A Powerful Visual

Trisha Underwood, from the Nagel Middle School Team of the Forest Hills School District, uploaded this great video we want to share. Well done, Ohio Consortium!!

The Culminating Tour

By Will Richardson

Sheryl and I have been on the road of late traveling to the culminating events for our PLP cohorts, seeing everyone face to face for the second and, in many cases, last time, and hearing about the very cool projects they’ve put together for their schools. I have to say that while the projects have been good in the past, this year, they were even better, and I think it has a lot to do with our own learning as to how to best frame and support the work for our participants. PLPeeps aren’t the only ones who learn in this process, obviously.

So I just wanted to share this overview from Ellie Preston in the Forest Hills School District outside of Cincinnati. Forest Hills was nice enough to host our face to face events this year, and we also got a chance to spend two quality days with their leadership team to try to deepen their understanding of what change looks like these days. Ellie’s team project is just one example of how a school frames an action research question during their PLP work and then builds a plan to carry it out. Safe to say in this case, the project taught them a lot about their own staff and made them think deeply about the process. Enjoy!

Into and out of the forest

By Lani Ritter-Hall

“PLP is getting lost in the deepest, darkest part of the forest, and then depending on each other to find our way out together.” –PLP Handbook

The members of the Ohio Consortium cohort entered the forest together some ten months ago with thoughts of a journey into uncharted territory generating not only excitement and but also trepidation for many. Getting lost, for so many educators who are accustomed to knowing exactly where they are going, is pretty risky business. Despite the fears there were great hopes for the community–

“The hope is that the journey will be greater than the destination.” Bob Beach, Gilmour Academy

That hope was realized, from this perspective, for in the process of this journey of possibilities promised by the exhilarating new landscapes, juxtaposed against the detours and mammoth boulders of daily realities emerged a community working to address difficult issues and help each other clarify thinking to move forward. One of the beauties of community in PLP is someone always is there to help those who are “lost” in finding their way. Initially many found “getting lost” in the shifts and changes in learning introduced through a menu of activities in an online virtual community and through a fast moving Elluminate environment overwhelming and a bit scary. One example of many, in the first Elluminate session, Tim was pushed by another member in a chat conversation that shed light on shifts required by teachers; he subsequently disappeared from the community for some time to later resurface, reflecting and reaching out to all others who might share his feelings–

“As I thought through this more I realized that Debra had pushed me out of my comfort zone. That is when we truly learn, when we are uncomfortable. My encouragement to those who are feeling overwhelmed or frustrated is to look past the emotion and see why you feel this way. Use that understanding to drive you to work outside your comfort zone and begin the true learning.”  –Tim Breuer, Milford

His openness and courage encouraged others to nudge those who seemed lost in the trees–

“I’m wondering if your difficulty in “coming to the table” has more to do with time management or a comfort that exists in established patterns?”  –Tracy Varner, Forest Hills

And to shed a light on their personal feelings and thoughts as the journey continued–

“I know it looks like a lot and we probably won’t get through all of it (in fact I know we won’t) and that’s okay. As I immerse myself more and more into this experience I see how we just have to let it unfold. Let the unfolding begin today.”  – Mary Mitchell, Forest Hills

Unfold the journey did and there was not a time when we were not “depending on each to find our way out together”.  The fabric of community, the trust and relationships that developed, gave rise to a greater sense of identity and purpose and increased collaboration, from which leaders emerged to offer a hand. One example, Cary Harrod’s engaging “The Lurking Cave” post which ended with a personal revelation about lurking that became a light for others—

“I still get that sickly feeling sometimes but I’ve realized that some of the deepest learning I have experienced has been when I put myself out there…when I dare to be transparent in my learning. It has indeed been a huge learning curve but one well worth the climb.”  –Cary Harrod, Forest Hills

To which the community responded, both lurkers and active members, helping each other–

“I have enjoyed reading all the comments on lurking. It has always taken me some time to gain the confidence to put my thoughts and ideas out there for others to read. My group, the e-lumminators, have made a so called pack to move forward in our learning by posting and commenting more in the forums.”  – Nola Jacobs, Forest Hills

“Nola, thank you for your post. I have been a “lurker learner”. Taking on this challenge has been a bit overwhelming to me. I have ironically felt disconnected as a participant but I can say that I am learning from the discussions taking place. I was thrilled to see that you teach first graders. I also teach first graders and don’t know anyone else in PLP that teaches the young ones. Your insight to how you teach your students helped me to reflect the same. I will allow myself to celebrate my baby steps in this journey!”  –Patricia Williams, Fairfield

