Planning the Go and Show PL

“Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push—in just the right place—it can be tipped.”

― Malcom Gladwell, The Tipping Point

Providing expectations is nothing new. Whether it be teacher to student, director to leadership, or administration to teacher, it must be clearly articulated to those it affects or nothing will change. Procedures will be the same. Frustration will continue to surface. Progression will become stagnate. Through a parental lens, the public will become aware of mismanagement, satisfaction regarding District policies and procedures will decline, and teacher performance evaluations will suffer. Problems always roll down from the top within organizations.

Currently, there is a shortage of digital training and pedagogical implementation within our District. The causes are not clear. It is difficult to determine if they are related to lack of training, lack of motivation, or lack of devices, but one thing is for certain, if you drive to a district in a major metropolitan area similar to ours in the Northern or Eastern part of the State, instructional practices look very different. A difference that may cause major setbacks for the students we are graduating from our District.

The time has come to overhaul our technology training practices to better the futures of our students, and I believe little, simple changes will completely alter the look of our instruction and make us an innovative district that many will want to mimic. You are probably wondering how we can make major changes with the resources we have on hand, and I’m here to tell you, it’s all in the way we communicate our expectations to District stakeholders. Please browse through the presentation outline I have created below to see how easy it is to take professional learning in a new direction and foster a learning environment that many will benefit from.

"There is more than one way to tip an epidemic, in other words. Epidemics are a function of the people who transmit infectious agents, the infectious agent itself, and the environment in which the infectious agent is operating" (Gladwell, 2000). These words ring true in our current situation. Our previous attempts to tip an epidemic toward an educational environment that lends itself to innovative instruction have been moderately successful at best, and it's time to explore new solutions. My hope is that through ongoing support, modeling, active professional development, and content-specific sessions, we can turn a corner, showcase our abundant talent, and make life-altering impressions on the academic outcomes of our students.

References

Gladwell, Malcolm. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. 2000, www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tipping-point-malcolm-gladwell/1100221685.