These interviews are with everyone from Howard Rheingold to the US Department of Education to the Washington Post/Education Week and topics run the gamut from passion-based teaching and learning, the secrets of successful online communities of practice, or my ideas about integrating new technologies and social media into everyday teacher and student life. I hope you’ll see a bit of my transformative vision and get a few take-aways for your own teaching practice.

Watch, read, listen & learn

Check out the interviews here – complete with notes and photos for a quick scan so you can pick what’s interesting to you!

In new interview at the USDOE-supported Connected Educators site, I share what I know about effective online learning communities. It’s a long interview, but if you want to learn more about how to support community online then I recommend reading it. After more than a decade of doing this work I’ve picked up a thing or two that works. You can gain from my mistakes and find out a little about the history of of my learning journey.

Where I Started
Reading the interview got me thinking about where all this started. My interest around learning in networks and other online spaces first occurred when I was knee deep in them, working as a community leader. I spent 3-4 years creating and leading online communities in my classroom, school, and eventually my district. Later, I worked with organizations such as the Teacher Leaders Network, the Center for Teacher Leadership, SRI and Classroom Connect in the role of list moderator, community wizard or social artist. As the years passed, I moved into more of a research and oversight role. I found I spent more time mentoring online community leaders than I did doing any of the actual leading and facilitating myself. It was a good thing. It gave me time to grow my professional development company and co-author a book about connected learning. And to see more of the education world. I began traveling a good bit nationally and internationally, giving keynotes and leading workshops. I’ve had some excellent adventures, but many of you who’ve followed a similar path won’t be surprised to hear this: I began to miss the upclose learning that comes from doing the work, not just talking about it or teaching others how to do it. I needed to get hands-on again with connected communities.

Keeping Sharp
I decided one way to stay sharp would be to teach online. Powerful Learning Practice has an e-Learning arm that offers online professional development and I committed to make the time to offer a couple of e-courses myself. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I am co-teaching a course on Connected Coaching and I’m also leading a course on blended learning & teaching online. In both courses I am taking the posture of  “learner first – educator second.” That’s advice I give regularly, but it’s something totally different when you have to walk it out with an audience in tow.

The main difference between this learning experience and others that I have had as a learner is that it was a co-learning experience — I have never before been part of something that was truly a co-learning experience in an online space. I have led online classes, and I have taken online classes, but never before have I felt this level of co-learning.
~  Sarah Blattner

The feedback has been awe-inspiring. These learners make me want so much to be better. Don’t take my word about the awe. In the Connected Coaching e-course, many of the participants have written reflections about the experience at their personal blogs. I found them enlightening. Isn’t this the kind of intense community-based learning we all long for?

• Reflection of a connected coach who lives in Denmark http://is.gd/lDGsFE
• Reflections of a Canadian district administrator who is serving as a coach http://is.gd/3ByiUX
• Reflection of a Catholic school admin serving as a coach http://is.gd/I89WDt
• Reflection of a PLP Advisor, administrator and English teacher from Oslo Norway http://bit.ly/HIfBcO
• Reflection from a connected coach and fourth grade teacher in Virginia http://bit.ly/H4y2s3

Blended Learning
My Teaching Online e-course has been equally transformational for me. I’m teaching it this spring. It’s my second time through and the individuals who are taking the course are some of the smartest folks I know. We are co-constructing knowledge about teaching and learning in online spaces. We’re inventing best practice together. Because of the trust we developed early on, these folks are sharing at a very deep level. We are literally co-teaching the course, using an outline I created. Each week one or more participants assumes the role of lead teacher and leads us through relevant content, both synchronously and asynchronously. The synergy created by exchanging roles is amazing.

It is challenging to create and lead a community of learners, model best practice, and also enable them to be empowered online instructors. It is sharpening my skills. I am in debt to the folks in these courses for teaching me so much about how to be more effective online. It’s the kind of learning that will spill over into every other aspect of my work.

One of the Teaching Online participants has kept a “think outloud” space during the course, sharing his learning with us transparently. We were completely engrossed as he constructed his weekly course experience in front of us and we listened to him learn. I found myself really seeing the value of being open while we grapple with new ideas and shape new schemas. What a useful lesson. Imagine if all teachers were willing to be this transparent as they learned something new.

