Teachers Never Stop Learning

My last post was about how great it is that teaching is new every year.  As I sit here, typing on a computer, I'm reminded about just how new.

I began teaching 16 years ago.  E-mail had been around for only about five years and was just increasing in popularity as a way for teachers to contact parents.  I was practically considered a rock star because I sent out a weekly e-mail to parents, letting them know what we would be up to the following week.

Google had been invented just that year, so looking something up when a student had a question wasn't really something teachers thought of yet.  YouTube was still a long way off, and no one had heard the terms social media, Google doc, meme, or selfie.  The school I was teaching in at that time (Jenks Freshman Academy - go Trojans!) was at the height of tech because they had a computer lab with desktop iMacs.  We could sign up and take our students to do research for papers.  The library even had three of them!  This was huge.  A student taught me how to use iMovie (thanks, Rick - I still use it), and he was considered incredibly tech savvy..

Sixteen years later, I am sitting at the MacBook Pro that every teacher in my current school (GRACE Christian - go Eagles!) issues to every teacher.  I have written on the board that my 8th grade students should go to page 29 in their digital textbook because each of them has a school issued MacBook Air.  I wrote that book using iBooks Author, and it includes videos that will and links to websites, taking advantage of how their brains are wired in a sort of hyperlink way mine never was.  My physics students have just completed making music videos about free fall in which they took YouTube clips of Felix Baumgartner, Star Trek Into Darkness, and disturbing video of gold eagles dropping goats from cliffs.  Their textbook was purchase from iTunes and include interactive illustrations.

All that description is to make these points.

1.  Great teachers never stop learning.  I was a good teacher in the first years of my career.  I'm convinced of that and have students who stay in contact to confirm it.    However, if I still did only the things I did then, I wouldn't even rate as mediocre today.  The methods of sixteen years ago would bore my students and me.  Students, some of you think your learning will be done when you graduate from high school or college.  This is not true.  As long as people keep inventing new things (and that doesn't seem to be slowing down any time soon), you will continue to learn.

2.  Great teachers don't learn alone.  My school adopted a one to one MacBook program four academic years ago.  We were all a little nervous and didn't quite know what we were in for, but it was exciting because we did it together.  Yes, we stumbled a bit along the way and plateaued a little in our second year.  It has taken concerted effort to keep improving our use of tech.  We don't just want to use it; we want to use it well.  In that light, there are a few people I would like to thank.

- Sean Blesh and Diane Scro - You started this.  I know there have been times when you wished you hadn't, but it has made us all better.  You have made us better teachers, and I have no higher compliment than that.

- Sean Blesh and Diane Scro - Yes, I'm thanking them twice.  They didn't just start this and walk away.  They have maintained over 100 staff computers and over 500 student computers with very few hiccups.  They have suffered through filter conundrums, black screens of death, password keychain nonsense, wind knocking out servers, the implementation of a new MLS, customizing the filters for different groups, dealing with blackouts at Time Warner, and the cranky-ness of teachers.  They have done all of that in the same 24 hour days the rest of us have.

- Laura Warmke and Diane Scro - Level Up was one of the most important things you have ever implemented.  There are things I would never have even heard of without it.  Making professional development fun is no easy task.  Thanks for continuously introducing us to new tools.

- The GRACE board and administration - If you hadn't risked saying yes to this, we wouldn't be where we are today.  It was a big financial commitment, and we know it wasn't easy.

- My Fellow Teachers - We've been in the trenches of this together.  You are never selfish with your knowledge or skills.  You share with other teachers, and you do it enthusiastically.  It has been fun being on this journey with you, and it won't end.

- My Fellow Students - I call you fellow students because, as I mentioned in point 1, I am still learning.  You have acted as guinea pigs for some crazy things.  Some of it has worked and some of it hasn't.  Some of it only works now because you showed me how to make it work.  Many of you have shared things with me that I now use in my classroom.  Thanks for the memes, the photos, the links, and the youtube channels that have now become part of my curriculum.  They are awesome.  Keep them coming.