"Resistance is Futile"

This past week I had the privilege of addressing TDSB Beginning Teachers at the 21st Century Teaching and Learning Symposium.  I was invited to present about using Google Apps for Education to support kindergarten to grade 5 students in a Genius Hour Program.  I had my slide deck from TDSB Google Camp to show them, but the introduction just wasn't right for an audience of all new teachers.  I knew this was a group who had grown up very differently than I had.  They were a group who wouldn't dream of teaching without integrating technology throughout their program.  What would my opening remarks be?

 I thought for a very long time, about what had brought me to the place in my teaching where I am now.  I am teaching a program that is inquiry based, individualized and uses so much technology that it is nearly paperless.  Because of the rapid development of teaching related technology, I have experienced more change in the past two years of my career than in the past twenty! I have found, over the years, that the only constant in education is change. Indeed, the only constant in life is change! While change can be difficult and does not always make things better, I can honestly say that the best, most transformative things that have happened in my classroom have been as a result of embracing change, rather than resisting it.  

When our students graduate, we are sending them out into a world in which they must be highly adaptable.  As teachers, therefore, we must model how to be adaptable.  This does not mean we should throw the baby out with the bathwater, as some people fear.  There are tried and true strategies that we know are essential to helping students learn. We should, however, ask ourselves whether we can continue to apply these strategies in more efficient ways, with the new tools that are available to us.  While staying true to our core beliefs about what students need, we must experiment and explore with new technology and methodologies that we think have the potential to increase our students' understanding of the world, increase their access to information, and enhance their ability to innovate. We must also stay abreast of the latest research into what helps students be successful. We must constantly rethink our practices in response to the research. 

It can be overwhelming at times.  There have been times in my career when I have thought that I had too much to do at work -- too much curriculum to teach and too many assignments to mark -- to take the time to learn all these new things in order to be able to show them to my students.  Teachers are very responsible and organized people.  The idea of bringing something into our class that we do not fully understand can be a very scary thought.  Change is happening so rapidly, however, that we must get used to learning alongside our students.  Yes, this will be an uncomfortable dynamic.  It means loosening our grip on the reins a little.  I have found that whenever I have done this, especially with respect to teaching with technology, it has even been a little embarrassing at times.  There has always been at least one of my students who was able to learn how to use a tech tool quicker and more fully than I was, and ended up teaching me!   I have, however, gotten used to my new role, which I now believe is to help my students launch, and then to watch them fly higher than I ever thought possible.  

As my thoughts came together for this Beginning Teachers presentation, I realized that if we want to prepare our students to be self directed learners who know how to set lofty goals, and who are able to creatively select the technology and tools they need to achieve those goals, I needed to give them some chances to act this way in school. As I looked out at my audience, I advised them that when it comes to facing change, they should remember the words of the Borg: