Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Good Challenge

For a long time I saw what was possible and had to find ways to advocate for change. My advocacy ranged from good to not so good over time, but in the end, due to multiple positive factors mainly to do with efforts to learn and dynamic educators/coaches in my online and real time professional learning network (PLN) there's been change in a number of arenas in my professional life.

Rather than trying to climb a tall, cement wall, I am now moving down a path with multiple, positive possibilities. I am so pleased with this change, a change that has resulted in good challenge--challenge that demands that I keep my effort pointed in the right direction, and challenge that requires me to dig in and learn/teach with depth.

What does this challenge include?

Multiple Tools and Resources
Staffing and structural change, greater advocacy worldwide for teaching/learning changes, and more tools and resources have given me greater opportunity to choreograph a program that meets students where they are and moves them in positive, enriching ways. Knowing how to utilize these resources and structures well is a good challenge, one I'm happy to take as we access so much more and better when it comes to teaching well.

NEA Teacher Leadership Cohort III
This is a dynamic learning endeavor with terrific support and challenge. I'm learning so much and I have the chance to learn in a deeper, more beneficial way.

Teacher Share Platform
Recently I was invited to share with other educators on what I think is a dynamic educator share platform. I expect this platform to grow with significant strength. I'm delighted to be apart of it, and again, I'm learning a lot.

University Partnership
Our collective work with local universities is growing which means we have more teacher candidates in our school. This means we have more "hands on deck" to work with students, and it means that almost our whole school is engaged in the question related to what is good teaching and how do we promote that with teacher candidates. Also, I'm teaching at one of the Universities, and I find that my students, teacher candidates, are posing a positive challenge to my education research, efforts, and share. Also, their ideas and efforts are enriching the work I do with my students.

The Learning Team: Students, Families, Colleagues, Leaders, and Community Members
People are embracing the notion and action of the "learning team" more. Rather than debating with one another to no positive result, instead we are collaborating, sharing, and debating multiple positive ideas and increasingly, collectively developing our craft to teach students well.

The greatest challenge now is maximizing the minutes in a day to move these efforts forward with depth and intent to teach children well. This is a very positive turn in the teaching/learning road :)