In Personal Learning Networks ,Teachers by Coachburk / Tags: Accountability, Educator, Good to Great, Improving, Lutheran Teacher, Personal Learning Networks, pln, The Call /
I love Lutheran Schools! I do believe they can offer the best education for children. Spiritually or Academically Lutheran schools are top notch. But, I do know we are failing. We need to change. We need to transform. Do you see this need also? Or do you think you are just good enough?
Jim Collins talks about becoming “Good to Great.” One of his beliefs is getting the right people on the right bus in the right seat. Now he doesn’t always come from an education view, where in a business place it would be easier to move people around or fire them. In Lutheran schools that is tougher, besides “The Call” issue, just harder to move teachers to places that will make them more effective.
But, what if you are not the right person or in the right seat?
There are two options here, quit or put yourself on the call list. You should be honest with yourself and know that if something isn’t working, you need to make a hard decision for the betterment of the students. The other option is the “Rudy” option. Rudy did not belong on Notre Dame football team. He did not belong in the position he wanted. But, Rudy won the hearts of everyone on the Irish football team by giving his best every day and working to change.
If your not right for your seat on the bus, make yourself the right person!
HOW?
This is where the Year of the Lutheran Teacher comes in. Dedicate yourself (even if you are in the right seat on the right bus) to improve yourself. You will see that improving yourself will spill over on your students, in your school, and will empower others.
What do you need to do?
I would say the first step is to pray! We can always pray more. We need to remember who is in charge here.
Next, create a PLN (Personal Learning Network). You can and should have someone locally that you can go to, but don’t sell the internet short. I personally use Twitter as my main PLN. I started out following other Lutheran Educators. Which I still use as my main source for learning. After I figured twitter out I started to see who they were following and started to follow those people. So now, I have a list of Educators that I can share information with, who can answer my questions, who will share resources with. It is a must for me.
Another huge start in my learning of what others have to offer were blogs. Again I started with Lutheran Educators. I then started to go to the other people I follow on twitter with blogs. Lastly I started to write. I am by no means thinking I am a great writer or that 1000 of people will be inspired by my writing. It is almost for selfish means. Although people do read my posts (as you are reading this now), but it is for me to grow and help me to grow professionally.
http://techls.ning.com/ is a great place for Technology resources, but there is also a list of Twitter Names of Lutheran educators.
So Now What?
GET TO WORK! Start learning. Read and Write Blogs. We all need to use each other to learn. Not because we are not good teachers, but because we need to be doing this for the Students and give the glory to God. It is hard for a teacher to look at themselves and say, I struggle in this area. We don’t want anyone questioning our teaching ability, the students question that enough. Parents might question your ability from time to time. We dread seeing our principal walking into our room. We jump into some type of engaging activity that we didn’t plan for.
We need to show our students that you are never too old to learn. That even as a teacher, we might not know everything. That we as a teacher can learn new things.
Make this YOUR YEAR! Make your resolution now if not before, that you will learn new things. You will try new things. You will connect with new people. You will allow others into your classroom so you can improve.
If you need someone to be a mentor for you, let me know, I personally can be an accountability partner or there is a list of Lutheran Educators who are willing to help. They have helped me learn so much in the last few years.
2010 is the YEAR OF THE LUTHERAN TEACHER!
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Prayer is obviously the strongest “tool” we have. I would like to think that all of us use that on a daily basis.
PLNs makes a lot of sense, but it means re-educating ourselves and our collegues. PLN is a relatively new “buzz word” or terminology. I had one started before I knew what I had.
) PLNs take time (in short commodity for most Lutheran educators)and sound somewhat intimidating for others. Dave Black has been of enormous help to me in the past few years and through him I have been following Rob Jacklin and you. That does not include the non-Lutheran educators I have been following. I am nowhere near the level of you guys but if everyone would take things one step at a time we can be at a place that will be of most benefit to our children and will help prepare them for the world they live in. This does not take having a “gift” for technology – just a willingness.
Don’t know what the answer to this is, but I do know this: We cannot rest forever on our reputation for doing things well, if we do not keep up with the times.
I wouldn’t put myself in the same class as Dave or Rob. Both of them have been influential in my own learning and growing process. I have been in Lutheran schools since Kindergarten and I do believe I owe to give back to the system, as little as my giving may be. I just hope to plant seeds and as Dave will say, “we just need to be faithful.” I will let God do the work (since he is the one who does the work anyways.
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You are correct in the fact that you do not have to have the “gift” to be able to learn and motivate others. Some of the biggest challenges I face in my school is changing attitudes. But, in the three years I have been here, I think we have made great strides. We are very “green” when it comes to newsletters. We use an online grading program that parents can check their child’s homework grades. We actually have something up as a website. Which working with what I have to use, I am trying to improve it and make it accessible and nice looking to potential parents.
With a little help from useful people and A LOT of Prayers, I hope we can stop the slide of losing students in Lutheran Schools.
On Liz Davis’ latest blog she talks about 10 tips (http://edtechpower.blogspot.com/2010/01/10-tips-for-beginning-bloggers.html) for beginning bloggers. What I liked was in her opening paragraph: