On Positivity and Professionalism

Note:  This post is the result of a lot of reflection.  The words here are not directed at anyone.  If they were, they would be directed at me.  In fact this post is more for me to improve myself than anything or anyone else.

Something has bothered me lately.  It's been there - nagging my conscience, whispering in my ear - this whole summer, really.  I couldn't figure out what it was until a couple of weeks ago when I attended a session at Podstock  (more on that here) about energy leadership.  In this session, Tammy Fellers (@tjfellers) and Tamara Konrade (@tamarakcoach) talked about seven levels of energy and where we might fall.  Level seven is where the perpetually positive person lands.  Their analogy was perfect:  this is the person who would look at a flat tire on a busy highway as a chance to learn a new school.  Let's face it, the level seven people are those we (the normal ones) want to throat-punch first thing in the morning.  Just kidding, sevens...not that you were offended.  Level one people are the complete opposite.  They find reasons to complain and they always feel like someone is out to get them.  Tammy and Tamara encouraged us to "strive for five".  Level five people are those who are committed to the cause, so to speak.

 I'm not an expert on this by any means, but that is the brass tacks of energy leadership.  What you need to know is this:  I fall down to level one or two way more than I ever rise to five, six, or seven.  That is the realization - the one thing bothering me for a few months now.  Those who aren't close friends may never realize this about me, I can be pretty stinking positive outwardly.  But the inside me is not always so optimistic.  The inside me is full of fear, self-loathing, and doubt.  So, I am writing this post to motivate myself with the hope of motivating a few others along the way.

photo credit:  Pixabay

 I suppose I am a bit of a hypocrite here, or maybe I'm just a result of my society.  It's kind of hard to tell.  You see, I can't stand all the negativity out there.  Perhaps I am just noticing it more, but negativity seems to be growing like a weed - especially in education.  It bothers me when I see educators posting such cynical statements on social media.  Every day I see statuses and tweets about the horrors of common core, how much we hate standardized testing, teachers being paid too little, and so on.

I know, I'm being negative about negativity.  However, to me such outward shows of anti-this or that do not help our public relations as educators.  Which brings me to my next realization:  professionalism requires us to be positive.  I'm not saying common core is perfect, standardized tests are the best days of my year, or I feel like we are overpaid.  However, publicly complaining about such things is just bad PR.  I have friends in many professions, and rarely do I see them complain about their careers on social media.  Do they have nothing about which they can complain?  Doubtful.  Rather, they are practicing professionalism.  I believe, as I'm sure you believe, teaching is not just a job - it is a profession.  We often complain (ahem...) about how little respect we get or how we are not treated as professionals.  How can we expect to be treated as professionals when we do not act as such?  Of course we need to vent from time to time, but social media is not the place to do so.

The other place we should practice anger abstinence is in our professional interactions.  My close friends who are also teachers and I will occasionally vent to each other privately - we all do that.  However, a staff meeting is not the place for negativity.  It kills any momentum a school has when someone shoots down or ridicules ideas.  I'm sure I've been guilty of this once or twice in the past, but I have learned from experience to be more open-minded.  Even if I'm not sure of a new program or directive, I must be willing to give it a shot.  Openly hating an idea which someone has proposed for the common good might just be the best way to ruin a learning community.  This is especially true when it is a requirement from administration.  There's no point in openly complaining about something we can't change.  As long as the directive does not hurt students, then what is the point of refusing to buy-in?

Perhaps even more important is to remain positive with parents, students, and the public.  Just as with social media, our interactions with these groups represent our profession as a whole.  Even when we are unsure of a new directive, it is important we present it with a positive spin.  Let's use, oh...I don't know...standardized testing as an example.  (Cue the scary music and screaming.)  If we are negative about state tests, how can we expect our students to do well?  Think about it:  what if I give my kids a test and say, "I can't believe they are making us take this.  I'm sorry to do this to you, but let's just get it over with."  How would those kids perform?  Instead of viewing testing as this horrible, scary ordeal, what happens when we look at it as a way to improve?  Even better, what happens when we communicated this to parents and students?

Like I said, most of us are not going to be positive all the time, but it should be our goal as professionals to remain publicly optimistic.  The only way I see to do this is to think out of the box and practice what we preach.  Educators are creative, intelligent people.  We need to find ways to authentically twist the negative aspects of our profession into positives.  Then, once we have found that optimistic spin, we need to actually believe it and put it into practice.  Of course, this change can only begin one person at a time - so, I am pledging to be more positive this year.  Will you join me?

#Podstock14

Last week was a career-changing week, and those are not terms I use lightly.  I can only describe two things as truly "career-changing":  my principal encouraging me to lose my fear of failure and my first Podstock experience.  What's Podstock you ask?  Where do I begin?  Podstock is, technically, a conference about education and technology.  In reality, though, it is so much more.  It is a family, one which accepts newbies like me with open arms.  It is an often self-directed learning experience inspiring you to new challenges.  Essentially, Podstock is a movement trying to change the world of education.

We all know students learn best when they get to respond to the lesson or learning experience.  Writing across the curriculum is integral to student success.  Since my class will tell you I probably learn more than they do throughout a year, I consider myself a student and am using this post to respond to and cement my learning experience.  Basically, if I don't write about Podstock 14, I might forget it...I'm getting old like that.  (Just kidding, I could never forget Podstock.  I took notes.)

