In her new Powerful Learning Practice e-course (5 weeks, beginning Feb. 6), iGeneration educator Jennifer Bloomingdale promises to help participating teachers achieve “Transformation, One Lesson at a Time.”

Jennifer graduated from the College of St. Rose in 2006 with a Bachelors in Childhood Education. In 2011 she completed her Masters in Educational Technology and became a New York State certified Educational Technology Specialist. Jennifer taught in upper elementary for four years in Vermont, where she implemented 1:1 netbooks in her classroom. This past summer Jennifer also co-taught a high school course that helped students develop 21st century skills. Her passion for integrating technology, which grew from her graduate work and her extensive use of digital tools in her own classroom, influenced Jennifer’s decision this year to become an independent consultant and help other educators make the shift. You can read her Digital Portfolio here.

In our interview with Jennifer, we asked her about her plans for the e-course and her own story of transformation.

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1. Give us the 1-minute, while-running-down-the hall description of your e-course. What’s being transformed? And why one lesson at a time? Sounds intriguing.

I think what is being transformed depends on the individual. I’m expecting that participants are coming into the course with their own professional goals in mind. My hope is that this course will be flexible enough that each person will be able to reach his or her own goal. Some might change the way they view their role as a teacher, others might change their expectations for themselves and their students, while others might change the way they view the content they teach.

To me, one lesson at a time is important because making any change in the classroom can be overwhelming, and I am a strong believer that taking little steps and being patient with yourself will eventually lead to the bigger changes you want to see.

2. Did you feel some anxiety when you began shifting your teaching to better serve 21st century students? What gave you the determination to stick with it? There are always pressures to revert to traditional practices, we know.

I definitely felt some anxiety as I began shifting my teaching, and I was still shifting when I moved from the classroom to my new consulting role in 2011. We’re always learning!

In my classroom I was always thinking, “Next time I’ll do it this way.” There were several things that gave me the confidence and determination to keep at the work of changing. First were my students. I loved seeing how excited they were about learning. Another was my supportive administration and coworkers. My administrators gave me the freedom to make these changes in my classroom and I had some great coworkers who always gave me the little push I needed. I also took advantage of as many professional development opportunities as I could. This allowed me to see other teachers making successful changes, and I was able to build up confidence and countless resources.

Even if you don’t have a super-supportive administration or eager coworkers, you can find much of the encouragement you need in virtual teacher communities like this e-course.

3. How do you plan to structure the 5-week course? Do teachers bring their own lesson or unit to the table?

My goal is that each participant will bring a lesson that they have taught in the past, or a specific topic, to the course. As we talk about 21^st Century ideas each week, participants will integrate the concepts that best apply to them and their lesson or topic.

4. What grade levels or subject areas will benefit most from this course? 

Since the concepts addressed in this course are for 21^st Century Learning and participants are bringing their own lessons to the course, I think any grade level and subject area can benefit from Transformation, One Lesson at a Time.

5. This sounds like the course a lot of teachers are looking for to move forward with their teaching. Who else might benefit from the experience? Do you see a benefit for school instructional leaders — coaches, principals, APs?

I think instructional leaders would benefit by gaining more insight into the teacher perspective — what it’s like to make a change in the classroom. They’ll also be introduced to resources that can help them support their teachers as they work to shift their instruction. Since a majority of the class is developing a lesson, they might draw on the curriculum from their schools to create a model lesson or other resource for their teachers.

6. You’re devoting one of your five sessions to Assessment. We’ve noticed that in traditional PD, the word “assessment” often provokes yawns or frightened looks. What’s exciting about assessment in a transforming classroom?

As I made changes to my curriculum I began to view assessment differently. Rather than constantly testing my students, I started to think about what my students could “do” to show me what they learned throughout a unit. By devoting a session to assessment, my hope is that we can talk about different types of assessment, what assessment looks like in a 21^st Century classroom, and how teachers can use ongoing assessments to improve instruction day by day. We’ll also consider how to incorporate new assessment ideas into traditional grading systems.

7. What else would be great for participants to know about Transformation: One Lesson at a Time ?

While there may be many concepts covered throughout the five weeks, I want teachers to take what works for them and apply it in a way that best fits their own classroom and students. I hope that as participants make one successful change, they’ll be energized to look at other places in their curriculum where they can integrate concepts from this course.

By moving ahead one lesson at a time, they’ll soon discover the transformation is well underway!

