Creating 21st Century Educators

I once believed everyone was like me. Well, not exactly like me, but the pack I ran with was as driven as myself. I have worked at the same school for the past 8 years. The staff chosen to open a new school are a particular breed of teacher. They are passionate about education, willing to regularly go above and beyond what is expected, and pursue excellence relentlessly. Sometimes this requires a bit of focus, as we've been described as a soccer team with too many coaches. With the right leadership, though, we were very effective.

Now, though, I have left this wonderful school to help support two other schools in the district. This has been a real shock to my system, as I can now see other kinds of teachers. I love my two new schools, and have felt very welcomed and valued in these spaces. But this experience has really called into question some assumptions I've had about teaching. It has also taught me a lot about how I teach.

I once believed everyone was like me. I am a great teacher. This statement has taken a lot of concerted effort to accept, and even more to put into a public space! I am a great teacher because I have a vision. I am a 21st Century Educator. 

Now, I don't truly believe that everyone is exactly like me, but I did think that there are a lot of people who share this vision of teaching. I was wrong. So I am going to unpack what it means to be a 21st Century Educator, and how I can instill these qualities within the teachers I work with (whether they are willing or not!).

What is a 21st Century Educator?

In a quick google search, there are a lot of differing opinions on the qualities of a 21st Century Educator. 

In trolling through these pages, I've come up with the following list - mostly because I feel that I am like this, or strive to be!

• Future-focused
• Life-long learner
• Embraces transformative technology
• Collaborative, connected
• Creative, Innovative, Imaginative
• Relevant, Committed, Authentic, Passionate

And this list of 25 Signs you might be a 21st century teacher just made me laugh.

My challenge in my role is to get others - possibly very resistant - teachers to think this way. I have a surprising amount of teachers who are really close to retirement. I mention this to challenge my own assumptions - as the majority of these teachers are not the resistant ones. However, their challenge is overcoming years of teaching practice that do not prepare our students for the world of tomorrow. Yet this is true for, possibly, the majority of teachers I'm working with. So my challenge is to simply transform the pedagogy of these teachers. Easy, right?

Future-Focused

I don't know what the future holds. I do know that there are certain skills that will be valued when the students I teach arrive at this future. They will need to deal with massive amounts of information. So I need to get these students dealing with information now. This changes my position in the class - and I know we've heard this before - but no longer Sage on the Stage, but Guide on the Side. To me, though, this means that I am not the deliverer of information. 

To me, this seems obvious - but not so much when going into other rooms. Information doesn't need to travel through the teacher - there is just way too much of it - and if the information is traveling through the teacher, then the kids aren't getting enough of it. So, to me, the Guide on the Side means that I will move alongside the kids as they deal with this information, help them manage and make sense of it. This creates a less structured, yet more focused approach to teaching. It is less structured because the students may be working on different things at the same time. It is more focused because I would argue that the kids themselves set the focus - what are you learning - and why?

So how do I get teachers to start looking towards the future? Perhaps it starts with a simple question: How is this helping your students prepare for their future? This question really isn't that simple, because we really don't know what the future will be like. Things are changing so quickly - but there are people who have an eye towards this uncertainty.  Teach your students to deal with this information, rather than listen to your information.   

Life-Long Learner

Truth be told, I'm getting kind of tired of this phrase. Too often I hear it being said, with no value behind it. There are many teachers who aren't life-long learners. What, indeed, are teachers doing - daily - to improve their practice? What reading are they doing? What conversations are they having? What reflecting are they doing? What changes are they doing? Are they truly responding to the students in front of them??

It has been difficult to convince my wife that after 6 years of teaching the same grade, I am still as busy as ever. There are certain things that remain the same, yet the program is vastly different year to year. This year especially is full of changes, with me leaving being the biggest! However, the changes came fast and furious this year because I became immersed in my Personal Learning Network (PLN) via Twitter. I love Twitter! I follow thought-leaders from around the world, learning from them, building my ideas from their thinking. I no longer feel guilty about the stack of books laying unopened on my bedside table, as I am daily engaged in professional learning. 

So I encourage the teachers I work with to get a Twitter account, and follow people who inspire them. If you aren't inspired within the work you are doing, then you aren't doing it right. If you aren't responding to the students in front of you, then you aren't doing it right. If you aren't engaged in improving your program, constantly, then you aren't doing it right.

Embraces Transformative Technology

Technology is crucial to today's teaching. It is crucial because it transforms the way we connect to our kids, our kids connect to each other, and how they can connect to the world outside of the classroom walls. 

I see data projectors, interactive white boards, document cameras, tablets, laptops, smart phones - oh the joy! - but to see the devices being used to re-create a worksheet breaks my heart. 

