Doing Something Right

This week I have been at the annual NCASCD conference. The few days that I spend at the conference with other principals gives me some time to share ideas and reflect on what we are doing. One of Thursday's keynote speakers was Wes Kieschnick (@Wes_Kieschnick) and he speaks to educators about the importance of mixing blended learning, tech devices and digital resources with "old school" professional development and lesson planning. He has coined this type of teaching and learning under the hashtag #BOLDSchool on Twitter. Wes is a captivating speaker and as he spoke, I got mental images about some of the great teachers in our building and the amazing professional development that we get from Mrs. Garcia and Mr. Shaw.  

Ironically, our own opinions on how well we are doing with digital learning, don't exactly match the images that ran through my head. This week I updated the Leadership Team on the survey data that we had collected for our upcoming accreditation visit and one of the things that we said that we needed work on was digital learning. Now it wasn't rated poorly or anything, but it did show up in surveys and observations as something that we thought should be seen more or should be more interactive. The observation tool and the survey questions wanted to see the digital learning taking places in all classrooms and it needed to replace things like worksheets and other classroom activities. That's exactly what Wes says that we should NOT be doing. Instead of trying to figure out what tech tools we can use in the next lesson, we should start old school and plan the learning out with objectives in mind. If by the end of our planning, we see a place that tech can help us or engage kids, then we use it. This is literally what Team Garcia & Shaw have developed over the years and despite what those surveys say, I think we are doing something right. 

Over the past few years, I have seen a dramatic shift in the way that many of you teach and think about teaching. As new teachers have arrived at our school, you've rubbed off on them as well. The concept of "old school" teaching mixed with blended learning is alive and well at Greene Central. I'm proud to say that we are a BOLD school.