Register now and join fellow educators who are ready to bring 21st Century teaching ideas into their classrooms!

Meet Larry Kahn, Community Leader for Powerful Learning Practice

Larry Kahn, PLP Community Leader

I was born in Washington, D.C. and spent most of my life living within a 60 mile radius of that city. I am now in my seventh year in Houston, TX. I have come to really enjoy this city. I am passionate about how learning is shifting from being teacher centric and lecture based to student centric and project based. I am excited that creativity is now seen as a 21st century skill. I am passionate about subjects blending whenever possible and not being kept in silos of subjects.

What do you do here at Powerful Learning Practice?

I am a Community Leader for the Leading Edge Cohort.

What else are you up to professionally?

I am the Chief Technology Officer for The Kinkaid School. I am responsible for both the academic technology and the information technology for the school.

Desert island situation – you get to take five books. What are they?

Miguel De Cervantes, Don Quixote

William Shakespeare, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Henry James, The Complete Works of Henry James

H.L. Mencken, A Menchen Chrestomathy

What is your favorite example of how online communities are powerful and transformative?

At my school the 3rd grade teachers have established a terrific blogging program for our 3rd graders. Not only do our students blog openly but they also visit and comment on other blogs. This year, a comment that a 3rd grader made on the blog of an author of a book his class was reading started a process that ended up with the author having a Skype call with the student’s 3rd grade class.

Where can people find you online?

@larrykahn, twitter

larry kahn, facebook, google+,  linkedin

learnsharegrow.wikispaces.com, my wife Susan Davis and I use this space as our website

audiodidact.blogspot.com, where I blog about music with my friend Fletcher McNeil

Any final words?

I love working with teachers to help them transform from being master teachers into master learners.

ADVIS/AIMS Community

Team members collaborate at the AIMS Face-to-Face Kickoff Event.

The ADVIS PLP Kickoff event took place September 20 at The Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, N.J., and The AIMS PLP Kickoff event took place September 26 at Garrison Forest School in Owings Mills, Md.

Robin Ellis, Community Leader, was very excited to attend both of these kickoffs as well as IU 13 in Lancaster, Pa:

Each of the groups had a great day, with lots of wonderful conversations and sharing of ideas among the schools around thought-provoking keynotes provided by Sheryl and Will. Some of the teams participating have had previous groups from their schools or districts go through PLP, so there are many groups who have support on site from our PLPeep alums! The individual kick offs left those in attendance feeling excited about the year ahead and what this new learning journey will hold.

Canada & New England Community

Team members at the Canada PLP Kickoff can't stop talking about the learning journey ahead.

The Canada PLP Kickoff event took place September 30 at Upper Grand District School Board in Guelph, Ontario, and the New England PLP Kickoff event took place October 4 at Champlain Valley Educator Development Center in Colchester, Vt.

PLP Community Leaders Brenda Sherry and Peter Skillen organized the get-togethers in Canada, while Tony Baldasaro provided PLP leadership in New England. According to Brenda:

Peter, Tony and Brenda are very excited because we actually had three separate kickoffs that will be joining into one exciting and diverse community!

 

We started with our Ontario folks who are serious about learning, but serious about having fun along the way too! Will kicked off the day virtually and the room was charged with sharing, ideas, and laughter as well as some serious plans and hopes for a great year. Sheryl kept us going with just the right amount of ‘whelm’ and we all left with a feeling of connection and excitement about our year. We’re not sure where the group will take us, but we know that we will be soaring!

And Tony reported from Vermont:

I was able to attend the kickoff event in Burlington. Despite some local connectivity issues, we were able to have a fabulous launch. The attendees were enthusiastic about joining our “Community Hub” Ning, sharing a bit about themselves in the getting to know you forum and asking a ton of good questions. One of the great things about this group was that we had several experienced Tweeters to start conversing with, @vtdeacon and @techsavvygirl to name just two.

Virtual Academy 

Our new Virtual Academy concept offers PD-on-demand to participants. Our cyberspace Kickoff, led by Will Richardson, was a chance to meet our very first VA teams, from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. It’s been wonderful to start building relationships with these new folks and to begin finding our way around the community and into some really engaging discussions.

Here’s a recap from Community Leader Lani Ritter Hall:

 ”Welcome to the room. Would you like to give us a shout out to check your mic?” to which many replied: “This is ____, can you hear me?” So began the cyberspace kickoff and celebration by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia Virtual Academy community.

 

More than 100 educators from across the Archdiocese gathered in 2 webinar sessions and greeted each other in chat and by mic. For many, it was a first experience using Blackboard Collaborate, and so together under Sheryl’s facilitation we practiced raising hands, smiling, being away, whispering and using the text chat window, and controlling the microphone. Important skills, as all the Virtual Academy sessions are very interactive!

 

Sheryl led the group in a discussion of feelings around Common Core Standards, newly adopted by the Archdiocese; and everyone had an opportunity to share questions they had around teaching and learning with the new standards — questions they are now discussing within the Virtual Academy’s private space inside the larger PLP Community HUB.

 

For much of the kick off, we spent time making sure everyone joined the HUB (it’s a Ning environment) and felt comfortable in the Virtual Academy digs there. Sheryl modeled registering, joining the community, and creating a response to the “let’s get acquainted” discussion thread (far easier for a face-to-face group to accomplish together). Our Archdiocesan educators persisted, helped others who got “lost,” and are now veteran users, deep into discussions around learning about each other and teaching with Common Core Standards.

 

The next webinar session follows quickly, just one week after the kick off.  Virtual Academy members are challenged with new expectations, and excited at the possibilities that lay before them. We are on the first trek of what I sincerely believe will be an incredible journey into learning together.

If you’ve read this far, enjoy a free Web 2.0 Tools e-course!

As part of our gearing-up experience for 2011-12, PLP community members were asked to participate in a pre-game activity, a self-paced Web 2.0 primer. The response was so positive that Powerful Learning Practice has decided to open the experience to the public as well. If you are new to Web 2.0 and would like to participate in an easy, step by step introduction to web-based learning tools and concepts, you can register for the free eCourse here.

Our kickoffs also incorporated Cross Team Building, which enabled teams at different physical locations to get acquainted and begin to collaborate as a bonded community. We’ll all be connecting and learning within the PLP Community Hub, a Ning space where all the communities can share together and collaborate with Sheryl, Will and PLP’s community leaders and coaches. Instead of having individual Nings and wikis for each community as we’ve done in the past, the new PLP Hub brings everyone from around the world together to supercharge the synergy. Of course, each of the communities has its own private space inside the Hub to pursue their own special projects and local goals.

We’ve posted some photos from each of these kickoff events on our Facebook page. If you attended one of these events, be sure to look at the photos, tag yourself, and share them out on your profile.

Here’s to an exciting year ahead of connecting, collaborating and learning together!

In the end, the decision was made to invite four teachers to fully engage the world of networked learning. The four were all members of our Powerful Learning Practice (PLP) team. Because the carts arrived in the summer, and the deployment decision still had to be made, the four did not have a lot of time before school resumed to prepare for this brand new environment.

So it began.  The four teachers were from four different departments — English, Science, Social Studies and Math.  Our first challenge was to configure the netbooks in advance of the new year. The netbooks would have multiple users throughout the day, so we opted to be cloud-based. Each netbook was configured so that no changes could be made to the desktop and no documents could be saved on its hard drive.

Once classes were underway, all students set up Dropbox accounts and used Google Docs and other web based tools to create work products. At the beginning of each class, they accessed a cloud-resident form and entered the number of the netbook they’d selected from the cart.

Each teacher approached this new learning environment in their own way, and they all brought great energy to the project. They frequently collaborated, shared ideas on our faculty Ning site (viewable by all faculty and staff) and also contributed to the O’Hara Empowered Learning Blog.

If you visit the blog, you’ll see reflections of the teachers on their practice, their challenges and successes. There are also some guest posts by students. And here is a video response by some of the kids who blogged in their English class each week on what were called “Get Your Blog On Fridays” (the teacher describes the project here).

Our netbooks pilot has set us on a path toward a 1 to 1 networked environment in our high school. In our next step, we’re expanding the group to include a Theology teacher and a Spanish teacher. Our first trial runs are teaching us something both about the challenges of 1-to-1 implementation and the powerful learning that can occur when classrooms become connected.

There’s a considerable learning curve for teachers and students, and implementation was by no means perfect. The connection was there instantly — the pedagogy valiantly tried to catch up. As we move into year two, we’ll be working to deepen our understanding of project based learning, the use of inquiry, and other strategies that can help us maximize the advantages of networking.

We are a fairly traditional school, with a sense of caring and community, and a love for the performing arts. Over the decades, we’ve always strived for excellence in teaching and learning, and our shift toward a fully networked environment will move forward — perhaps not always at the pace we might prefer, but we will reach the goal of becoming a 21st century high school populated by students and teachers who take connected learning for granted.

