A Meandering Conversation

So recently I had a great conversation with a friend and colleague. We started our conversation around the Ted Talk, "Why Work Doesn't Happen At Work."

We were applying it to teachers and how teachers are never able to have the time to dig deep into new learning and ideas. They are so inundated with directives and initiatives, combined with meetings and interruptions, that they are consumed with tasks, rather than tackling big ideas. This means that when I meet with them to talk about mobile devices, digital literacy, personalized learning, etc... they take a "just tell me what I need to do" approach, rather than thinking about why this is so important and how best to make it happen.

The conversation led into a discussion about Flow. How can we help teachers immerse themselves in something so they can reach that state of flow. Again, there are too many distractions for teachers to ever dig deeply into their learning. For more on Flow, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology).

Eventually our discussion led us to talk about Bloom's Taxonomy. If our classrooms are focused on "covering" the curriculum, we are never going to get past the lower levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. To get to metacognition and creating, we must provide time for our teachers and students to dig deeper and get into a Flow.

In my role as a technology integration specialist, I see first hand how difficult it is for our teachers to dig deeper, to access those higher order thinking skills. If we never allow this to happen, how can we expect our teachers to reach the point in which this all makes sense and they can apply these skills? How can we structure our day to provide them time to explore, conceptualize, apply, and synthesize all this new learning?

I really appreciated that my friend and I had the time to let our conversation meander. We were able to think deeply about this topic and make some interesting connections!

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