21st Century Learning and Teaching

Teacher-researchers, design-thinkers, teacherpreneurs. . . Educators of all types have the potential to exercise their creativity, collaboration, and playfulness to improve education.

When devising strategies to make education work for the 21st century, it's natural to think first about students. How do we prepare children for a rapidly changing world? For jobs that don't exist yet? For the creative problem solving required to tackle emerging global challenges?

Tempting as it is to put children at the center of all our education decisions, we must not start there. Instead, we must begin with their teachers. Schools that enable teachers to build their own empathy skills, think creatively, and work collaboratively will be best equipped to build these same skills in students. Fortunately, any school can nurture an instructive, human-centered learning environment. Administrators can encourage teachers to identify themselves as leaders who are re-imagining learning, giving them the freedom to innovate.

Here are some examples of identities that teachers have assumed in Ashoka Changemaker Schools that empower them to restructure learning.

Learn more:

- http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?tag=Teacherpreneur

- https://gustmees.wordpress.com

- https://gustmees.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/document_fusionne.pdf

- https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2015/05/26/what-are-the-skills-needed-from-students-in-the-future/

- https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/learning-to-learn-preparation-for-better-learning-how-to/

Teacher creativity is nothing new. Good teachers have always found inventive ways to make learning come alive and open opportunities for their students. A persistent challenge facing education has been figuring out how to expand these pockets of innovation so that more students can benefit.

That's why the rise of the teacherpreneur is so promising. Teacherpreneurs use all the tools at their disposal -- such as digital platforms, peer-to-peer professional development, and informal meet-ups -- to help good ideas spread and scale.

As Heather Wolpert-Gawron explained in her post The Era of the Teacherpreneur, these educators are opening new leadership pathways in education. Instead of leaving the classroom to launch new ventures, teacherpreneurs leverage their entrepreneurial spirit to lead change from within the system.

Learn more:

- http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?tag=Teacherpreneur

- https://gustmees.wordpress.com

- https://gustmees.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/document_fusionne.pdf

- https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2015/05/26/what-are-the-skills-needed-from-students-in-the-future/

- https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/learning-to-learn-preparation-for-better-learning-how-to/

Enter the Teacherpreneur

The teacherpreneur merges the image of the innovative classroom teacher with the risk-taking and entrepreneurial leadership that we commonly associate with those who create their own place in the professional world.

Teacherpreneurs are, first and foremost, imaginative teachers. They have created a classroom culture of creativity and reflection. They think beyond the classroom in terms of how to make lessons meaningful, and in so doing, might see a need elsewhere in school that their innovation can address.

As a result, they might request to go part-time in the classroom in order to use their other untapped skills to meet that need. The district or school itself might fund this "other part" of their job, or it might be funded through grants or other outside agencies. For instance, in California, we have noticeable influx of recent funds from the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP).

As a result, many districts are spending a percentage of that money on creating teacherpreneur positions.

The key here is that the teacher creates a different way of navigating the profession without leaving that profession entirely. Their talents remain in the classroom and on the school site, but they've had the opportunity to shake their dice, try something new, and use their skills in a different way.

It comes down to differentiation. We differentiate our students, but we rarely talk about the need to differentiate our teachers, too. It isn't about one teacher being "better" or "worse" than others on a site. It's about admitting that staff can't be standardized and that the individuals running the classroom might have some strengths that should also be leveraged to improve the school and district culture overall.

Barnett Berry: Teacherpreneurs are classroom experts who teach students regularly, but also have time, space, and reward to incubate and execute their own ideas -- just like entrepreneurs!

Teacherpreneurs are amongst us, and they are, just perhaps, signaling in a new kind of educational system.

Learn more:

- https://gustmees.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/document_fusionne.pdf

- https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2015/05/26/what-are-the-skills-needed-from-students-in-the-future/

- https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/learning-to-learn-preparation-for-better-learning-how-to/

Jim Collins, author of the bestseller book “Good To Great : Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t” is convinced that “the good-to-great findings apply broadly—not just to CEOs but also to you and me in whatever work we’re engaged in, including the work of our own lives.” The guiding question to transforming schools from good to great should be: What can we do better than we are doing in the status quo? Big data has no big influence if it is not driven up to the top of the DIKW pyramid, where wisdom is the sum up of the school consistent efforts to move forward. Making good schools great challenges educators to take their school performance to a higher level than expected. They are challenged to simulate life for learners not only to prepare them for one.

Good to Great Simplified

Let’s imagine the scenario in the visual above, where a group of people is about to change their status quo from the bottom to the top of a hill. They have resided down the hill for years now, even though their life is good, they know that there is an orchard that will make their lives even better up the hill. However, they will need to travel through a rough path where they’ll have to leave their comfort zones behind and take the risk. They will also have to carry the payload to the top of the hill, and that will help them settle once they reach their destination. Nevertheless, the group will have doubts about the journey; they will all sit together with a strong desire for the journey. They will start discussing the best way to approach it, and decide that no one should be left behind. They will prepare for the leap that will change their lives immensely.

Learn more:

- http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?tag=Teacherpreneur

- https://gustmees.wordpress.com

- https://gustmees.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/document_fusionne.pdf

- https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2015/05/26/what-are-the-skills-needed-from-students-in-the-future/

- https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/learning-to-learn-preparation-for-better-learning-how-to/

Collaboratively devise a plan for meeting school responsibilities: Though I attend every meeting of my PLC, I do not attend faculty meetings. My principal and I set this expectation at the start of the year. Homeroom meets sporadically in the afternoons, so we arranged for a colleague to meet with my students.

Principals and hybrid teachers must know what to expect of one another when it comes to responsibilities like serving on the school’s council or on committees. Can one hybrid teacher’s numerous leadership responsibilities at school become new opportunities for other teachers?

Clarify and celebrate how a teacherpreneur’s work outside of the classroom benefits students: Most of my colleagues at school have little idea what keeps me busy in the afternoon. If they knew the value of this work, it would likely quell any frustration they experience when they have duties I do not, or temper any jealousy they may feel about my class schedule and “free time.”

Teachers tend toward humility. We must support hybrid teachers by publicly celebrating their work. Offer hybrid teachers a chance to present their work to school and district leaders and include references in publications and regular communications, too.

Find an advocate, mentor and network: Teachers often struggle to advocate for what they need, and expert classroom practitioners may be new to leadership. Designate someone to support teachers in hybrid roles — a person who can advocate for them, coordinate regularly with principals, provide coaching and even watch them teach. Encourage mentorship and participation in a network of other hybrid teachers who face similar challenges and can offer support and advice.

In his book, The Great Influenza, John M. Barry reminds us that scientific discoveries happen on the frontier of our knowledge in a frightening yet necessary confluence of certainty and doubt. Just as scientists battled through urgency and uncertainty to invent the flu vaccine and halt a pandemic, we can only transform education to successfully meet the needs of our students by exhibiting this same kind of courage. Teacher leadership is our frontier, and teacherpreneurs are uniquely suited to discover its riches.

Learn more:

- http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?tag=Teacherpreneur

- https://gustmees.wordpress.com

- https://gustmees.wordpress.com

- https://gustmees.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/document_fusionne.pdf

- https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2015/05/26/what-are-the-skills-needed-from-students-in-the-future/

- https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/learning-to-learn-preparation-for-better-learning-how-to/