But, as the discussion progressed, it took a turn I had blindly not foreseen.  We discussed taking a more proactive stance by helping students craft a positive digital footprint.  Someone suggested flooding online sources with positive information about oneself in order to subordinate the inappropriate or unflattering information that may already exist in searches.   I had not considered attacking the issue from the other side, from a more upbeat action-oriented way, giving the students the power to take charge of their online persona.  While concentrating on “don’t do this,”  I missed “do that.”  Thanks to all the participants in the class who helped me open my eyes and see that thinking forward  is much better than looking backward.

Freedom of speech grants the freedom to explore many different ideas, even those that may be unpopular or unfamiliar.   It is truly frightening to think individuals believe that they have the right to censor those ideas that they find offensive, to the detriment of the entire community.  It is hard to believe that these actions continue in 2010.

But as the school year begins, I think it’s best to review my  lessons and practices of the past school year and employ the  philosophy of Re: Reflect, Reevaluate, and Reinvent.

• RE – flect: Think about the learning experience of students in my classroom.  Am I challenging and engaging my students?  How many assessments involved more than recall and regurgitation?   How can I best assess their knowledge?
• RE – evaluate: What classroom projects and practices worked last year, creating an authentic learning experience for my students?  Look at each unit, it’s construct, resources used, and assessment.  Be brutal.  What is worthwhile and worth keeping?  What can be improved?
• RE – invent: Once the weaknesses in lessons have been pinpointed, I must have the courage to change them.  I have to step out of the box and try something new –use a tool I’ve just learned about, or explore a different dimension of a topic. I’ll do my best to try to engage the students, rather than instruct them.

Now that I’m reinvigorated from the summer, I should have the energy to revise my methods.  That is my goal for this year.

This is where social media comes in.  In order for teachers to be able to see excellence in an unbiased way, they must reevaluate their lessons in light of the work of other educators.   They need to see and hear what other teachers are doing in their classrooms, and become familiar with the tools that they too can use.  Because for most of us, attendance at multiple conferences each year is a financial impossiblity, teachers should take advantage of the free information on the web.  Using Twitter and blog posts, for example, can greatly increase exposure to worlds outside our school walls.  Information from others can help us reevaluate our plans to best serve the students.  What new sources and tools exist that can create a more authentic learning experience?  Constructive criticism is available from well-respected peers, if we’re open to have others look at our plans.  Teachers have at their fingertips a wealth of information that can lead to the develop of truly excellent lessons, if they’re only willing to try.  Educators can go on assuming that what they’re doing is excellent, or they can take a brave step into the world of information and evaluation to see their lessons as others would.  After all, how can we assume academic excellence if we’re unaware of what is possible?

Eighth graders learned this week how to use GoogleDocs; specifically,  the presentation creation feature.  The idea was this:  as a class, let’s create a slideshow about the Winter Olympics, based on research they’ve already done.  To do this , they had to collaborate with classmates, agreeing on backgrounds that did not clash, similar fonts, the formatting of slides, and in what order to place the information.  Students began to argue about the look of the presentation.  More than one student took it upon himself to change the background of all the slides multiple times, resulting in raising the frustation level of the group.  Once it was decided to put the slides in chronological order, students were surprised to see that classmates had moved their slides, often to the incorrect position.  The results would have been comical, had they not pointed out the difficulty of collaboration, even amongst the young and tech-savvy.  I found that group collaboration is hard, regardless of age and experience level, and that the lesson here was not what I intended – to teach the students to use a new tool — but how to work together.  Our class next week was to spend time looking at our beautiful final product, but instead, we’ll look at the project from a different angle — why is working on it together better than doing it apart?  We’ll spend most of our time discussing the difficulties they had working together, and how we can do better next time.  Because, as all educators know, an intended lesson can often have an unexpected result.  It was no longer about  the use of a new tech tool.  It  became something totally different — that collaboration is difficult, but well-worth the effort.  And this lesson is age and ability blind.

