This summer, rather than lie by the pool or relax in a hammock, I started hosting BYOL (laptops) gatherings, which is quite anachronistic since my house is nearly 100 years old-hardly the site for a cyberden. I found that by working side by side with co-workers, we got more accomplished and swapped many good ideas.
Working together certainly saves time since we can help each other. Words like wiki, RSS, widget, Twitter, etc. were so foreign to us. We realized what it must be like for many students who lack the essential vocabulary for our courses. After working all afternoon, we reached a consensus on what would be best for our students this semester.
For example, another teacher and I will recommend that all of our students use Gmail and Airset this year in order for them to have some consistency throughout their different classes. Many of them will be overwhelmed with the new technology we are incorporating.
Michael Fullan shared excerpts from his book The Six Secrets of Change in the June 2008 issue of Scholastic Administrator. Secret Two is to connect peers with purpose. According to Fullan, “Peer interaction . . . is the social and inbtellectual glue of an organization.” I have grown so much this past year from working closely with my peers. During the 20th century teachers were isolated. Seeking advice from a fellow teacher showed a lack of knowledge, and since we were supposedly experts in our field, we wouldn’t want to feel dumb. Fortunately, I had wonderful mentors who helped me with even the dumbest things.
Our school organized a Building Leadership Team in 2003. We’ve brought about many positive changes through this group. Through the Digital Immersion Project, we’ve brought teachers from different departments together. We’ve realized that we all face the same challenges. We’ve broken down the walls that separated us within our own school. Web 2.0 will break down more walls as we begin to collaborate with teachers from all around the world.
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I'm on the right and my sister-in-law, who teaches math, is on the left. This is a horrible picture of both of us, but I wanted to prove that we actually worked last summer. (Notice the lapdog by the laptop.)
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