With the support of our Principal, the rest of the administration, parents, teachers and most of all the students, it’s going to be an exciting journey!

Professional development fireworks?

That’s right. We’ve got three eCourses sparking off in the next couple of days, and we want you to be a part of them. Here are three practical, affordable, online courses that are starting up the first week of July. Will you be involved in one of these game-changers?

Teaching Online: Becoming a Connected Educator

Learning today takes place anywhere and anytime. To meet the needs of today’s connected learner, today’s educator needs to be fluent in new media literacies. The Teaching Online: Becoming a Connected Educator eCourse will prepare you to be an online professor, teach online courses in blended environments such as a virtual school, or teaching blended courses in traditional settings. See the complete details & register here

Unleashing Student Passion

A passionate student is a learning student. As the world is becoming increasingly connected, the nature, use, ownership, and purpose of knowledge are changing in profound ways. Our goal as educators is to leverage these connections and changes as powerful means to improve teaching and learning in our schools. See the complete details & register here

Reimagining Classroom Research for the Digital Age

In this course, you’ll learn how to reimagine your classroom research for the digital age. We’ll guide you through an Internet-based research project appropriate to the age group you teach, introducing innovative Web tools and strategies along the way. You’ll learn which time-honored practices of traditional book research remain relevant, and which are ripe for reinvention. See the complete details & register here

Registration ends in a couple days.

Graduate credit is available from the University of Wisconsin.

Don’t miss out. Go to plpnetwork.com/ecourses now to see complete details and register.
It’s affordable. It’s portable. It’s convenient. We’re ready to set off some fireworks. Are you?

It seems like just yesterday a new group of educators joined the Powerful Learning Practice family to begin a year-long, practice-changing journey in  learning communities around the country. Those very same educators are now approaching the end of their first-year Community experience. They are developing Action Research Projects that they will scale within their schools to help bring their learning to fellow teachers – projects that will be presented at the fast-approaching culminating celebrations. We’re proud of our PLPeeps and can’t wait to show you the results of their hard work this past year. This is just a taste of some of the amazing work these educators are doing to help change their schools and education:

You can also see great projects by past Powerful Learning Practice teams on our Action Research page.

New Communities are forming now

Powerful Learning Practice is ready to impact a whole new crowd of educators in 2011. A Community of 70 educators in Australia will be starting their journey this month. Other new Communities are forming right now that will be kicked off in the Fall.

More ways to get involved

In addition to the traditional Community experience, we also can provide customized virtual professional development around your school’s needs and schedule. Watch for a Leadership Boot Camp later this year, plus a rich multimedia online course on How To Become A Powerful and Effective Online Educator. Sign up for the newsletter so we can let you know when these initiatives take off.

Talk to us

If you have questions about how a year-long, job embedded professional development experience can help teachers and students in your school, please join us for a live, one-hour information webinar. You will have a chance to speak with Powerful Learning Practice co-founders Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Will Richardson about the philosophy behind Powerful Learning Practice and the proven outcomes that make this experience practice-changing.

Book your seat at an info session now

If you are already planning to register your school to be a part of one of next year’s communities (or if you are planning on enrolling for a second- or third-year experience), please fill out the letter of intent to reserve a spot. Read more about the PLP Community.

photo © 2010 Vinoth Chandar | more info (via: Wylio)

Because of my blogging, I’m able to see events that had an impact on my thinking, and I am hoping to recognize patterns and gain insights. I found this post on reflective teaching from nearly two years ago (just as my team from FA was finishing up our own PLP work).

February 7, 2009
I’ve been thinking about reflective teaching this year, trying to determine if reflection is what will make us better teachers. Content matters. But content doesn’t matter unless learning takes place.

So how do we become better learners? Reflecting upon how we learn best, what we want to know, and whether or not we know it.

John Dewey said,

…thinking enables us to direct our activities with foresight and to plan according to ends-in-view, or purpose of which we are aware.  It enables us to act in deliberate and intentional fashion…”

Sounds simple, doesn’t it?
Susan Black examines reflection as the basis of good teaching (unfortunately the link doesn’t appear to work any longer):

Teachers who have the right dispositions for reflection — being open-minded, responsible, and wholehearted, for example — study and question their own beliefs and practices and those of others through the light of different prisms, says Dewey. Reflection begins with a problem, he says, such as motivating reluctant students. Some teachers tackle classroom problems by turning to outside authorities for step-by-step solutions, but that’s not what Dewey calls reflective practice: Reflection is “a way of being a teacher”–a holistic approach that involves solving problems with one’s heart as well as one’s mind.