First, they told me about their “silent” library.  They laughed as they told me how they can’t talk in the library, and are threatened with demerits if they do.  “It’s different than here,”  they said.  (I never was known for a quiet library).  I have always tried to encourage discussion and sharing, and have tried to make the library a fun space that students would be happy to come to and stay in.  After all, in a student’s world where social learning and exchange is commonplace and constant, imposing silence seems not only artificial but stifling. We have to encourage enthusiasm and collaboration. And that sometimes results in more noise than most find acceptable, and may look a little chaotic, but it seems to work.  

We talked about past lessons and research, and how I had changed things to incorporate some newer tools like our class wikis, twitter, googledocs, and wallwisher.  All our middle school students have gmail accounts that they use to login to other sites and to communicate with the faculty.  I don’t think of any of these things as revolutionary; conversely, I think they’re a pretty basic step into web 2.0 tools appropriate for students this age.  If anything, I think we could be more progressive than this, and I’m working on incorporating more collaborative tools into their lessons.  I thought my former students would laugh at their simplicity, but the reaction I got was quite different.  My high schoolers look at each other in astonishment.  It seems that social media tools and most types of communication are being blocked at their school.  “They don’t trust us,”  they said.  They laughed as they told me that the school has a twitter account, but they’re blocked from reading the feed at school.  “We can’t use any of that stuff” was the general comment.

That got me thinking — how are schools preparing students for the 21st century, if policy becomes more restrictive as the students get older?  I always thought with maturity comes increased responsibility.  Where have the benefits of social media gotten lost?  Or perhaps, more scarily,  why have they yet to be recognized?  Who is driving the policy that is preventing young adults from using the tools they use now in every other facet of their lives, and will continue to use in the years ahead?  It’s a little scary when middle school curriculum and policy is more progressive than high school policy.  When 18-year-olds recognize the absurdity of a school’s blocking and filtering policy, what does that say about the educators who are perpetrating it?  Out of the mouths of babes –

So what is the solution?  Well, Twitter has become an invaluable resource to listen to educators around the world.  Best resources, best practices, and best tools are all being posted and discussed.  We’ve built a community that cares about the education of children.  Until this weekend, I didn’t know most of the members of my PLN, although I respected and admired their knowledge and dedication.  Had I never met them, I still would have benefitted from our conversations.  But this conference was a gift that allowed me to meet them face to face.  And I think we’ve all learned from the conversation.

1. Know your students.  What do they like/not like?  What are they talking about in class (not necessarily tied to classwork).  What bores them? What do they find funny?  All these things indicate what they might be interested in reading in print.
2. Know your collection.  What do you currently have that’s popular, and how can you expand those holdings to appeal to the students?  Do you need more copies of the same title, or just more books written by the same author?  Is your collection lacking in certain topic areas, or on certain reading levels? 
3. Read everything you can.  This doesn’t just apply to the books, but to the publishing companies releases about the books, publications’ reviews of new titles, and other librarians’ and teachers’ thoughts on blogs or through Twitter. I find School Library Journal and my PLN on Twitter to be the most valuable resources.  The more you know about what quality materials are available, the better your purchasing decisions will be. 
4. Read everything you can Part 2.  Read as many of the new titles as you can.  The more knowledgeable you are about the materials, the more you’ll be able to talk to the students about them.  And knowing their scope will allow you to associate similar materials for referrals.
5. Be enthusiastic!  Excitement is contagious.  The more enthusiasm you show when talking about books with students, the more excited they’ll be about reading them.  I call it “The Oprah Effect.”  Whenever I talk about a new title in the library and how great it is, I always have a long line waiting to check it out.  Granted, my power doesn’t have the scope of Oprah, but it sometimes feels as if it does.
6. Give them freedom.  Let students read what they want and when they want (within reason).  Don’t be rigid about titles and genres.  That’s not to say they shouldn’t be exposed to all different kinds of literature, but let them enjoy their favorite kinds without restriction.  Reading needs to be a pleasurable experience for children to choose it over the myriad of options available to them in their free time. 
7. Be willing to listen and discuss.  Students often return after reading to a book wanting to talk about it.  Give them the time and attention.  Engage in a discussion.  Offer new reading suggestions.  You’ll develop a trusting relationship that will continue to grow.
8. Model reading.  This may not seem obvious, but letting students see you read, and letting them know that reading is important to you can have more power than you think.  Find the time, even if it’s just a couple of minutes a day.