Here is some of Peter Skillen’s think outloud.

WORKLOAD

I wonder how much work I should assign. It was my idea to do ‘more with less’ – that is, have fewer readings and assignments and focus on ‘digging deep’ with those rather than have so much that we have to move off to something else.

I know that, for me, it has been a challenge over the weeks to spend as much time in one place as I might because I felt the need to get on to the next task!

Alas, now as I look at the assignments, I think I may have provided a LOT! LOL It was hard because I am so excited about this topic – been much of my life’s work! So I wanted to share it ALL!

So, I hope folks choose to do smart amount for you. For you.

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MY BLOG POSTS

Ok, I feel kind of self-serving using my writings as your readings! Just sayin’. It feels weird. But, because I studied knowledge building in a very theoretical way, the thoughts in those readings represent a lot of attempts to implement it at a school and classroom level.

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IT’S THURSDAY

Oh everyone is busy! I know! I get it. Heck, I’m one of the worst for not jumping into the week’s activities until later in the week when I had some space to breathe. I bet all those who have done the first few weeks have had the same experience — watching and hoping the ‘students’ come on board and love their stuff – ok, at least find it useful! lol (No pressure — just thinkin’ aloud here!)

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THURSDAY EVENING THOUGHTS

One other struggle I had was this:

“Should I put ALL the activities up at once or put them out one a day or so?”

Lisa mentioned this in her reply to this other discussion too.

Originally, I had planned to stage it out over days, but call them One of Five; Two of Five etc. so that people wouldn’t be overwhelmed but would also know how many were yet to do. (I didn’t want people saying, “Oh man!! I thought I was done and now he puts up another assignment!) LOL

I decided to post them ALL at once for these reasons:

- you would know what’s up for the whole week

- those who like to get it done early can do so – except, of course, for follow up conversations

So now I just have people saying, “Oh man! FIVE assignments!! Holeeeee!!” ah well…

do what ya can!!

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As Peter struggled with his own doubts about how to post and how much – we all were inwardly reflective about how we had been doing it and who among our participants was confused or not confused. It gave way to a conversation about student’s needs and perceptions and learning styles in online spaces. The co-creation of content and outloud reflections took us all much deeper into the learning of this e-course than any of us could have done in traditional classes, even traditional online courses.

Another plus of both courses is the global culture aspect, working with and learning from students from around the world. And this often reaches beyond education practices. The highlight of my week was interacting with one of the students, Smadar, who is taking the course from her home in Jerusalem. As we move into the Passover season, Smadar was able to share first-hand the culture and traditions of her family during this important time. The learning never stops in online courses where everyone is a learner and a teacher.

Mega Growth: Community Leadership in Action

Where I have found myself growing the most, though, has been in the work I am doing with two organizations: Hampton Roads Academy (committed to building 21st Century literate leaders) and the  Alberta Regional Professional Development Consortia (building a province-wide community of communities around inclusion). In both cases I am using a combination of online community work with private and public webinars designed to lead participants through a job-embedded, experience-driven learning journey.

It is similar work to what I do in PLP communities, with one major difference: I am working with the local staff in these organizations to grow their skills and capacity around community building in their own virtual space (not PLP’s). The idea is to model, share, teach, mentor and then get out of the way and let them lead in the environment we have created together — an environment they will take over as their own.  Building capacity at the local level is all about empowerment.

Working in a provincial online community with others who believe so deeply in inclusion is an amazing experience. We so appreciate the opportunity to learn from one another and engage in collaborative knowledge building, problem solving and innovation. Under Sheryl’s skillful guidance, we are building our capacity to lead and support other learners in an online environment. Sheryl’s mantra of “we are all learners first” has set a strong, positive tone for risk-taking in this new learning environment.

~ Janne Edney, Implementation Support Coordinator, ELRC

In these spaces I am serving as community leader for a three- and a six-month period. In both spaces, together we are building a shared, walled garden learning environment with public and private spaces. There are local leaders for a variety of groups based on expressed interest.

