10 Ways to Promote Learning Lifestyle in Your School
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A Learning Commons1 |
On the 14th, I wrote a blog post (Applying PLN — a Continuing Question for Me), questioning some of my own assumptions about expecting educators to embrace learning practices — cultivating personal learning networks. I wrote about my feeling stumped by administrators in Colorado last week, wishing that I had the answers to their questions about promoting more relevant learning in their classrooms. In truth, like most of the rest of the session, some excellent ideas came out of the conversation that erupted, after it was revealed that I had no easy answer. The thrust of the discussion was the culture of the school, and the expectations that the culture places on its members.
So, what does that culture look like? What do we see in the school and classroom where learning lifestyle pops to mind? I think that we see is conversation — and not just conversations between teachers and students. There is a much broader conversation that permiates the entire building and beyond, about new learning and about learning new things. It is a school that says, out loud,
“We go beyond the basics.”
“Standards are the starting place for what’s exciting here, not the end goal.”
“This is where learners of all ages are not just memeorizing facts and mastering skills — but working with new knowledge, constructing new knowledge, and impacting others through their work.
Here are just a few suggestions for administrators for promoting these conversations:
- Hire learners. Ask prospective employees, “Tell me about something that you have learned lately.” “How did you learn it?” “What are you seeking to learn more about right now?”
- Open your faculty meetings with something that you’ve just learned – and how you learned it. It does not have to be about school, instruction, education managements, or the latest theories of learning.
- Make frequent mention of your Twitter stream, RSS reader, specific bloggers you read. Again, this should not be limited to job specific topics.
- Share links to specific TED talks or other mini-lectures by interesting and smart people, then share and ask for reactions during faculty meetings, in the halls, or during casual conversations with employees and parents just before the PTO meeting.
- Include in the daily announcements, something new and interesting (Did you know that a California power utility has just gotten permission to start buying electricity from outer space?).
- Ask students in the halls what they’ve just learned. Ask them what their teachers have just learned.
- Ask teachers and other staff to write reports on their latest vacation, sharing what they learned – and publish them for public consumption.
- Ask teachers to devote one of their classroom bulletin boards to what they are learning, related or unrelated to the classroom.
- Include short articles in the schools newsletter and/or web site about research being conducted by the teachers – again, related or unrelated to the classroom.
- Learn what the parents of your students are passionately learning about, and ask them to report (text, video, Skype conversation, or in person to be recorded).
—————————————- added later ————————————– - Find ways to be playful at your school — and perhaps feel less grown-up. (see Do Grown-ups Learning?)
- Lower Columbia College. “Learning Commons.” Flickr. 19 Feb 2009. Web. 19 Jan 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/lowercolumbiacollege/3293381635/>. [↩]
The 10 Ways to Promote Learning Lifestyle in Your School by 2¢ Worth, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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What a great post! Just reading it gave me chills and caused my heart to beat faster.
This could change ANY school, work, home setting. I know I’d be much more excited about coming to work when I knew I would be asked and would be asking about what is being learned.
So I’ll spread it around!!
Thank you for thinking outside the box.
Gerri
Reply to Gerri BatchelorDavid, I think I’m going to do #8 this weekend. Great idea!
Reply to Russ GoerendGreat Post! I agree we need to talk more about how we learn and what we are learning instead of just standards and assessment. Thanks for sharing.
Reply to Bill GaskinsAs a teacher, I love the idea of making a point of starting class with what I have learned, modeling a love of learning and a willingness to take risks and grow. It is all part of leaving the role of All-Knowing and entering into 2.0 learning together.
I also think that cultivating an interest in learning by asking people what they have learned is a great idea. I learn from my PLN all the time, but rarely ask the question of my peers at school.
Thanks! I enjoyed the post.
Reply to Hadley FergusonWhat awesome ideas. I particularly like the idea of space devoted to what staff is learning about. I have retweeted this and am also emailing it as an attachment. Imagine! Conversations about learning!
Reply to Judi ClarkThanks so much.
What a great, practical post!
Inspires me as a librarian to create a space in library for teachers to share what they “learn” or are interested in.
I’m excited about the idea of featuring that!
(and one for what kids have learned too!)
Cool cool cool!
Reply to Carolyn FooteI’m glad that we’re talking about school leaders…there have long been pockets of innovation and creativity in our school’s classrooms, succeeding almost in spite of administrator’s reluctance to embrace the potential of new/alternative approaches to teaching and the increasing evidence on what educational strategies positively impact student learning. Principals, superintendents and school board members need to pay attention to lists like this David…thank you for publsihing!
Reply to Jeff JohnsonDave – Thanks for pulling these suggestions together. Next week I will be hosting our Learning Community Meeting in my Library (I’m a librarian); I’m featuring our Web 2.0 services and opportunities. Numbers 2, 3, and 5 will brighten up the presentation.
Reply to Florence LathropWhat a great post! This is really interesting and I am going to bring it up in the Technology Teaching course that I am in right now.
Reply to Samantha MullnerAs an Assistant Principal in my college responsible for Professional Learning and Student Learning, I thought these ideas were great. Often we ask teachers what they did on the weekend or what they did during the holidays, but not what they learnt. I love these ideas.
A while ago, I also heard that a principal in his school called himeself the ‘head learner’ and had a sign on his door saying this. Another nice idea.
Reply to helenotway“head learning” — I love it!
Reply to David WarlickKerry Patterson says that promoting change requires us to ascertain the very few vital behaviors and when we do, our biggest problems “topple like a house of cards.” To get technology to the masses, we’re dealing with psychology more than technology. It isn’t about the technology and what it does but rather, about the people using and teaching with the technology and how they FEEL about it.
It is about finding the focal point (as Brian Tracey says in his book. ;-) To me, you’ve hit upon a focal point — and that is the attitude of promoting life long learning.
Reply to Vicki DavisI am a newly-licensed (but as yet unemployed) secondary science teacher, and recognize that the learning-lifestyle promoters you have so eloquently described capture the characteristics of my “ideal school.” This post provides lots of material for exploration at the end of job interviews when I am asked, “So, do YOU have any questions for us?” Thanks!
Reply to Deb White