“To lurk or not to lurk, what is lurking?…as I read through all of the posts, I found myself nodding my head in agreement or sitting back and reflecting or shrugging my shoulders in wonder or question. Lurking is still about degree of engagement to me. What does taking risk look like in transparent learning on a ning. I started to think about what my ‘lurking’ look like as a learner. By nature, I am a ruminator, I just chew on something for awhile and then ping, a response comes in my head. Here is the difference; I typically do not share the thought. Or I only share the thought if it is that safe environment. So it’s time to just put it out there. Ruminating is ok for awhile but sometimes you have to produce milk.”   – Karen Frimel, Berea

As more members of the community began to “produce milk” in the virtual community together, they also journeyed with their school/district professional learning teams designing and developing action research projects.  Often also fraught with wayfinding, the community actively supported teams’ request for feedback and offered support as they transparently shared those journeys in the virtual community and on the cohort wiki.  As this example illustrates, the Chinquapin team emerged from the forest together–

“This project will allow students to rediscover the joy of learning by re-inventing the concept of going to school. Teachers will need to model the behaviors we hope the students will adopt, and they will need to coach students as they find their way. We will need to re-teach the young people at our school how to be learners and how to take charge of their own learning. But we may need to re-teach and re-invent ourselves as well.”  – Chinquapin team

A testament to the power of collaboration and community as teachers chart new paths for their practice and their students’ learning–

“One of the challenges in teaching—and in working with technology in education—has been the feeling that I spend my time in a vacuum, hermetically sealed away from meaningful contact with other adults facing the same issues that I am facing.  PLP has been invaluable to me because it’s given me an environment in which I could develop the skills and resources necessary to make more and better connections with colleagues, experts, and knowledge through using learning networks on a daily basis.  My perspective on what’s possible and necessary has broadened both locally and globally and I can now reach out more confidently to ask questions and provide information.    – Cathleen White, Gilmour Academy

“A paradox of the PLP experience—By opening ourselves up to learning from educators outside the district, we’ve been able to get to know our own colleagues within Milford. ….My experiences with PLP have convinced me that Milford needs to build the foundations for teaching the new literacy of the 21st century. If we do this, our students will be well-prepared for the participatory culture that awaits them.”  – Betsy Woods, Milford

“PLP has opened my eyes to a world of possibilities.  All of a sudden I am supported not only by the top leaders in education, but also by a group of colleagues that are walking the same path and have the same expectations and concerns that I have. My professional growth has been amazing to me. Through virtual sessions and ongoing conversations I now have a deeper understanding of 21st century teaching and learning.”  — Dolores Gende, Parish Episcopal

From getting lost to finding our way out together–

What a forest—

What a community–

What a journey–

Action Research Project Teasers

By Lani Ritter-Hall

The school teams in the Ohio Consortium were invited to create short, online teasers for their action research projects. The three exemplary teasers that follow generated excitement within the cohort and we are pleased to share them with you here.

From the Parish Episcopal team–

From the Forest Hills elementary team–

From the Gilmour Academy team–

On the cusp

Professional learning teams—

Engaged in action research related to 21st Century change and the shifts we have been exploring in PLP—

Many Ohio Consortium teams, transparent in their process—

Providing a window onto their exciting, intense, collaborative, and difficult work—

On the way to building capacity for change in their districts—

With vision–

This project will allow students to rediscover the joy of learning by re-inventing the concept of going to school. Teachers will need to model the behaviors we hope the students will adopt, and they will need to coach students as they find their way. We will need to re-teach the young people at our school how to be learners and how to take charge of their own learning. But we may need to re-teach and re-invent ourselves as well.   Chinquapin team

With burning questions—

How to keep students engaged in learning outside of the classroom while using the same technologies that they are using in their personal learning networks?  Forest Hills high school team

How can a Standards-based Professional Development program using and implementing  21st Century skills have an impact on teaching and learning at our school?  Parish Episcopal team

How can we increase our student learning and motivation in math and science utilizing a collaborative approach?  Berea elementary team

April Lempa Cooper, from the Milford team mentioned in a virtual community comment:

..feels like we are on the cusp of some real changes…

I sense that too from tensions inherent in the questions and vision, from learning I’ve had the privilege to see in our virtual community, and from the commitment of team members as their team has experienced storming and norming on their way to performing. Teams, full of hope when our cohort began last fall, have moved beyond hope to important work with their action research projects and are “on the cusp of some real changes”.