I have been thinking hard about organization, trust building, and engagement. In the private space where the coaches for one of the communities are gathered, we noticed the posts were hard to track and many said they were getting lost. (These are the future leaders of the work, so they are creating their own posts and still trying to keep track of mine.) Together we created an organization scheme to solve the problem. (see below)

Room Organization:

As a way of providing some organization to the posts we will be sharing here, we have decided to use three identifiers as a way of determining what kind of post you are reading.

Strategy: These are examples of items you could use in in your group rooms to build trust, collaborate, or promote other activities.

Theory: These are pieces that will build your personal skills and capacity as online coaches in this community of practice.

To Do: These are action items that need your attention right away.

It is simple collaborations like this one and those mentioned above in the Teaching Online course that fuel these communities and keep them moving forward. It is through collective norming and intelligence building that we develop and strengthen the sense of community. I look forward to being involved at this developmental level of the work throughout the summer. I know it will make me a better company leader and community member come fall. I can’t imagine a better way to invest my time. Learner first, CEO second!

But this morning, I decided to throw caution to the wind. Why? What was the catalyst for my risk taking behavior? A book review. Yep, a blog post about the book Lani Ritter-Hall and I wrote recently called the Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age. So how did that post lead to this one? Because when I read Justin Yantho’s post I wanted to share it with the world. I wanted to scream to all my networks and communities, ” See, look… these ideas are important! Look what can happen if you think about the ideas and concepts we have shared in our book.” But of course to do something like that would seem arrogant and be cataloged as shameless, self promotion.

My question is why? Why is it shameless self promotion? Why is it when you promote your own ideas, those you authored, trust, and believe, it borders on being seen as self serving?

Disclaimer: Now let me state upfront, when I talk about self promotion in this post I am not talking about people who are all talk. Not the folks who only talk about themselves and their opinions, most of which are not related to any call to action or hard work on behalf of others.

It is part of our DNA

I was talking about this issue with a friend and suggested maybe we have this mindset because our parents drilled it into us. “Don’t toot your own horn; if it is good you will get noticed.” My friend told me, “I’m from Canada, and for us it’s not a parenting issue, it’s a national issue.” In Australia they call it the “tallest poppy syndrome”, and in Norway I was told that Americans are perceived as loud, rude, and arrogant, mostly because of our willingness to self promote. In working with Catholic and Jewish schools, I have been told that arrogance is associated with pride and that we should err on the side of humility. But is marketing our own ideas and work prideful if we really believe what we have to offer is useful, transformational, or helpful?

Women and Self Promotion

Self promotion is especially tough for women. In a culture where women are penalized or bombarded with guilt for self-promotion, often because of being connected to the stereotype of being powerful or pushy (i.e., not ladylike), it’s easy to opt to pursue other methods for success in an effort to be liked. But if you don’t rally for yourself, nobody else will. And what if others have reinforced that your ideas are worth promoting – what then? Interestingly, for women there’s also the concern about potentially hurting other people’s feelings. Women are hesitant to self-promote or talk about their achievements because they don’t want to dismiss or alienate less successful people.

Rethinking Self Promotion

If you think about it, no one is more passionate about your work than you are. No one else knows the depth of your experience, expertise and ideas. And no one can elaborate on your work as convincingly as you can. By delegating promotion just to others, you’re taking away your best opportunity to demonstrate the value of your ideas. You are muting your best spokesman. Isn’t it logical that if we believe in our message, not promoting it would be selfish, as it would deny people the opportunity to learn from what we have to say or do? Humility is an important part of success and character growth — but humility should not mean that we refuse to open doors for others and help  them reach their goals, dreams and aspirations by modeling our work and ideas. It’s about sharing, not coercion.

I am not suggesting we have to play the role of a pushy salesperson or a self-consumed and annoying person to get ahead. But sharing what we have to offer to the world does require taking small steps outside your comfort zone and being willing to put yourself out there on behalf of your dream or vision. It really boils down to passion and believing in what you do.

