Spent some time chatting at K12 Night Falls session tonight, even though I have had very little time to listen to all of the great presentations. I felt a bit of deja vu as the chat rolled by and the conversation suddenly sounded just like the one I had in the Fireside David Warlick chat. Is it me? Yes, principals need to be involved if technology is to work. Yes, students know more than we do about technology. Yes, teachers say they have no time to learn tech. Yes, yes, and yes. Same conversation- why? I am trying to reflect and frame my online experiences, and maybe there were people in that chat room who have never heard that before, and needed to hear it. Maybe those conversations need to happen all the time to keep people aware. Is there this revolving door of educators where the technology doorman must continually repeat the conversation for those who just came in? I think that may be partially true, but I am personally ready to move on to the “how” part of the work. Now if anyone reads this, don’t take it the wrong way. That conversation did occasionally dip in the direction of “how”. Maybe I am just writing this as a personal message to myself to say “get going with it already!”
That said, I can say that I am now officially obsessed with the idea of building bridges. I have decided that the first part of it might have absolutely nothing to do with technology. I have a pretty good rapport with teachers in my building, but if I want them to jump over this gap, and into the unknown, that rapport is not good enough. They have to respect the way I teach, they have to respect the way I professionally interact with peers, they have to trust me. So today, I broke bread (shared sushi actually) with some colleagues that I don’t normally hang out with. The principal and his family went too, and we barely talked about school, and I never once used the words twitter, blog, or wiki. I learned that my principal is left handed, and he did his student teaching in Japan. I learned that someone I thought was a risk-taker will only eat ranch dressing on her salad. We shared wedding plan updates, new house stories, and halloween preparation tips. We connected on a non-school level. Do you see how important this can be? I see….
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October 27th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Nice post. I completely agree with you on making connections on a non-school level and gaining the respect of colleagues before taking them to “the great unknown.” Think how long it was before I finally showed you guys SL.
I do think it is essential that as you try to bridge the gap, you make sure that what you share will be seen as valuable. So many teachers are overwhelmed with what they already do that I, personally, always have the goal to show them how this new skill, idea, tool, etc. will improve student learning, classroom organization, or whatever. Doesn’t always work, but I try. 
I want new things to excite and energize my colleagues, not overwhelm and scare them. Just my rambling thoughts. Sounds like you had a nice lunch with co-workers. We should all spend more time trying to connect with each other on a more personal level. I think it would make our little world a happier place.
October 27th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Amy,
I totally agree, this is what I was talking about a couple of weeks ago, whenever we were discussing PLC. I can’t remember who I was having the conversation with (Mr. Dawson, Larimore, OK, and Miller…perhaps during our science lab work day). Anyway, Dawson was Anyway; Dawson was discussing pros and cons of having grade level pods vs. vertical pods, and was asking our opinion. One pro to vertical pods was to put people together to encourage cross grade level questioning and collaboration. If I had a question about a 2nd grade GLE, I would ask someone in my pod. I told him, the administration can try and be intentional about placing people together in pods but unless those personal connections are formed, communication won’t occur. I told him even in our PLC I feel like we are trying to push connections and relationships, by putting people together and it has to come from the people themselves. You can’t force people to collaborate, no matter how hard we try we are still going to go to the people we have personal connections with….I hope all this makes sense. It has been a long day and as always it is easier for me to explain things in person.
November 4th, 2007 at 11:09 am
Hi Amy
I have been thinking similar things about the sameness of our conversations in the blogosphere. I have been heard to utter – I just want to hear something new! But maybe, I should be thinking – I just want to say something new. Yes we all know the issues, we are working our hardest to overcome them. And maybe that is the cause of the conversations, helping each other stay sane. But maybe a focus on the positives, the celebrations, the light at the end of the tunnel type conversations, these might change the directions of our interactions and a new conversation may emerge. Hmmm …
November 4th, 2007 at 11:29 am
Jane,
Thanks for the comment- light at the end of the tunnel conversations would be a great way to shift the focus. I will think more about that as I continue to figure out exactly what I am doing with this blog;)