Anthony Armstrong's Profile

How often do we present or show a new tool just for the “WOW” factor and don’t give it the foundation to stand on?? The WHY you should be using this within your classroom.

By studying good teaching strategies first and then the technology we are learning how to absorb it into our curriculum and not let it dictate what we teach or to become a distraction. We want to control the technology and not let it control us.

How do we bridge this “culture gap”—the gap between the culture of our classrooms and that of our best work environments? How do we transform the culture of our classrooms to prepare students to enter the culture of thriving, cutting-edge business environments? Surely not in the current classroom milieu, fostered by an overreliance on narrow measures of achievement based on standardized tests. Such tests do not measure the skills and competencies needed to thrive in today’s world—teamwork, collaboration, creativity, and innovation. So it is no wonder that a much-respected private school in my state of Connecticut is running an advertisement to attract families that says, “Your child will develop into a person, not a test score.”

Let me explain. In the "old days" (that would be pre-internet) when a teacher assigned a worksheet with a series of questions on it students had a few options to get the answers.

1. Ask mom.
2. If mom doesn't know, ask Dad.
3. If Dad doesn't know look it up in the textbook.
4. If the answer isn't in the textbook, give up.

Now I am a teacher. When I give worksheets with questions on them my students immediately type the entire question into the omniscient search box on Google and in an instant, they have their answer. They have expended absolutely zero energy or effort to find the answer and as a result will not remember the question or the answer.

There are two solutions to this problem:

1. Ban the use of Google by all school-aged children.
2. Learn to write "Google-proof" questions.

The Google it! mode of education today should force all educators to
let go of the notion that we hold the keys to knowledge. Instead we are
facilitators of knowledge. If a question can be answered by Googling
it, then that question should not be the first question we ask.

What my school is learning, and what current research suggests, is that teachers don’t improve by listening to someone tell them how to do something newer or better in their classrooms. They learn by working together to address problems they themselves identify in their schools and classrooms.

Any group presentation runs the risk of being too advanced for some and too basic for others. Teachers also have different interests and needs, so the topic of the day may lack relevance for many in the room.

When I think of 21st and 22nd century skills, I think of being able to utilize new technologies and work in new paradigms. However, I see too many educational types using 21st Century skills to mean: project based learning, collaboration, critical thinking, and problem solving.

For me, I see us needing to teach students how to think critically and solve problems, learn on their own, and be creative and adaptable.

How much more potent would this experience have been if it had been led by a local teacher with experience applying these techniques in our schools? How much more convincing if we could see work samples created by our very own students? How much more empowering if our staff could see one of our own emerge to share what worked for them, and how they had overcome the specific obstacles they encountered with our students?

On the other hand, when local leaders are tapped, they remain available as a continual resource and inspiration for their peers. They can gain experience in sharing their expertise with their colleagues, and can convene future gatherings where lessons from the ongoing work are shared.

staff development should model what you want to see in the classroom.

Did your teachers have a meaningful role in deciding what PD is being offered?