Promote the Ideas, the Vision, and the Dream

Anyone who knows me knows that I talk about Powerful Learning Practice (PLP) a lot. I believe in PLP. I believe in the work we do. I believe that the big ideas embedded in PLP’s model are the best hope we have for reculturing education systemically. This isn’t just about my livelihood. It’s my passion, my legacy, my way of leaving education better than I found it.

Here is the thing: when I talk about PLP, I am not talking about me. I am talking about “we”. I am talking about all the amazing educators who are taking the concepts back to their schools/districts and doing amazing things — things I might never think of — that no one has thought of before.

I am talking about how other educators are changing their learning environments. Take Voices from the Learning Revolution, a PLP sponsored group blog that contains zero marketing. PLP features our member’s work and their thinking about important topics in 21st century education. It’s a place where they can “self promote” their learning journey in community.

And I do not just talk about the “we” on our PLP website. I brag about PLPeeps anywhere others will let me do so. Some see that as self promotion. I was once turned down for a keynote for a large ISTE affiliate that had sought me out to present but had second thoughts when the committee discussion revealed the fear that all I would talk about was PLP. Which to be fair isn’t true — I keynote around the world and have yet to present on PLP. In fact, Will Richardson, my PLP co-founder and I have both agreed to rarely mention PLP in the keynotes and workshops we do because of the self promotion myth. But I have decided that in doing so we may be doing those who attend our sessions a disservice. If PLP is about enabling educators to become empowered and manage change in their schools shouldn’t we be sharing the ideas, the vision, and the steps folks need to take to be successful?

It’s sharing that drives change for children

Some of you reading this are probably thinking: “Well, sure you feel that way, you profit from people becoming part of PLP.” Yes, we do and so does everyone else who is part of the PLP family. But here is where the rubber meets the road– you do not have to be part of PLP to get access to the ideas and philosophy. We share it everywhere freely for anyone who wants to partake. My new book tells it all. It shows educators how to “do” PLP in your own local context. It has Get Connected activities that walk folks through the same kinds of things we do in PLP. Will’s book about PLNs also shares basic PLP philosophies.

To not self-promote the work we do is counterintuitive to promoting the shift we feel is needed for children to thrive now and in the future. If we truly believe that what we are doing, collectively, is changing education (and it is) then why wouldn’t we self-promote at every turn? Why would I let my fear of being judged for too much self promotion get in the way of  helping make schools better places for children?

I am just going to say it: SHARING IS NOT SELF PROMOTION! That’s right — all bf caps… I yelled it. I told you I get passionate about this topic. Whether I am talking about PLP, my book, a blog post, a presentation or any other work I am giving myself over to on behalf of changing the world and making it better for children, then I am not self promoting! Rather, I am spreading ideas I believe will help you because I care.

And guess what: I am hoping you will reciprocate. I am hoping you will make me aware of your work, your ideas, your skills, so that if there is a way we can collaborate to make the world better, we can find each other to do so. Because if you are willing to take the backlash that comes from the myths of being “self promotional,” I will be able to find you, know you, and possibly work with you. In the 21st Century it is so important to know what those you know know. And how will I know what you know if you do not tell me? Brag a little, will ya? Make it easier for me to connect the dots. We are all busy and time’s a’wasting. I need to find you fast.

Dance When You Make a Touchdown!

I had someone famous who lives in Canada tell me once that my problem was that I dance when I make a touchdown. He said, “Like American football players, Sheryl, you tend to dance when you make a touchdown. Rather you should score and just act like it is business as usual.” I will say to you what I said to him: I will not only dance when I make a touchdown, I will dance more wildly when you do.

I have to know about your good work to celebrate with you. I can’t depend on someone else telling me about it. It will take too long, it is too risky, and I’d rather hear it with your passion and knowledge than a watered down version from someone who might leave out the pieces that are most important to my learning.

Let’s make a pact to get over ourselves. If you are doing good work, if you have great ideas, if you have skills that could make a difference — Dance. Tell me. Tell us all. Self promote. I, for one, promise to high-five, re-tweet and share with others so together we can leave education better than we found it.

Teach.com also provides current and aspiring teachers in STEM, and other fields, with the opportunity to receive information about the MAT@USC, the top-ranked and highly rigorous teacher preparation program delivered online from the University of Southern California.

