Forest Green School

How many times have we heard that we are living in a world of change?  The changes we are experiencing have challenged all of us at one time or another in the work that we do.  In many ways, it has increased the velocity of information coming at us continually.  This has presented some interesting and exciting challenges for us in education.

Educators are challenged to shift their practice from what most of us experienced as students to the role of facilitator of learning.  This concept of Teacher as Learning Facilitator in and of itself is not really new as it first appeared in a significant way in educational research almost 3 decades ago.  It has however accelerated with the new and ever changing technologies that are in the hands of our students.  Another major influence in this change has been the remarkable brain research of the last decade.

So what does this change look like?

First and foremost, the old paradigm of educators as the imparters of knowledge in control of who learns what and when is gone.  Student’s interests and questions are now driving instruction. (I suspect they have always driven learning.)  No longer are teachers focused on the finite details of content thick curricula.  We spend much more of our time striking a balance between content and process.  The key work of teachers as facilitators of learning lies in extracting the Big Ideas from the provincial curriculum, sorting out the skills that students require to accomplish learning, and creating learning activities based on careful assessment that are responsive to the learning styles and interests of each child.

Classrooms are highly interactive as students construct understanding while interacting with content, resources, each other, their community and their teacher(s).  Much like the ringmaster at the circus, (I know… maybe not the best analogy to instill confidence!), teachers orchestrate a wide variety of student learning activities simultaneously in order to achieve prescribed learning outcomes.  I have personally witnessed this shift as it has gradually occurred over a little more than the 20 years span of my career however,  I am always amazed that the change has accelerated in velocity to near breakneck speed in the last five years.  There is no sign of it slowing down either.

I have always believed that teachers learn a lot from their students.  However, who would have thought twenty years ago, as I was the “tech go to guy” in my school (the Master of the Apple IIE’s) that one day I would be spending an hour with some high school outreach students learning new tech skills to help me in my work as their principal?  Now there is a role reversal!  This further reinforces the idea that the role of the teacher has changed and they are not the only “keepers of the knowledge”.  Maybe nobody really is?  Unless your name is Google or Wikipedia!  I think the role of “keeper” has given way to the new roles of “searchers, sifter and sorters” and Google does a lot of that for us anyway.

In order for our administrative team to assist teachers in creating modern learning environments through which every child achieves enduring success we must remember to sharpen the saw professionally.  To that end, Mrs. Jensen, Assistant Principal, Connections for Learning; Mrs. Johnson, Assistant Principal, Forest Green School and I will be taking advantage of an exciting opportunity.  We will be attending the Western Canadian Education Administrators Conference in Edmonton next week.  The theme of this conference focuses on Building a Framework for Change.  A highlight for me will be a key note address by Sir Ken Robinson.  He is masterfully challenging the paradigms of education from structures and content to standardized testing and arts programming.  Sir Ken Robinson has several video clips on YouTube.  Check out this link and tell me what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active

Mike Hubick, B.Ed., M.A.

Principal, Connections for Learning & Forest Green School