Day Three - the Final Lap

Day 3 - Facilitators Andrea and Marianne after staying later on day 2, provided the opportunity to come early to get started. We were all in need of some work if we were going to be able to have shareable finished products by the last hour.

I was again glad for the opportunity to participate in a learning experience that put the tools in their place. The focus was on communicating an effective story - to be a storyteller. There were no photoshop handouts or tasks that everyone in the class had to go through. As stories were being worked on and the facilitators acting as coaches and critical friends found that a particular message would be more effective with a transparent photo overlay or fading of an image - photoshop was suggested and that particular element was learned and worked on. We all didn't need to learn to fade a picture or crop it - which would have produced a faded, cropped picture in all 11 stories.

The editing software was just called editing software and while it was Adobe Premiere in this case - it was only because it was dictated by what was available at the facility where we met. The learning was on the elements and questions - not the step by step - Go to File - go to Insert. I found this something truly freeing and learned more. It also gave me the feeling of accomplishment. By viewing and looking at it as my personal learning and being permitted to do so, I learned more. I felt better about the time I invested. I came out with a product that I was happy and proud of instead of a false artifact that would just sit somewhere and never thought of again.

How do we create this for our professional educators? How do we have them experience the power and richness of learning that is not direct instruction? How do we make sure our K12 students begin to have a system that really allows personalized learning? These are the questions I work on with my team in my day job. They are also the questions I am passionate about personally.

I will create more stories. Stories of our educators, stories of our students and work. Someday, sooner than later, all the stories will be from the individuals. They will be the evidence of change.