I love going to conferences about education, curriculum, leadership and learning. I think it all boils down to my freakish desire to constantly learn and try new things! Whenever I take personality tests, or strengths-based assessments, they say the same thing. I love to learn, to experiment and to think about all kinds of things, especially when they relate to education.
This week, I was at an educational conference that was filled with learning. The AASA conference is aimed at superintendents (which I am not), and all things related to the District office part of K-12 Education (which I am still figuring out).
The first day was phenomenal! I filled my bucket with ideas about coaching and system creation, and heard stats about students, teachers (or lack thereof) and districts. The session on Artificial Intelligence (think ChatGPT) within schools challenged me to look at the topic of AI in schools as an opportunity instead of a threat. It also predicted what the future will look like for our students now that AI is here, advancements are bound to continue, and job opportunities will start to change.
In other words, the first day was AWESOME!
I was ready for more learning in Day 2, and started strong with a fabulous Keynote about leadership, then a session on leadership growth and another on ensuring student mental health in all our schools. The sessions continued with phenomenal speakers, engaging ideas and emotional connections until it finally happened.
I was done.
The conference wasn’t over when I felt done. The plethora of stories and experiences, expertise and sharing continued on.
But I did not. I had to leave. My brian was full and I needed something different. Desperately!
Perhaps my introversion finally won out over my desire to learn and I needed some down-time to process. Maybe the jetlag finally caught up with me and caused me to “lag” as well. Or, just maybe, my brain was in need of a little time to process all the amazing things that I had heard (There might be a little research out there that supports this idea!)
I returned to my hotel room and sank onto the freshly made bed, I had a surprising thought.
“How did I ever do this in school?”
Every day, five days a week, 180 days a year, our students learn a bunch of amazing things in one class, go to the next to learn a whole other subject, pass along to another class and another, trying to take it all in. In the high school, students may have from three to six classes a day from which they need to absorb materials. In middle school, they can have up to 7 classes a day. We expect them to then take all that information home with them, practice using it during homework time (which has to fit around the sports and music and sibling-care and cooking that they might need to do) and come back the next day for more. And we expect them to keep it all straight, be prepared for any assessments, projects or presentations we assign.
I know. I can hear it already.
“WE did it.”
“WE survived this process”.
We might even try to say it made us “stronger”.
That might be true.
But we have discovered much about brain development since in "we" were in school. There are now vast amounts of information about learning, models that help us to see the processing needs of the human brain and how the brain changes during developmental years (through age 24).
So I wonder.
If I can be too tired to listen after 2 short days, how long does it take our students to hit that point? Is it after two days, two weeks, two months? Or does the inability to hear anymore happen at some point each day? (As a former High School teacher, I'm pretty sure it happens before sixth period starts!)
The next question is obvious, yet so difficult. If we know students may struggle to hear anymore after a certain point, what are we prepared to do about it?
Maybe we are already doing things. I can think of a few:
Brain breaks
Frequent processing opportunities
Mindfulness exercises
Project-based learning that integrates subjects and allows focused thought over longer periods
Student driven learning
Is that enough? Or is there a larger change that is necessary?
I’d love to hear your ideas.
Kim
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