Today’s teachers need to become connected educators

I was honored to have a piece included on this new site about why today’s teachers need to become connected educators. You can check that out here.

Also, read one Scottish educator’s take on my new book, The Connected Educator:

“One of the basic principles of the Scottish curriculum is the concept of the ‘learner’ at the centre’ or the learner as responsible citizen, reflected in the curriculum outcomes which consist of a series of statements beginning, ‘I can……’  The attraction of this format is that it shifts the emphasis from teaching to learning, and places the responsibility for learning exactly where it should be – with the learner. Supporters of the new curriculum, and I am one, have argued that its values, principles and purposes could apply equally well to teachers as to students…”

Read more here or find out all about the book, get connected activities in your inbox and more here.

Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.”
James Allen

“Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.”
Arnold Bennett

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
Anais Nin

Three Lessons Learned

I learned a lot this past year about myself, about life, and about business. In fact, the older I get it seems the less I know and the more questions I have. I remember being so sure of everything, so convinced I knew all the answers. But I did have a few epiphanies this year, mostly from watching my 6 month old grandson grow, listening to my four 20 something kids and from the connections I have with very smart people in PLP and from around the world.

Lesson 1- Change comes from within

Even when change is imposed there is a factor of choice: acceptance or non-acceptance. I can complain, bitch and squirm like a victim or I can choose to be powerful and do what it takes (especially on behalf of kids)- one step at a time. It is through being uncomfortable that I will change the most. Comfort = status quo. That is why we never really arrive. A growing teacher is a learning one. When something living stops growing- it begins to die. Growing is uncomfortable. I need to become comfortable with being uncomfortable.

I have to accept the fact that to become what I want I will have to sacrifice and struggle. It is true– out of pain comes the most gain. The decision to be uncomfortable is mine. No one can do it for me. I can point fingers and blame others all I want but the truth is I am where I am because of me. That includes both the personal and professional me. I have to decide to change. Only I can decide when I have had enough or am willing to be courageous enough to move outside my comfort zone. This insight is freeing because it means: 1) that discomfort or suffering does not necessarily mean I have done something wrong and am being punished, 2) that ultimately I am in control and have responsibility for whatever action needs to be done, so the degree to which I suffer is ultimately up to me.

Lesson 2- Objectivity is subjective
Every experience I have comes through my own, personal viewpoint of the world. Even when two of us are going through the very same experience it becomes personalized as I filter it through my own schematic lens. There can be no peer reviews of my direct experience, no real corroboration- even when I beg for it and think I need your approval for my validation. I must trust my own personal experience, because nobody else has this angle. We construct our own understanding based on all that we have experienced. What I do build depends on the books I’ve read, the people I’ve met (on and offline), and the experiences I’ve had. This truth has world-shattering implications for educators if they are willing to let it go deep.

Think about it. In light of above, our job as parents or teachers should be to provide a steady diet of rich, beautiful literature, investigations, and collaborative opportunities in the classroom and in our homes for our own children. We are not teachers. We never have been. We are role models, life coaches, and co-learners. We are experience providers. We are the significant adult with whom our relationship with students helps them learn. We are the learning community creators. We are the close observers and the travel guides for this journey of learning. We are the Mr Miyagi of our classroom community (wax on–wax off). Our role is to suggest, encourage, and make connections for the learners in our care. We couldn’t teach them, even if we wanted to, rather we help them make sense out of the artifacts and information we provide as they construct their own knowledge.

Lesson 3- Not enough time is a lame excuse

“I don’t have enough time.” Of course not. None of us do. I get tired of hearing from folks I am mentoring around 21st Century change that they simply do not have enough time to do the things they need to do to shift. Most of what we interact with in life (professional and personal) is not life itself, but our beliefs about it, our expectations of it, and our personal interests in it. Therefore not having enough time is merely a perception. The truth is we make time for what we value.

I’ll give you an example. Most people who know me would say I am one of the busiest people they know. Which means that if we think of time as a constant then I would not have any time left over for anything new. Which means that at all costs I need to preserve the status quo. Yet when my daughter’s safety was threatened we took in her family (including 2 dogs and a baby), another family member whose house flooded and managed 10-15 medical appointments for a family member who became very ill suddenly. Somehow I made time for all the additional demands. We make time for that which we value. We shift things around and make it work.