I was fortunate to attend the Mobilize Conference 2012, presented by Desire2Learn. One of the final speakers still challenges me with his words. Larry Smith spoke about going beyond the obvious. To misquote him badly, these devices we use are much more powerful than word processors and containers of porn. What can they be? Who knows - but much more than flash cards!!!

Teachers need to use technology to transform the learning product. Are kids (re)producing something they could do by hand? Is this simply just a fancier poster board presentation? Is using technology essential to what is being done? 

So I am a double pusher, of sorts. I am encouraging teachers to use technology - and then encouraging these teachers to use technology in a transformative way. Have kids create something that forces the technology to be essential. 

Collaborative, Connected

I get so upset when I see classrooms set up in rows. There: I've said it. It will be soon that I challenge these teachers: How are your kids working together if they are in rows! The answer is, though I already know: they can't. Clearly, a classroom in rows does not value student collaboration and connection. 

I love photos of the classroom of tomorrow. I love these creative spaces that encourage students working together in different ways. 

Of course, most of this vision is product driven: does purchasing a fun chair increase student success? Probably not - but it will if it encourages collaboration. I value work that gets kids to work together. 

So, get rid of the rows. Get rid of the lecture! Well, not totally - as there still is a space for teacher-inspired instruction, but it shouldn't be the majority! Get your kids connected and working together.

Creative, Innovative, Imaginative

I see this lacking tremendously within the participants in the PD sessions that I run - and this challenges my own assumptions that I'm just beginning to explore. I didn't think creativity, innovation and imagination was important, yet I held it close as the most valuable part of my program.

I recently ran a Math and Technology workshop with a few of these underlying values: I wanted my participants to be comfortable with technology, have a creative imagination, and drive the session with their own questions. I presented the MOODLE, a virtual learning environment, as a blank template, full of possibility. However, upon reflection, it came across with all the horror of a blank page to a person with writer's block! 

There were so many people who were frustrated at this workshop, because of what I thought was inherent to good teaching, but was sorely lacking within the majority of people who attended my session.  I've noticed this trend within those teachers now taking technology courses. I'm not sure what wave we are at, but it certainly isn't those who are on the cutting edge, or the bleeding edge! I'm seeing now a lot of people coming to technology-oriented workshops because they recognize that it is important, yet are very hesitant about it. So I have this group of people coming, yearning for something, yet having no idea what to do with it. So they want me to give it to them.

I hate this.

I hate this because it leads to teaching to the tool, not using the tool for teaching. I continually challenge my participants: what do you want the kids to do? Collaborate on a project? Share their work with a larger audience? I can show you how to do that. I will not tell you what to do - as I don't know what goes on in your classroom. Perhaps this is my own cop-out? The longer I'm in this leadership role, I see that the divide between the 21st century educator and the traditional educator is growing ever-wider. So much so, that I'm getting ridiculous resistance: How can I teach handwriting using a computer?? Where is the worksheet function on the MOODLE? I think this is the true root of my frustration - there are teachers who are just so far behind (yes, I said behind) the times that the basic infrastructure of their teaching will not support the power of technology. So then we have classes full of students using iPods as flashcards. Argh!!!

Perhaps sharing, inspiring, and even telling what to do with technology with begin to create in teachers an ability for them to use technology in a creative, imaginative and innovative way. 

Engaging Students: Relevant, Committed, Authentic and Passionate

I'm probably going to get in trouble for telling this story, as the teacher I was working with is fantastic and there is certainly more going on within the class than I was able to observe, but here it goes...

I was in a Grade 6 classroom, and the students were presenting orally their procedural writing. A boy stood up in front of the class and began: "How to Tie Your Shoes. Goal: To tie your shoes. Materials: shoe. Step 1: Take your shoe...." And it continued.

I tell this story because it bothered me, to no end, that the boy was not engaged. I even had a dream about it that night! A number of things needed to be addressed: Why is this acceptable as an oral presentation? Why was it necessary? Why is it important that he tell about this? Is this truly the best that he could do? How is this helping this child prepare for the future??

I spent way too much time brainstorming, to myself, other possible ways that would be so much more engaging, to meet the need of a procedural piece (though that, in and of itself, is troubling too). Argh!

If your kids aren't engaged, then why bother? Stop wasting time! There isn't enough within the day, and even school year. If it isn't important, don't do it!!

So I've made it my mission to share engaging ideas within the teaching circles I move in. Not in a way for them to simply copy, but to inspire all of us to come up with ways that will inspire the kids in front of us to do better.

So there it is. This is where my mind in now. It isn't an easy task, but I'm up for the challenge. There will be casualties along the way - and I'm sure there will be an end-point in my frustration, but for now - the future is wide open - and I'm ready for it!

M.