An ISTE Reflection in a Time of ISTE Reflections

The author with Sean Farnum at ISTE2015 (img credit: Sean Farnum)

I've been home from ISTE 2015 for 11 days. Actually, a fortnight ago, I was sitting in the opening keynote with butterflies in my belly with nerves over what to expect throughout the next four days. But that was then.

This is now:

There's a pile of stuff on my desk at work that I need to look through. Business cards. Flyers. Fliers. (One of those means papers from a company advertising their stuff.) Never mind. Pamphlets. Samples. Notes I took. Pictures I took of QR codes sit waiting for me to revisit as I try to sift through what I've learned to determine what will trickle down to my teachers.

But this is where I get caught. It's not as easy as just putting the information in their hands and saying, "Go. Do this now."

So I'm left with: What did I learn? Where did I learn it? How do I recreate this for my staff?

What did I learn?

I learned about how I learn. I enjoy being at conferences and unconferences. TeachMeetNJ was my first, and I loved it. EdCamps came next, and I started to meet people who were amazing and had great things to share. The New Jersey Literacy Consortium at Kean University continued the trend in a more formal setting, and over the past two years, I've met some amazing educators who are doing great things in their classrooms while hearing from the likes of Jim Burke, Carol Jago, Carl Anderson, Jennifer Serravallo, and Penny Kittle.

ISTE continued this trend. Being at a world-wide collection of educators gave me unprecedented access to people I've admired from a distance. Thinkers, makers, doers, experimenters. People who helped me when I was still a classroom teacher. People who shared strategies when I needed ways to help my staff reach their students. I learned that I thrive on fostering these connections.

I learned that people want to be able to ask questions and get real, tangible answers to actual problems. So often in the day-to-day of the experienced teacher, when a problem comes up, the solution can be as easy as someone saying "Use a Mystery Skype!" The experienced teacher, being experienced, has that in his or her bag of tricks and is able to see the connections and implement the solution. Problem solved.

I learned that people want to find friends. I will not say develop relationships. That's the clinical, non-committal way to say we want to be friends with the people we meet. We want to know that the people with whom we've connected feel the connection and find us as meaningful to them as they are to us. I also learned that's not going to be the case, but I've also learned that sometimes an extra hug or a 2 minute pause to listen goes a long way. A gentleman I only know from Twitter ignored his friends in a pizza place to have a conversation with me. I have always found him to be a great advocate for students and teachers in need through social media, and now I have a deeper respect for him as a real-live person.

I've been reading about people disappointed from clique-ish encounters with educational celebrity types.  To get the most out of a large conference, you can't talk to the person surrounded by the most people. In the poster sessions, I was fortunate enough to see presenters from a kindergarten class showcasing their iPad skills. Naturally, they drew a large crowd. People wanted to talk to them - "What projects do you do in your classes? Do you have fun?" People wanted to talk to their teacher - "How do you scaffold? Where did you get your funding?" I couldn't get in. Then I saw it. The name badge that read "Student Chaperone". It was the mother of one of the kindergarten presenters who also happened to be the teacher's wife. We spoke at length about the program, what the students were taking from the projects, how curricula was developed. We spoke without interruption for approximately 20 minutes. The relationships we create are not about finding the person you want. Those relationships are about finding the person you need.

Where did I learn it?

I learned from the people around me. I learned from the sessions I visited. I learned most from the people who've been doing the things they're speaking on. The poster sessions were amazing for this. I spoke with middle school students from Oklahoma, innovative teachers from Michigan, and educators from El Salvador who were using Minecraft and Second Life to create digital learning locales. I spoke with a husband and wife team from Pennsylvania who parlayed the need to get a student with Cerebral Palsy to take part in the sculpture unit of art class into designing meaningful instruction using 3D printers.

In the lecture sessions, I was able to learn more about using adaptive technologies to improve outcomes for special needs students. I learned how to use the Zombie Apocalypse to teach math, science, social studies, and Language Arts.

In the Birds-of-a-Feather sessions, I connected with educators who self-identified as being weird, and I realized that my interpretations of what it means to be weird varies for all of us. I was fortunate enough to catch part of the Edumatch session, and it was amazing to be able to talk to teachers from around the country reflecting on what it means to truly connect with other educators.

Even the expo hall (which I generally stay away from due to high-pressure sales people) gave me insight into the ways companies are trying to solve the problems teachers and admin see each day.

But I think the place I learned the most was in the conversations I had with people. People I had seen in twitter chats were suddenly across the table from me. These may be the hardest learning experiences to quantify. What can I bring to my staff that I learned from Amanda Rogers and Melissa Eddington? How do I reproduce the excitement that Justin Aion and Sean Farnum generated (especially considering their attendance was - what's the word? Unplanned?) How can I get my building to feel the hopeful anticipation I felt at the promise of meeting Emmanuel Andre, Sarah Thomas, Doug Robertson, and others in real life for the first time who have so heavily influenced who I've become as an educator? I want to put these experiences in a bottle and stock plenty in the staff room fridge this year.

So...

How do I recreate this for my staff?

My experiences at ISTE will forever be exactly that - MY experiences. To recreate them for my staff, I'd be looking to get them to feel and do exactly as I had done, and if there's one thing I've learned from reading the pieces of reflection from ISTE, it's that no one experienced the conference exactly as the person next to them.

This is not to say that I will not create experiences for my staff that will give them great learning opportunities. I have plenty of teachers who are not connected educators, and for them I have started a "SHARE" folder. I am actually printing out articles that will help improve culture and instruction in our building. I've got to meet them where they are.

I have a few teachers who have already stepped out of their comfort zone by getting more involved in Twitter. They have even begun to test the waters of Twitter educational chats. For them, I am encouraging them to reach out to teachers with questions and ideas that may help them in their classroom. For the things that they want to do in their classroom, I am fostering a culture of risk-taking and a willingness to try new things.

I want my teachers to allow their students the freedom to question their learning and take the lead in the direction it goes. If I ever really hope that this becomes the culture of my building, I need to first model it with my treatment of my staff and their development. Their learning will be inspired by what they want to do and see for their students.

And that's the biggest takeaway from this monster conference. The learning I did was personal and specific to me, and as a school leader, I need to provide personal and specific professional development to my staff. We can all learn for ourselves, but we need to be ready to use that learning to share what we know with our colleagues. Then we'll truly be connected. Then we'll be sharing.

*If we haven't met yet, I look forward to a time when we can. If we have met, I can pretty safely say I'm looking forward to seeing you again in the future.