To really capture the week, I would need several posts.  So, this post is just going to be about the three biggest ideas I brought back from Wichita.  I actually waited a few days to write this so I would know which ideas stuck out the most in my mind.  Without further ado, then:

#1:  Problem solving is an important part of learning.

 Easily the biggest takeaway from my first Podstock is the reminder of the importance of letting kids fail and, (much more importantly) fix their mistakes.  Please don't trip over the word "fail".  Go past the traditional educational meaning of "fail".  I don't mean receiving Fs here.  By failure, I mean making errors, diving in headfirst and learning from those critical mistakes.  This was first driven home in the Sandbox session, a time set aside for hands-on learning about new ideas and facilitated by one of my new edu-heroes:  Ginger Lewman (@GingerLewman).  Everyone in the room had great things to present, but my epiphany first came at the Kidwind Project.  Dan Whisler (@danwhisler) brought all kinds of cheap materials with which we were given the task of building what he called, "MacGyver windmills".  (Author's note:  If you don't know who MacGyver is, do some research tonight and thank me tomorrow.)

The goal was to lift as many washers (the little round metal ones, not the ones which clean your clothes) as possible using power from a windmill we built from random items, such as small PVC pipes, wooden rods, blades cut from campaign signs, pool noodles, and other basically household items.  Dan showed us video of a group of kids who built a McGyver windmill which lifted 75 metal washers off the ground.  My partner in crime, Jackie (check out her blog, too), and I set out to lift 5.  We like to keep our expectations reachable.  Our first attempt resulted in a windmill which would not move.  At all.  So, we redesigned it and came up with a windmill that would spin, but didn't lift anything.  Our next modification lifted 5 washers.  After this blistering success, we made one more tweak and doubled our output.  That's 10 washers for those of you playing at home.

Now, I can't say I am an expert in windmills or wind energy.  However, I did learn some basic principals of design and engineering.  All this learning came from Jackie and I failing and fixing our mistakes.  This year, my students will experience this same feeling.  Failure is always acceptable, as long as you learn from it and get better!

#2:  Learning needs to be an experience kids don't want to miss.

 I have to admit, I geeked out more than once when I saw a few of the names involved at this conference.  My favorite "I follow that guy on Twitter" moment, though, was the keynote speaker, Todd Nesloney (@TechNinjaTodd).  Throughout his keynote address and his breakout session in the afternoon, he talked about his past two years of making lessons an experience for students by flipping his classroom and using problem-based learning.  I signed up for his sessions because my action-based project is all about flipping my classroom next year and mixing in problem-based learning.  From following Todd on Twitter, I knew he would be full of information about both of these.  Not only did I gain valuable tricks and tips for both these teaching styles, I also gained motivation to be excited about learning and turn my classroom into an "experience".

In his keynote, Todd said two things that stuck with me.  First he mentioned Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess and talked about how students need learning to be connected to an emotional experience.  He gave all kinds of examples, such as turning his classroom into a hospital and an awesome bridge building activity.  These examples will guide my thinking as I go about planning lessons learning experiences for next year.  He also mentioned a quote by Erica Bauermeister:  "Adults need to have fun so kids will want to grow up."  When I set out to teach, I wanted to reach kids like me - the kids who love learning but hate school.  What better way to reach those kids than by showing them I am having fun (real, authentic fun) while learning with them?

#3:  Educators must be connected.

Collaboration has always been paramount to the success of any teacher.  In the not-so-distant past, this meant to be a good team player at school:  work with your team and colleagues within your building and district.  This is, of course, still important.  However, Podstock 14 taught me the importance of being connected to the global education community.  I have been on Twitter for a while now, but my list of followers and people I follow grew by leaps and bounds last week.  It is important to meet those people at conferences face to face and then stay connected with them after the week is over.  I realized this in a session by the aforementioned Ginger Lewman called "Ten Questions, No Answers."  Within this session, Ginger facilitated deep discussions about the present and future states of education.  These were important, eye-opening questions - ones I'm not done thinking about and hope to discuss more on Twitter with some of my new education friends.  Not only do I grow from participating in these discussions, but my colleagues at home and certainly my students will benefit too.

An additional means of staying connected is something I keep trying to get better at:  blogging.  At his closing address, Kevin Honeycutt (@kevinhoneycutt) drove this point home.  Educators are intelligent people.  We all have ideas to share and it is time to actually share them.  The education world can't be a place of trying to out do each other.  The students in my classroom don't just belong to me (and their families of course), they are citizens of the whole world and our future depends on their learning today.  Education needs change and it will only happen when we work together for the common good.  As Kevin Honeycutt said, "Don't be secret geniuses anymore!"  Let's share our learning!

I could go on.  However, this post is long enough already and it could last for pages and pages.   The best way to get more out of Podstock is to experience it for yourself!  However, until next year let's all stay connected - you can follow me here, of course, but also look me up on Twitter (@bmcd25).

Before I stop, I want to thank all the people at ESSDACK who organized Podstock as well as everyone mentioned in this post and all the other presenters I was able to learn from.  In addition a huge thanks to my school district for allowing me to tag along on this trip!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of learning to implement...