I asked my network. (They agreed)

Is the excuse “not enough time” when being asked to shift acceptable? I mean it is probably true but we make time for things we value right?

Audrey McLaren
An unacceptable excuse which means not enough courage. But so many people decide what they value BEFORE they even try it!

Mark Moran
In what other professions is “not enough time” accepted as an excuse not to shift? In competitive professions, you adapt or die.

Cossondra George
The difference is often whether ‘we’ want the change or is it being forced on us?

Barry Dahl
I ask that question all the time in workshops. It’s a question of prioritizing time use to the greatest benefit. I also like to challenge faculty with something along the lines of “when did it become acceptable for a teacher to stop learning?” What are you learning now that will add value to you and your students in the future?

Adrian Bruce
In my experience ‘I don’t have the time to do that’ means ‘I place little value on it’

LaDonna Coy
Agree. And yet I think sometimes when we are asked to shift or see the need for it, we still have to face decisions about what we can stop doing and change doing in order to make the shift. I’m curious what kinds of conditions and supports organizations are putting in place to help people make these shifts?

Patti Grayson
I think “not enough time” is easier than saying “I’m scared” or “I don’t know how”. Deciding to make the shift turns everything you know upside down and suddenly your confidence is gone. It takes the right support system and mindset to decide that it’s worth it, even if it’s not perfect. Administrators need to let their people know they are safe to try new things and learn as they go. It’s always scary to let go of something you know, even once you realize it is no longer of value. Remember “Who Moved My Cheese”?

So what lessons learned do you have to share? Let’s learn from each other.

I look forward to hearing any feedback you may have about the book and hearing how you’ll utilize your learning experience that you take away from it. If you’re so inclined, I’d love for you to write a review of the book on your own blog or on Amazon. If you do, I’d be happy to feature it here, tweet a link to your site out, to get you some more traffic along the way.

Thanks again to everyone who commented, and your awesome insight.

Learn all about the book, join a book club, get a free webinar and more

Interview of the Month

Speaking of the launch of the book, I am honored to be Larry Ferlazzo‘s Interview of the Month for November. Larry and I came to know of each other through the Teacher Leaders Network and our mutual colleague John Norton, an education writer and editor who co-founded TLN and has given both of us helpful editorial feedback over the years. Larry has been a high school teacher for over nine years after spending nineteen years working as a community organizer. He is a published author and runs the popular Websites of the Day blog. Larry also blogs at Education Week Teacher.

In this interview, I shared some of my own education backstory and my vision of teaching and learning in the Internet Age. From the interview:

“I wasn’t one of those kids who always wanted to be a teacher when I grew up. In fact, probably the opposite was true. I came from challenging personal circumstances — the sort where schools more often add to the problem than help solve it. I decided to become a teacher, oddly enough, because I was interested in homeschooling my kids and I didn’t want people saying that I wasn’t qualified.

Once I started taking education classes I fell deeply in love with learning, teaching, and the possibility of making the world a better place one kid and classroom at a time. I know that sounds kind of “noble” but I absolutely mean it. I fell in love.”

Read the full post here

Win a signed copy of The Connected Educator

To celebrate the release of the book, I’ll be giving away three signed copies of The Connected Educator – Learning and leading in a digital age. To enter the drawing, leave a comment on this post telling me what you see as the biggest challenge to schools being full of “connected educators”. Comments will remain open through 11:59pm EDT Wednesday, November 30, and I will draw three random winners on Thursday December 1.

Good luck!

It all began with a Tweet. I tweeted Chris’ post out, and then my buddy and fellow PLP leader Dean Shareski sent me a reply (left).

Dean’s Tweet to Me

I came back with something like, “Don’t tell me — go leave a comment.” And Dean did.

