscue or failure, we will learn and move forward. I'm a pretty good model of the fail up method... "This didn't work, it fell apart. No sweat, let's look at this concept or idea." I might have failed at that one small moment, but I'm not a failure for the hour, day, week, month... If we can teach and model to our students that their ability to grow, learn and change is a capability they are have learning will improve. A growth mindset allows children to see the process as having benefit. Everyone likes to win, but there are only 8 lanes in the 100m final at the Olympics. Someone's going home sad... (that is actually a direct quote from my UC Davis Track coach, Deanne Vochatzer. She is awesome). However, if we can see that all of my hard work made me a better person, more fit, stronger and more resilient, than I have succeeded. Transfer this concept to learning in the classroom. Maybe little Johnny didn't ace the math quiz, but with his growth mindset he looks at where he went wrong, ask questions about how to get better, find more connections with previous work and applications of these skills, all the while improving his learning through the process. His end product is ultimately better, too, through effort and smarter studying.
4. Friends
It was so nice to chat with Peter Goetz, Tracy Walker, Elizabeth Espinoza, Eric Saibel and finally to meet Craig Yen who is a master PLN builder/sharer and tweet ninja.
Keep learning my friends.
