On Heroes and Education

Recently, I was involved in a discussion about heroes. What follows is my attempt to put into writing what I have had running around my head for quite some time. It comes across as somewhat jaded or, at the very least, skeptical. For the purpose of understanding some of my made-up terms below, here are the definitions I have in mind when I use them:

• Macro-hero: A person or group that is known to most of society and is held up as a model for behavior.
• Micro-hero: A person or group that is known to only a few people or possibly only a single person. Their behavior that went above and beyond the normal expectations/duties of their job had a profound impact on the person or people impacted by the behavior.
• A note on my take on heroes- After writing this post, I realized that I have a very, very high bar for using the term hero which is most likely informed by my insatiable consumption of fantasy, science fiction, and mythology literature and film where most heroes are larger-than-life and do things that are unimaginable for most other people.

I'm of the perspective that the term "hero," in the macro sense,  has been so overused today that it has become devoid of it's one-time ability to inspire awe and lead to the formulation of new goals and aspirations. I also think that it has been overused to the point where, in many cases, Bolman and Deal's (2008) definition ("living logos, human icons, whose words and deeds exemplified and reinforced important core values") doesn't even apply (p. 257). Generally, I think hero is misused in most situations today when it is used to apply to large groups or entire career fields; being a firefighter, police officer, doctor, teacher, or member of the armed forces does not automatically make you a hero. In a macro sense, most people in these occupations are, like in every other field, pretty average and not remotely heroic.

However, as bitter and jaded as that perspective might seem, I do understand that what constitutes a hero is based entirely on perspective and culture. Bolman and Deal (2008) present five symbolic assumptions and at the top of their list is: "What is most important is not what happens but what it means" (p. 253). A teacher's action of giving a kid a granola bar in the morning might be viewed by one kid as a nice treat while another child looks to the teacher as a hero because the child hasn't eaten since lunch the day before. In that moment, in that situation, to that child, the teacher could be a hero. In this micro view of heroism, heroes are commonplace but I think that this too diminishes the meaning of the term "hero." The role of culture and organizational norms cannot be overlooked as well. If that granola bar distributing teacher was in a school where every teacher distributed granola bars to kids whenever a kid was even only a bit peckish, the hero status is no longer applicable. As for the honoring of heroes in education, I think that it doesn't happen too often because as far as our society is concerned, the bar for hero-status is only attainable for teachers in the most extreme circumstances.

Somewhat related to perspective and culture is a phrase I have heard from many different sources, with many variations over the years but basically goes like this: One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. When Osama bin Laden was killed, I had a student state that "no one would be upset with it because everyone agrees that he was the worst person in the world." I pointed out that his extremes-loaded statement was not true and that there were a great number of people who saw bin Laden as a hero (making sure to clarify I was not one of this crowd). This, I guess, is just one example of why I am extremely hesitant to utilize the supremely subjective term "hero" in my day-to-day parlance.

During this conversation about heroes, I was asked if I had any heroes in my district. I would have to say that I have none. There are many teachers, school leaders, and members of the community who inspire me and who I look up to and aspire to be more like professionally and in some cases personally, but I would not call any of them my hero.

What about you? How does your use and understanding of the term "hero" compare?

Using TED to Establish a Culture of Learning

Simply put TED.com is an amazingly accessible and portable option for personalized learning from the best and brightest the world has to offer. As a school leader, the TED options for learning and growing as a leader are seemingly endless. Not only do you have access to lectures from some of the biggest names in education, politics, and social justice but TED also offers additional resources to engage that take you beyond the well-known TED talk. These resources include reading lists from those big names who deliver the lectures, a TED radio hour on NPR with interviews with the lecturers about their talks, and a lively and surprisingly insightful comments board that accompanies each TED talk video. TED.com is a prime example of how technology can be leveraged to rapidly share ideas around the globe. TED could be used in a school setting as a sort of book study or the basis for discussion between staff members, students, or in a heterogeneous group of staff, administration, students, and the community. Additionally, TED presents many talks about research and experiences that have discovered with conclusions that fall into the "things are not always what they seem" category that encourages critical and divergent thinking both of which are useful to continuously develop as a school leader. Perhaps the most important aspect of TED is that it allows a school leader to model the importance of being a lifelong learner. Whether you're interested in economics of crime, shattering paradigms of what is possible in glass blowing, or how many paper towels can be saved by flicking your hands thirteen times after washing them, TED has something for you and it has something for your students. All of these things can be easily accessed anywhere you can access the internet through TED's website or app.