In Defense of Rigor

So I began to think about Dean’s reaction and decide to do a little digging around the word rigor. Dictionary definitions are a wonderful place to start when trying to understand a concept, but then one has to look a little deeper. Right off the bat I found that Dean was in good company with his view on rigor in education. Read this piece by Alfie Kohn who likens rigor to Feel Bad Education. Kohn describes rigor as a cult and links it to the loss of joy in education.

Rigor – The Truth Told

Educationese grows more and more Orwellian. “Reform” now means anything that unions and teachers find offensive, and “academic rigor” means anything that kids do. All the dictionary definitions of rigor – inflexible, harsh, stern – seem exactly the wrong habits for educating for 21st century work skills or in the habits of mind of a democratic citizenry. Getting to the bottom of things, healthy skepticism, intellectual patience, empathy, and respect for knowledge and expertise are more to the point. The best way to start tackling such a daunting task? I’d start by fostering them around children’s natural interests – uncovering, unpeeling their naïve notions about the world – until it becomes an unforgettable habit in the lifetime of learning that schooling introduces us to.

Rigor? Yeah, I am a fan.

The back story

The October 2011 edition of ASCD’s Educational Leadership recognizes coaching in education as “the new leadership skill” — and features more than a dozen articles by practitioners and leading experts, including Bob and Megan Tschannen-Moran, Jim Knight and Elizabeth City. All in all, it’s a great issue — a power-packed resource that addresses most any traditional coaching context you might imagine.

Which may explain why the article I submitted with my writing colleague Lani Ritter-Hall was returned with a gracious “no thanks.” It looks at coaching in a very non-traditional setting: virtual space.

Our draft submission, “Connected Coaches in Connected Spaces,” reports on the development of a new kind of coaching model, specifically designed to promote higher levels of collaboration and learning among educator teams in our Powerful Learning Practice virtual communities. The first coaches trained in this model are now practicing their new skills in live PLP communities during the 2011-12 school year.

The skinny

Using a strength-based, appreciative inquiry approach, our connected coaches lead members of our online communities through a process that results in a shared vision of new ways of learning together in online spaces. The coaches work to increase the confidence and self-efficacy of individual team members. They also work to create learning experiences that demonstrate ways that teamwork is necessary to grow as connected learners.

A Connected Coach guides participants toward collegial interaction by helping build a bridge from the theory they are hearing to practical application. Our experience has shown us that just creating an understanding of how we learn in networks and communities is not enough to generate a deep commitment to sharing and collective knowledge building — the kind of growth that results in innovative school improvement. Connected Coaches, through various activities and discussions, help participants create connections to the content and context, to themselves, and to those who are part of the learning community at school and online.

The edgy part

Although our Connected Coaching model draws strongly from Evocative Coaching (Tschannen-Moran & Tschannen-Moran, 2010), Cognitive Coaching (Costa & Garmston,1994), Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider & Whitney, 2005), the work of Jim Knight, and our own Solution Tree book The Connected Educator (Nussbaum-Beach & Ritter-Hall, 2011), we acknowledge that the model may feel a little edgy or unstructured, especially to those who have not — as we have — spent countless hours learning and leading in virtual professional communities of various sizes, structures and purposes.

We ask our connected coaches to engage in what we call wayfinding, a term we feel is appropriate to the learning that occurs in connected spaces, and we set out pathmarkers to guide them in their role as coaches.

Since we believe this coaching journey is as much an art as it may be a science, we intentionally unnumber the pathmarkers and suggest the process is not prescriptive. We indicate to our coaches that there may be detours; there may be a need to loop back and revisit as they engage in listening, paraphrasing, and asking good questions. We remind them as they wind their way through trust building, questioning and facilitating design-thinking to always be mindful of celebrating progress.

We intend that these markers (which we identify in the article) illuminate the way as coaches facilitate the journey of others toward a more accomplished reflective practice that is as much self-directed as it is collaborative — always with the goal of creating momentum for purposeful inquiry around a shared vision of self and school improvement.

Since ASCD has chosen to recognize coaching as a leadership skill this October — and to provide many useful resources to advance the cause of coaching — we thought we’d share one that got away.

Download “Connected Coaching in Connected Spaces”

And we’d love to hear what you think about the potential usefulness of coaches following this model in virtual learning communities.