Where to begin?

A small but very knowledgable group of educators gathered in a room for two days to discuss, debate, learn about "new literacies" and develop a plan to implement them back in their districts.

A scene from a science fiction novel? An administrator's dream? An administrator's nightmare? Nope - reality right here in Western New York.

In planning what this year-long work would look like with Sara Kajder (our literacy/technology anchor) my vision was to have many, many more people in the room who were ready to take the leap into bridging student technology literacies into their classrooms. Alas - issues with substitutes and budgets didn't allow that to happen. However, the group that was here was thoughtful and committed.

We talked about why bringing the literacy of our students into our classrooms in order to enhance the "traditional" literacies. One of the most important pieces that I was able to walk away with is Sara's notion of starting with with ME (what can I integrate into my life to make it more efficient/more meaningful/more connected) then move it to the WE (communicate/use what I have learned in an intimate and safe community) and then finally to the SEE (launching it out to the world and making it public).

As we move forward with this year - the goal is to focus on making one small change based upon a "problem" that we have in our practice. (Technically, action research.) We will have five months to work on making that change, noticing what we did that worked, reflecting on what did not and just taking that small step forward to plug in and create one small pocket of change.

This blog will be my place to wrestle with making that change and pushing myself to things differently, rather than spinning my wheels and complaining. I've created a companion wiki (Lifelong Kindergarten) to act as my sandbox and to point readers to in order to highlight the work of the teachers that I can get to join me on this journey. Unlike Writing Frameworks (which focuses on writing) and Grand Rounds (in which I wrestle with professional development and educational issues along with a colleague), this blog will be my "beta." The place where I test out thoughts about making changes is smart and purposeful ways or share my experiences with different technology tools.

If you are game - follow along, push against my thinking in the comments or tune in once and a while while I try to change my pocket of the world.