Edutopia as Personalized Professional Development

One of the most important qualities of being a school leader is being a resource for staff, students, and parents about the latest and greatest trends, practices, and ideas in education. Sorting through academic research papers is time-consuming and, depending upon the author(s), quite a tedious exercise. Edutopia is a website that manages to find a balance between academic discourse and plainly-worded presentation of the latest in educational research and effective pedagogy. This resource is a bookmark must for any school leader. Not only does it provide engaging, accessible opinion pieces and summaries but it organizes these resources by topic and grade level. In addition, it also has an extensive video collection where you can listen to experts discuss ideas and where you can see videos of different practices in action in an actual classroom setting. One of my favorite aspects of this website is their tendency to summarize ideas or practices in lists. For example: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/year-one-with-3d-printer-vicki-davis - This provides a list of seventeen tips when implementing a 3d printer into a classroom for the first time. These sorts of lists are quick and easy to get through and allows readers to mentally check off things as they progress through the list. One other very powerful feature is the comments section and discussion boards. In these areas other teachers and school leaders post their reactions to articles and videos. This website offers a great deal of easily navigable quality resources that could be utilized by a school leader to provide support for developing teachers. As is true of classroom teachers today, principals, directors of instruction, and curriculum directors don't necessarily have to have all the answers when it comes to student and teacher learning and growth. Instead, they simply need to know how to help the learner find the personalized answers and support that will allow them to realize maximum growth. Edutopia presents a powerful tool for school leaders to do just that. 

Twitter in Education

Do you know the feeling you get after a really great professional development session? You know, that feeling of a fire deep inside of you that makes you want to go to your classroom and do something! Well, Twitter is not that. But, I'm sure you also know that same feeling a week after a really great PD session. That feeling of let-down that is the result of other staff members not sharing in your excitement or problems in implementing your new, grand ideas. Twitter can help with that feeling of let-down. To continue the fire metaphor, I like to equate the post-PD fire to a great conflagration; it cannot be stopped except with the passage of time because eventually, it will burn itself out because it runs out of fuel. Twitter adds fuel to that fire. Twitter keeps that fire going and going and going.

If you are in education and you are not on Twitter, you are doing yourself a disservice of Brobdingnagian proportions. Twitter is being leveraged by educators across the country and around the world to develop professional learning networks (PLNs) to support each other through sharing of ideas, materials, answers to questions, and stories. Twitter is the great flattener in education. No longer do you have to wait for a conference to interact with the gurus and rock stars of education today. Got a question for Rick Wormelli? Tweet it. Thomas Guskey? Tweet it. Most of the time, these and other big names in education will respond to your tweet. Want to criticize Arne Duncan? Tweet it with the hashtag #edchat and literally tens of thousands of educators everywhere will see it. Need help coming up with ideas for a psychology project on the brain or do you want feedback on your lesson plan? Tweet it with the hashtag #psychat. Even if you don't want to actively post tweets, you can still leverage Twitter to keep that fire burning year round. By simply following the right people, signing on during Twitter chats that interest you, and following the right hashtags, you will be exposed to an overwhelming number of ideas and resources. The learning curve for understanding how to navigate the Twitterverse is fairly easy for digital natives and entirely manageable for digital immigrants. Even if it takes you a week of fifteen or twenty minute sessions to familiarize yourself with the literacy and navigation skills necessary for easily accessing all that Twitter has to offer, that investment of time will pay back tremendous dividends!

As a school leader, Twitter presents tremendous opportunity. Twitter can be used as a sort of support group for new administrators. Twitter can be used as a place to learn from experienced administrators by simply "following" them on Twitter. Many, many, many accomplished principals, superintendents, and other administrators are on Twitter such as Eric Sheninger, former Scholastic principal of the year; George Couros, rockstar principal from Alberta, Canada; Myron Dueck, principal and author of Grading Smarter, Not Harder; Todd Whitaker, principal and author of Shifting the Monkey; and Joe Sanfelippo, superintendent at Fall Creek School District in Wisconsin who is the model for leveraging social media to create a brand identify for a district, #GoCrickets. This is just a sampling of the many great minds and leaders who share their experiences and ideas on Twitter every single day. Twitter can also be used by school leaders in a way that Joe Sanfelippo does: He is constantly sharing all the great things that happen in his school district on Twitter with pictures and videos under the hashtag #GoCrickets. As a result, he creates a sense of ambient intimacy and connectedness within the community which results in very positive attitudes about the school, the teachers, and the administration. 

This is a sample of my Tweetdeck which is a platform for organizing Twitter. Across the top of this image are the categories and below them are the tweets that have been posted under those categories. The categories include #psychat, for teachers of psychology; #iolahs, for teachers at Iola-Scandinavia High School; #1to1techat, for all things related to one-to-one technology programs; #wischat, for teachers in Wisconsin; #SBLchat for all things related to standards based learning; and #ptchat, where ideas about improving the parent-teacher relationship are posted. These are just six of my nearly twenty different columns for different topics that I follow.