But she cautions that reflection doesn’t necessarily equate to excellence in the classroom:

Teacher reflection doesn’t automatically lead to improved practice, Zeichner and Liston argue. The notion that teachers improve simply by examining their actions and considering their effects on students oversimplifies a “complex reality,” they say. And it’s risky: Some teachers might reflect on classroom episodes and still come up shortsighted. Teachers who blame classroom problems on students or administrators or others, Zeichner and Liston write, and those who refuse to accept responsibility when students aren’t learning, can actually solidify bad practices through reflection.

As our Powerful Learning Practice team continues to develop our end of year project today, I hope we will consider Michigan State University’s statement and work toward this.

Teaching demands self-awareness, reflection, and continual growth. Teachers must be self-reflective, as persons and professionals, understanding that their development occurs over the course of their careers.

But let’s make sure when we look in the mirror, we’re not seeing smoke.

Just about every school (and office) for that matter that I’ve been in has had some sort of system for filtering the content that comes in from the internet. Now, I don’t want to debate the pros and cons of these filters (believe me, I REALLY don’t want to do that), but I do want to take some time to think about the decision making process.

In the PLP cohort of the archdiocese of Philadelphia, there has been some discussion about implementation. For example, Bonnie Gowen, a technology instructor in the cohort has been thinking about filters:

“All the web filter we can set up don’t really give the students a chance to make choices regarding appropriateness (is that a word). I have asked my 5th and 6th graders to consider whether or not I should unblock Flickr for them. We are using a blog and their comments are very interesting.”

Including students in making decisions about the filters that are in place in their schools. A simple, but really, rather revolutionary idea. Asking them to judge based on their level of maturity, their information needs and based on the culture of the school is a much higher level exercise than simply blocking something off from them.

The same is true for the discussions around Moodle that have bloomed in our cohort. Sister Mary Ellen Tennity has weighed in over and over again in discussions, giving advice that parents and students be included openly and honestly in discussions and implementation plans around the use of a new tool such as this. Teacher Mary Gratton includes quotes from blog posts written by students who post about the power of being included in the implementation process, about being given a chance to contribute to what happens in their building.

Finally, Melissa Dow brings this important piece of advice:

“My biggest advice is to take it slowly and keep the big picture in mind. We are in year 3 of using Moodle and it is now part of our school culture, but this didn’t happen overnight.”

Changing school culture; that is what PLP is about. There are myriads of new tools and new tools to try out. Some of them are useful, while others are not. Tools will come and go, but the skills of communication and the ability to change the culture of your building to support student learning more effectively is the cornerstone of what PLP is about.

PLP.

Powerful Learning Practice.

I always refer to it as PLP, but sometimes I’m reminded of what those letters actually stand for. One of the great things about PLP is the ability to communicate with other caring educators at schools that are sometimes very similar, and sometimes very different, than our own. Through the conversations that ensue, all of us take away ideas that help us think more deeply about what we’re doing and often help us make our own school better.

I was reminded of how powerful PLP can be in a recent forum post on the ADVIS PLP Ning. In a post about Digital Citizenship, Nica Waters Fleming from The Philadelphia School replied several times throughout the thread and laid out her school’s philosophy:

We recently changed our Appropriate Use Policy to a Responsible Use Policy for our students, and review the entire policy every year with students in grades 4 through 8 through some sort of interactive activity (this year we used an online Jeopardy game) at the beginning of the year. It seemed that asking our students to take on more responsibility in their digital world made more sense than simply telling them what we think is appropriate.

While we have this stand alone “class” on what makes for good digital citizenry at the beginning of the year, I try to embed the ideals whenever I am working with students.

. . . We have decided not to filter content because it limits what students can do. We use this access as opportunities to further stress the concept of digital citizenship. Do things slip through? Certainly. But because this is part of the learning here I like to think we do a good job of using these as teaching opportunities.

. . . Several years ago we debated whether or not to filter. In the end we felt it was our responsibility, not the software, to teach students about what it means to be a good (and safe) digital citizen. And it wasn’t worth keeping students away from a wealth of valuable information. It is constant work, but we feel it should be a part of what we do.

It is constant work, but we feel it should be a part of what we do.

Powerful.