Now.

“There can no longer be an “opt out” clause when dealing with technology in our schools, especially from our administrators. We need to prepare our kids to live in this world now and in the future. Change may feel hard, but it is part of learning. We expect it from our kids, we need to expect it from ourselves.” — George Couros

I was reading through my fb feed this morning and this blog post came through from The Principal of Change, George Couros. Quick summary, the post tagged just above is an aggregate of all of his posts regarding social media use by admin and teachers. More than that, it is a manifesto of sorts for the need for fundamental changes in our teaching and learning.

I spent the weekend at the AIMS Technology Retreat and enjoyed listening to the work of Mike Muir of mcmel and the ever progressive Gary Stager. I enjoyed conversations with technology and library colleagues from across the DC metro area. The message was clear, it is time to change. There were lots of fancy power points and videos about the change process, planning for change, and resources for integrating technology into the curriculum. But the core message was missing…our kids need this now. There is no longer a place for the, “I won’t do that”. Our students deserve our best modeling of life-long learning. In order to model life-long learning you have to actually….be a learner.

I present you this call to arms my friends and colleagues, we must rise up to raise the bar of expectation for our teaching and learning. It is not about technology;  it is about a re-think of how and what school should be in the 21st century. Sure, we could wait five years for a complete cycle of change where everyone feels warm and fuzzy and comfortable but in that time period, an entire set of elementary children will have gone to middle school with our “old ways”. This is simply not fair for these children. Please join me in the conversation and the movement to change our classrooms by first changing ourselves.

@Teach2Connect