Building Understanding

Pick your tune…

“It’s been a while…” – Staind

“It’s been a long time, since I rock and rolled!” – Led Zepplin

“Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio…” – Simon and Garfunkel

And I’m sure there are many others.  Regardless, they all capture that at a current posting rate of once every 6 months, I can hardly expect anybody to still be at the other end of this.  I have good excuses like “it was my first year as an administrator” and “I have a young family” and “I’m so busy learning that I don’t have time to share”.  They’re all legit, but in a time when we abandon an RSS feed that hasn’t gone bold in months, it would be unreasonable to think anybody’d still be here.

And yet I write.

I write to get my thoughts out.

I write to get my thoughts together.

I write because I need to frame those thoughts – to reflect on where I am, what I’m doing, whether I’m heading in the right direction and maybe to figure out if I’m making a difference.  Maybe not accurate, but somehow it feels like sharing it (even if it’s with no one) seeks validation or at least like-mindedness.

In the end, it doesn’t matter, because the real difference we’re trying to make is with the students in our care.  This is where I look for a difference to be made.  This is where we must find out if learning is better (if kids are better!) because of what we do.

(And apparently I write to go off on tangents.)

“Back to life.  Back to reality.” – En Vogue (that’s right, I quoted En Vogue) (update: apparently I didn’t…I quoted Soul II Soul!)

So I’m getting back into writing the blog.

And I’m getting back into, with the school year underway, trying to Build Understanding at my school.  Supporting and learning from my Principal as we lead faculty and students to better learning, challenge, reflection, and global awareness.

And that’s the key to our school’s Mission – to build understanding.  Understanding of content.  Understanding of self.  Understanding of others (including the global community).

I’m in my second year now as an administrator, so I don’t get the excuse of learning the job anymore.  I’m back.  I want back into the community of learners/educators out here and I know I’m going to have to earn my way back in with contribution.

I’m getting back into it.

image by Mike Rohde, Flickr Creative Commons

Welcome.

I have been writing (on and off) online for just a couple years now at the site Thinking Allowed, but have finally made the leap into owning a domain and controlling my own stuff.  I feel like  a renter who’s bought his first home.  Exciting, but more pressure.

But it’s finally time.

I’ve changed the blog name as part of the move as a by-product of some thoughts I am sorting through myself.  In education, we are shifting our thinking to accomodate include learning in a globally connected and rapidly changing world.  But we know good learners do more than communicate, collaborate, and think.  We know learners need to understand.  They need to construct meaning and understand scientific principles, literature, art, etc.  But that’s not all.  They also need to Be Understanding.

At a conference I recently attended, Project Zero’s Ron Ritchhart asked this question:

What do we want the children we teach to be like when they are adults?

Overwhelmingly, responses to this speak to dispositions like ethics, independent learning, caring, creativity, and such.  Yet in schools we often focus on creating technical experts in history, math, science and more with little connection to how these students will live their lives.  Are we actively striving to produce these types of adults or does it happen by chance?

Do schools build learners we value by happenstance or intent?

Are we building understanding in our learners?  In our teachers?  It has become a focus for me to ensure that we are, both in their content learning and more altruistically in the way they interact with their community and their world.  Additionally, I still have so much to learn and come to understand as I try to improve school education for learners in a Flat World from my current role as a Technology and Learning Coordinator or in my future (hopefully) role as a school leader.

So “Building Understanding” it is.  For our students.  For teachers and administrators.  For content.  For the whole child.

I’m also building understanding for me.  So much to learn and so many people to learn from.  I hope you join me in this effort and the conversation to come.

images found searching Flickr Creative Commons:  Worn Old Welcome Mat by Jason-Morrison, I Understand Everything (mostly) by gak