Jabiz the Teacher Troubadour sent me a link to an Of Monsters and Men song. It's a rare moment where I fall in love with the music of a band on the first listen. And, on some level, when I buy the album, I'll think of Jabiz and the long-distance friendship we share in the vapor world of online interactions.
I turn to my Pandora stations. Each one is playing everything I like, but it's stale. I'm better off hearing Damien Rice in the context of his own albums. I consider adding Of Monsters and Men to one of the stations, but the truth is that I've been gradually moving away from Pandora.
Pandora has a complicated algorithm to predict what I will think I will like. Jabiz the Teacher Troubadour has a glimpse at my soul and can say, "I think you'll like this regardless of whether you think you'll like it." It's relational. So, when Quinn the Business Bohemian says, "Check out Mumford and Sons" or Javi the Hippie says, "You'll really like this bluegrass album," I am willing to listen. The thumbs-down button isn't an option. Maybe later, but not initially.
It has me thinking about professional development. It seems like so many of the models fail precisely because they are models. Rigid structures built upon choice rather than freedom. Take a teacher to a conference where they can choose from a massive menu of options. Give them a differentiated training on Thursdays where they can choose which class will fit their needs. And yet . . . it fails, because teachers are often looking more for freedom than for choice. They are looking for autonomy. They are looking for a place to create and to share.
Teachers don't need another station so much as a venue for a jam session.
I want to connect. I want to learn through a relationship. I will learn more about science from Michael Doyle than I will from a weekend workshop. I will learn more about middle school education from the honest, poignant musings of Stephen Davis than from a conference. I will have better discussions about reading and writing with Russ Goerend or Bill Ferriter than through most workbooks. And if I want to rethink my approach to math, I'll get more from Skyping with David Wees than from listening to representatives from the textbook company.
It goes deeper than that, though. Teaching is so closely tied to identity and it's easy to slip into a dark place of self-doubt. In some of my toughest moments of teaching, it's been the e-mails and video chats with folks like Philip Cummings, Tom Panarese or Chad Sansing (or the chance to have coffee with Robert Greco) that encourage me to keep going even when I feel ground down by the system.
In professional development, schools are trying to perfect Pandora and meanwhile there is an amazing jam session going on everyday. It's not considered real, because it's messy and it's loud and it's indie. But here's the thing: it's where I'm connecting with new ideas. It's where I am affirmed. It's where I am challenged. It's where I am learning.
[Note: The people mentioned above are just a few who came to my mind. On a different day, my list would include a different group. And that's the beauty of the indie professional development. The jam session is always changing.]
John,
ReplyDeleteReally nice piece. It made me think about what is important to me as a learner, as a person. I too see teaching as part of my identity. . .I cannot separate the teacher from the man. Hell, there are times when I am clearly a better teacher than a man. However, as much as I disagree with any "one size fits all" mode of anything, I don't think I should have to choose between Pandora and my jam session. I want both. Whenever I talk to students about the value of a PLN, my mantra is continuously, "It's not the tool, it's the network." My PLN is about the relationships I have begun and cultivated. However, I need the technology tools to make this possible. While I have met more people using Twitter in the last year than I have in the previous 15 years of attending conferences, I'm okay with that. I'm also the type of person who will go to a session at a conference or a training and consider it a success if I incorporated one new idea, or one new tool into my repertoire. Analogously, I have actually discovered some amazing bands through Pandora. I have discovered exponentially more through my friends, but there is a small part of me that is pleasantly surprised when Pandora “gets me” by playing a song that meets me exactly where I’m at in that moment.
I have learned through experience that not every teacher wants to jam. Some prefer the canned, Muzak approach to professional development. While this doesn't resonate with my soul, on some level I understand. I have also discovered that it is possible for teaching to simply be someone's job. This will be true whether they are given Pandora or a venue for a jam session. Identity is a complex thing. . .I prefer to keep my options open.
peace,
jeff
Yep. (And thanks for making me feel like an indie teacher; I'm starting to better connect with the metaphor.) I understand that my school needs to train me on occasion. We need in-service days to discuss school-wide goals and authentic assessment. We have to meet periodically to get on the same page about policies & procedures (or how professional evaluations will be handled). But we shouldn't confuse in-service with professional growth and development. They are not the same thing. They might be intertwined, or they might parallel, or they might exclude the other, but they are not the same. In many ways I think professional development is like adolescent development. We are changing whether we want to or not. The system/nature forces it. The question for us as individuals is what kind of environment do we want to create for ourselves within which we'll change. I'm with you-give me the indie jam session, but I cannot ignore that the occasional formal music lesson might also do me some good as a musician. (Phew! I just mixed a whole lot of metaphors.)
ReplyDeleteI don't suppose it is the medium or method that really matters. Some probably learn better in a vacuum, some prefer the noise of a network. What I stress to my students is that they identify what works for them and then to use that knowledge to be more successful. I do think it is valuable to show them all the options, let them attempt them seriously and then decide. Where would we be if we had not found the noisy network? Where would we be if we decided it didn't work for us?
ReplyDeleteI like it!!!
ReplyDeleteTeacher Troubadour! I love it. So glad you like this band too. I have listened to little else since I found them last week. BTW, I had an old friend tell me about them on Facebook, when I asked for new music ideas from old friends.
ReplyDeleteAbout all the other stuff....the network, the community, the tribe....I agree it is an amazing thing. It takes time and eork and honesty and openness and it looks like it is just getting better. Looking forward to seeing where we end up.
In the meantime, we continue to piece it all together through these webz.
Having said that Last FM does a decent job of finding stuff I will like.
Especially after we meet face to face.
Bryant Griffith compares teaching to Jazz in an extended metaphor in his book In The Borderlands Of Teaching And Learning. This one image haunts me (and the rest of the book has slipped away).
ReplyDeleteIf I am to look, as a person who coordinates professional development, at PD as jazz how do I invite everyone to jam? How do I invite everyone to jam in the same key? A limited amount of dissonance is fun and drives us all to think, but complete dissonance ends up muddy and directionless. It's like when as a kid I thought it would be awesome to see what color I got from mixing all the paints and ended up with a really gross brown.
I think a total free for all is harmful to creativity. Creative constraints push us to be better. We are not algorithms, but a blank sheet of paper scares most people. How do we set up a space that is not coercive, that everyone desires to play in, and frees teachers to color all over the bounded space in amazing ways? This is a question that I struggle with daily.
Dear Jhell,
ReplyDeleteDo you think it's okay for people to yearn for Muzak? Is it simply a taste or is the embrace of Muzak something more dangerous that that? Does it transfer into student learning?
Dear Philip,
I love your concept that in-service isn't the same as professional development. Too often that's what we experience, though. For what it's worth, you are an indie teacher!
Dear William,
I would be a very different teacher if I hadn't experienced my PLN. Okay, perhaps not "very" different, but I think you all have shaped me. If nothing else, I found kindred spirits who helped me see that I wasn't alone.
Dear Jabiz,
Yep, you're the Teacher Troubadour. You've earned a nickname - just like Javi and Quinn and others :) It just fits you, in my opinion. The network of fellow teachers is confusing, fun, exciting, frustrating. If it were possible in person, it might be better. Then again, it never would have happened.
Dear Jim,
Constraint often leads to creativity. I suppose what I mean is more loosely structured collaboration and more meaningful. The constraints should be relational more than structural and should be based upon trust.