Joyce Valenza’s Neverending Search

We have two weeks left. As I complete the annual report, I find myself reflecting and worrying a bit too.

It’s been an amazing year. We survived a community tragedy. We focused heavily on safety and recovery. But we moved ahead too.

This year we piloted many Web 2.0 applications with a core group of teachers. Back in April, I interviewed some of the students involved and their reactions convinced me we are going in the right direction. Students’ voices in these video interviews clearly demonstrated their engagement in this new work.

Here’s what I heard from the videos:

Normally less-than-motivated students shared a new interest in writing. With wikis and blogs these students had an audience. They could write when they felt like writing and they discovered that others responded to what they wrote. Their excitement was thrilling.

This was the year we began to reconsider PowerPoint. One very wise and streetsmart student reflected on our “presentation zen” initiative. What did she learn? Single phrases and powerful words pack far more punch than bullets. Presentation is really about storytelling. Her conclusion: “the slides are for the audience; they are not for us.”

Several students who podcast vocabulary words responded that they will use and that they will never forget the words they chose to podcast.

Students who produced our grammar video learning objects reported that this time they really learned the lessons they had heard in classes before. Having to formally and creatively present knowledge to others forced them to learn more powerfully themselves. Students showed pride in knowing that they were sharing their learning, not only with our Springfield community, but with the world beyond.

Next week we’ll be presenting our pilot efforts to the entire faculty in three morning inservices. I am hoping that after we share what worked, we’ll be able to scale out the excitement out to a larger percentage of our teachers and students.

So what worries me? Now that the dissertation is over, I can focus and be far more creative.

I must rethink my website. My study convinced me that it is time to do some shifting. I am going to spend some of my summer making the site more interactive. I am going to move many of my pathfinders to wiki format to facilitate easy updates and to encourage collaboration. Pathfinders ought to be wikis!

I must reconsider where I fit in a faculty that now includes an academic coach and a technology integration coach. I should be able to continue to support and collaborate with both new positions as I did this first year.

My big worry . . .
Our principal is moving to central office. I hope that our next principal understands the role of the library in the whole high school program.

For the first time in seven years I will need to explain who I am.

I’ll keep you posted.