I’ve spent the week in Boston at the Building Learning Communities conference (BLC08). I’m sitting in the airport waiting for my flight that will move me closer to home. I’ve been thinking about my experience here and trying to organize my learning in a way that will be useful. I feel like I’ve been submerged in a torrent of shifting information of great relevance. It feels like a dynamic river has changed the landscape around me. It’s as if I were walking along feeling fine about everything when suddenly a river appeared under my feet and swept me along. Really though, I signed up for it. I stepped into it willingly. I just didn’t know the current was so strong.
When I was a teenager, I tried to catch a snake swimming along a river. It was a cold September morning. It was in the city and the river was walled with angles of concrete so the snake couldn’t get out. When I reached for the snake’s neck, I overextended, lost my balance and slipped into the frigid water. The snake swam away and left me to figure out how to climb the smooth concrete.
What do you do?
First, breathe
Second, swim downstream while staying close to the edge of the river
Next, grab hold of something solid, pull yourself out, and walk upright again
Then, shake it off…
Finally, never forget what happened and what you learned.
That’s what I did then and it’s what I’ve doing now. I’m going to grab on to the most solid quote that I can and make the best use of it in my practice. Here’s what I learned. I learned ways to put student learning into a larger vision that makes sense to the student and place her/him at the center. “D’uh” you’re thinking. “We all know this.” I know. I did too. I just haven’t been fully putting this knowledge to work for students and teachers. The quote of the week for me came from John Davitt. “How would you like your learning?” This is what we should be asking our students. This is what I should be asking the students/teachers that I work with. We have all of the resources that are needed to put this into effect. I just haven’t organized them well enough yet.
So… the goal I’m taking away from this conference is to make sure that people I work with are given a choice of how they would like their learning. Are you a self-directed learner that prefers to work alone online? Would you rather create something for the common good while working with a group? Details to whole? Lecture? Take a look at the menu? I’ll return in a bit to take your order.
Photo: http://flickr.com/photos/atestofwill/286682459/sizes/l/