Taking one step, then another, to an entirely new level

By Lani Ritter-Hall

“Part of the mission of PLP is to help participants build their cyber confidence while at the same time starting to build their personal and professional learning networks. One way we do that is by bringing in Experienced Voices. The idea behind “Experienced Voices” is twofold. First, it’s to bring into the PLP communities folks knowledgeable about both the tools and the pedagogy, and have them help PLP members explore various topics related to teaching and learning in the 21st century. Second, it’s a way to help PLPers slowly expand their learning networks by giving them some thoughtful folks to learn from and to follow.” – PLP network

To that end, four experienced voices, practitioners all,  joined the Ohio Consortium to share experiences, answer questions, and engage in deep, inspiring, and thoughtful conversations around 21^st Century learning. Embraced by community members, Brian Crosby, Kim Cofino, Anne Smith, and Barbara Barreda have encouraged, prodded, celebrated, questioned and most importantly of all, shared the reality and power of their day to day experiences with learning.

In one of Anne Smith’s ‘Learning in a 21^st Century Secondary Classroom’ discussions, she has asked her group to consider blogging, why they blog, if they don’t why not, and what did they want to know about blogging.  Jeremy Duncan, a Chinquapin PLPer and math teacher, thoughtfully responded –questioning his role in blogging and the value of blogging in his classroom:

“I will probably never meet most of the people whose blogs I read, but I have certainly learned from their thoughts. I have become a better math teacher because Dan Meyer blogs. … If I am going to learn from all of these people, shouldn’t I contribute something also? I have also seen how useful blogs can be. Susan Davis has done some really good things here at Chinquapin with blogging, glogging, vokis, voicethreads, etc… I can see that they are valuable tools for teaching, but I still haven’t found a good way to implement them in the math classroom (I have used videos, wikis, online quizzes, etc., but never blogs).”

and later received useful feedback from Anne and his colleagues.

Elementary PLPers have joined Brian Crosby in his group, ‘21^st Century Learning in an Elementary Classroom’, finding his examples for learning exciting and his suggestions for starting doable, setting them up to take the next step. Carrie Lynn Murray, a Lakota PLPer, responded to a suggestion:

“So now I have a feasible goal – next step – sit in my thinking chair (to quote Blue’s Clues) and decide which lesson to begin with…  Brian – you are an inspiration!!!”

And Tim Breuer, a Milford PLPer, reflects:

“Brian was able to give me solid answers about the trials of attempting 21 C lessons. One of the best pieces of advice he gave me was to let technology fit the lesson instead of making a lesson fit the technology. Only someone who has been through many repeated attempts would know the downfalls of forcing a lesson to be something it is not. I’m sure that single piece of advice will save me hours of work and headache.”

Barbara Barreda’s ‘21^st Century Leadership: a Shared Work’ group has grappled with Barbara’s probing questions on identifying qualities of an effective leader in wide ranging discussion. In that conversation, Cathleen White, a 21^st Century Fellow and Gilmour PLPer, asked a critical question:

“How do we get administrators to model change? Especially ones who don’t use technology?”

To which Lynn Ochs, a Milford PLPer and 21^st Century Fellow, replied:

“This topic is near and dear to my heart Cat. I spent a good four years of my career working on the Ohio Leadership for Integrating Technology project.  I think the big question is – what fundamentally changed as a result of this experience? Awareness increased, administrators were empowered to get more involved in local decision-making around technology and their comfort level with technology improved. As will all experiences, those that fully engaged gained the most – both from their facilitators and peers. We were pre- Web 2.0 so there really was no way to keep the community of learners together. I wonder if moving administrators in the direction of Personal Learning Networks of their own is the route to go… This supports the notion that job-embedded, sustained professional learning has much more impact than one shot experiences.”

And the discussion continues–

Kim Cofino has engaged her group, ‘Globally Collaborative Projects’, with specific tips on connecting, places to find projects and a guide to collaborative projects, opening new and exciting horizons for her members.  Mary Pat Harris, a Milford PLPer and elementary teacher, reflects upon her participation in these discussions:

“I have been inspired by the exchanges with our experienced voice leaders.” The experiences they “have described in great detail are the kinds of things I’d like to facilitate with my students.  … I’ve joined the Global Education Collaboration and some others that I learned about through my groups.  …I’m just a hair away from some of this with our kids.  And I’m confident that with the tools and connections I’m making through our Ning and the support of our experienced voices I’ll get there…. and most importantly… my students will get there! They have provided me with the sites and organizations to take what I have done with students to an entirely new level.”

Fist pumps, big smiles, enormous sighs and goosebumps accompany my reading as the conversations evolve. PLPers on a grand journey into 21^st Century authentic learning, a journey in which our experienced voices have opened doors onto such vast landscapes that are new territory for so many.  And with each response, with each question, with each thoughtful entry, I am incredibly thankful for the immense privilege of traveling with PLPers as they take that next step, then another, to an entirely new level.

Let the Unfolding Begin

By Lani Ritter-Hall

Thoughtful discussions, nudging, push backs

Sharing, holding back

135 cohort members in the main forum of the Ohio Consortium virtual learning community, learning in quest of a more accomplished global practice–

20 professional learning teams in their private team rooms, meeting face to face– collaborating with plans to scale their learning to faculty/district—

Team leaders and team members from each school –common passions, not always agreeing– storming, norming and striving for performing.

An example—

3 teams from the Forest Hills School District (Team 1, Team 2, Team 3) mentored by lead Fellow, Cary Harrod –

Sharing and Planning—

I’m so excited about the f2f meeting we had this afternoon I have to share. We started by reading “The Lurking Cave”. What a wonderful forum! Thank you Cary for starting it! We had a very open discussion about our thoughts about the replies to that forum and also our own feelings about lurking. We then had a discussion about the purpose of PLP. Most of our responses involved some sort of a personal learning experience. We then looked at the “4 c’s of Participation in Online Communities” and shared with each other where we are and where we wanted to be. We took this to the next step and set personal goals related to the curriculum focus areas and we posted them on our team page.  Our next step is to start working on our goals before our next meeting. In addition, we are to respond to each other’s goals by telling each other specifically what we will do to support each other in meeting the goals. It was a great meeting!!!!  –Mary Mitchell—

In terms of how we are going to tackle the curriculum… We are each tracking our own digital footprints, reading over the digital citizenship stuff and selecting two we find most relevant to our work, we divided the 21st century skills up, are going to read the supporting materials about communities of practice, and are reading the 21st century engauge and ISTE NET’s. We are meeting again on Thursday (and every Thursday in November) to decide which seemed most interesting to us that we want to dig into more as a team..  We are going to use our group page on the ning to post our reflections to the curriculum stuff we are reading this week and our wiki to keep notes of our meetings.  –Ellie Preston

Thinking deeply—

As we move towards letting some students and teachers move towards using new and innovative technology, the thing that always strikes me is how this impacts the “what” of the curriculum. I am not talking about inquiry learning or student centered learning, or PBL or anything like that, but the actual content of what we teach.  –Bob Reynolds

Asking questions–

Consistency is key factor! How do we promote consistency with teachers yet promote differentiation. I do believe we can accomplish both but have to be creative!  –Wendy Hertel

Nudging and prodding—

I’m wondering if your difficulty in “coming to the table” has more to do with time management or a comfort that exists in established patterns?  –Tracy Varner

Realizing–

I know it looks like a lot and we probably won’t get through all of it (in fact I know we won’t) and that’s okay. As I immerse myself more and more into this experience I see how we just have to let it unfold. Let the unfolding begin today.  –Mary Mitchell

And I — on the sidelines, silently cheering each and every team, as the unfolding continues.

Photo Credit

One journey-

By Lani Ritter-Hall

A common journey toward 21^st Century learning–  135 Ohio Consortium PLPers –

Each beginning that journey with a single step from whence they were standing—  diverse backgrounds and understandings that strengthen and deepen the growth of the community–

And as with all journeys, not without bumps in the road and/or detours—

One journey, an example, from the many–

Tim Breuer from the Milford Exempted Village School District began his PLP trek as an active participant in many and varied discussions during the first month of learning within the virtual learning community.  Following the first Elluminate session, where PLPers considered trends shaping the current shifts in learning, he was absent from the community for a number of days.  On his return, he related being disturbed, confused and unsettled by what he believed he heard during the session only to spend countless hours sorting his emotions and thoughts to find:

As I thought through this more I realized that Debra had pushed me out of my comfort zone. That is when we truly learn, when we are uncomfortable.

My encouragement to those who are feeling overwhelmed or frustrated is to look past the emotion and see why you feel this way. Use that understanding to drive you to work outside your comfort zone and begin the true learning.

Tim was eager to continue—with assistance from his Fellow, Lynn Ochs from Milford, creating a Moodle site to engage parents of his students in discussions about 21^st century learning at his initiative

And then Tim began blogging using the blog feature of Ning, at the suggestion of Lynn – chronicling his journey into 21^st Century learning.

One post described an afternoon in his classroom–

I did a science exploration with my fourth graders using our laptop cart. It was amazing! They were looking for answers to any of their questions and looking to generate any new understandings/ questions as well. They were mesmerized. I spent the 3 hours sharing in the excitement of discovery “Hey, Mr. Breuer, come here . . .did you know that . . .” “Mr. Breuer, look at what I found about plants . . .” “Mr. Breuer I bet you didn’t know . . .” It was awesome, exhausting, and absolutely fantastic. One of my most struggling students said to me, “I love being able to watch the video because now I know things too. I have so much trouble reading the books.” One of my autistic students was in and she watched a couple of the plant videos on the laptop with her headphones on and floored with me with the information she was able to share. With the video on their laptop they could pause, rewind, or move on at will. Many times a student came up and said to me “Mr. Breuer, so and so isn’t going in order of the websites. They’re starting with the video.” I told them, “Great, they don’t have to go in order. Explore and tell me what you find.” The amount of information they “owned” was amazing, but more incredibly they were connecting the information in ways I had never imagined.

The lessons this week was not about the technology. It was about creating a learning situation that built community and allowed for exploration. Technology just allowed me to do it in an easier way. I’m in it for good now!

In other posts, his thinking and learning become transparent–

In order to blog something I had to synthesize all of the events and critically look at them as individual pieces and how they fit together as a whole. A new awareness of what I was doing and why began to grow.

I am really learning a lot about myself as a learner while exploring 21st century learning through the Ning experience. With blogging, even if no one responds, I am still putting my thoughts into coherent (as much as I can muster) meaningful ways and I have them down somewhere that I can reread them. I’m interested to see how they change by the end of the PLP experience.

Engaging, pushing back, moving forward, reading, writing, reflecting –  other PLPers responding in the blog comments–  Everyone learning–

I sit nodding, learning, waiting for his next insight shared with the entire community –   And at the same time, I’m encouraging and nudging other PLPers to open a window on the landscapes of their journeys into learning too–

Hopes and beyond

By: Lani Ritter-Hall

2 kick offs, 1 cohort–

A geographical distance of over 1000 miles separating, coming together in one online community—

PLPers from Ohio, Texas, Louisiana, getting to know each other in the Ohio Consortium–

Some more comfortable, encouraging others more reticent to transparent online learning—

Expressing fears and best hopes, oh those hopes:

My biggest hope is that I can bring about the change in myself as a learner, bring the excitement to the classroom for my students, and work with my team to bring these exciting changes to our district. Kevin Braaten, Berea School District, Ohio

The hope is that the journey will be greater than the destination. Bob Beach, Gilmour Academy, Ohio

Drilling down intentionally while going serendipitously tangential.
Wanting to help inspire change/evolution at our school while also wanting to honor what is already true/traditional. Christian Long, team leader, The Oakridge School, Texas

Hopes that provide some direction for our journey together, hopes that will sustain all in the meaningful, hard learning ahead.

And then moving beyond hopes to the work of growing a community, one contribution among many in a discussion on community norms:

I have a motto in my kitchen. It says, “Eat good food. Be kind. Tell the truth.”
Eat good food: let us digest here the best of what everyone can bring to the table. Let us break bread together, metaphorically speaking, by sharing ideas in a congenial way.
Be kind: be courteous and empathetic; listen; consider multiple perspectives.
Tell the truth: Though there is no need to be brutal in one’s truth-telling, we need to not shy away from difficult subjects.

All of this comes down to …: Own your own words. You do this when you do these things: Be yourself, be real, be courageous, be responsible, be aware of others. Susan Davis, team leader, The Chinquapin School, Texas

With a growing consensus around norms such as these suggested, even now in these early stages, passioned conversations on the focus– understanding and embracing “shifts” in learning afforded by current technologies—arise in other Ning conversations.

At this computer, alone in NE Ohio – yet surrounded by and engaged in community– sharing the same hopes, attempting to assuage some fears of those still uncomfortable with the messiness and openness of the online community environment, and so delighted to be going beyond hopes to the undertaking ahead, sensing we are on the cusp of extraordinary learning—together.