Attention Deficit or Distracted Learning For The Right Reasons????

    I knew I had a problem with my attention span in high school when I came up with the brilliant plan of holding my feet up just inches from the floor everyday during Biology in order to try to pay attention in class. This quiet, almost invisible, unobtrusive "task" helped me make it through each and every day of Biology. It wasn't that I didn't like the subject matter - I actually liked science. It was the pace and lack of excitement in the day to day drudgery of listening to lecture that about drove me over the edge. Many kids used their energy in ways that were not as productive to the learning environment of the classroom. (I guarantee you my brothers were not as kind!) While I have never run across another person who was as creative as I was in holding feet up off the floor, I have certainly met too many to count who experienced the clash between lack of engagement and curriculum expectations.
    As I think about how my personal learning has ramped up over this past year I can barely count all the new ways of accessing new learning that I have experienced. I didn't wait for the content to come to me, I went out in search of it as I needed it. The learning has been amazing, yet I find myself with a new type of attention deficit. I am sure there is literature on this with a very specific label - but it is the difficulty in following through with a task because of all of the links and learning opportunities that I find on the way to my destination. Knowing how I am struggling with this lack of focus - I wonder how will we help our students through this pop up window style of learning? (Response to that topic will be a different day's blog.)

    The books, blogs, tweets, and articles that I have read, technology tools I have tried, webinars that I have listened to, technology courses I have taken, virtual conferences that I have attended, and the new professionals who have been added to my PLN are all connections that I am thrilled to have made and continue to learn from. I am so excited about my 24/7 learning opportunities that I share my new learning with anyone who is willing to listen and learn along with me.
    However, I don't want all of this to just stop as information learned. I want to apply my new learning. I am thinking of ways that I can incorporate my new skills and develop my own "classroom" with children from families that I know from across the country and world. I want to experience the fantastic learning opportunities that teachers and students alike experience in connected classrooms and schools. The multi-age virtual classroom that I envision is one that will connect children to schools and classrooms around the world. I can't wait.
    Keep reading to see if I can actually pull this off - if I don't get distracted in the next link I follow, webinar I listen to, or the next great educator that I meet along the way...........

Taking the plunge

 I have been thinking about setting up my own blog for some time. After reading many books on the subject I knew that I needed to take the plunge. I need to learn by doing. I will learn from my attempts, from my mistakes, from my successes, from feedback and from encouragement from many along the way.

Thanks to encouragement from the authors, tweeters, and bloggers that have inspired me, you are reading my first post on this site.





I want to express my thanks to the following authors:
Will Richardson's Learning on the Blog, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful WEb Tools for Classrooms,  and Personal Learning Networks: Using the Power of Connections to Transform Education.
First grade teacher Kathy Cassiday's Connected from the Start: Global Learning in the Primary Grades.
Alan November's, Who Owns the Learning? Preparing Students for the Digital Age. 

What I have learned from reading is that I need to just do it.

I can't expect to entice the teachers or administrators that I work with if I can't speak about it from experience. I am very hopeful that my own blogging experiences will encourage others to re-imagine what learning can look like, what authentic learning and value beyond school can become. Help me to rethink a school that is not confined to classrooms, bells, schedules and a post office address. Help me to entice ALL children (including gifted) to high expectations, problem solving, challenge, and meaningful learning opportunities.  Help me to encourage and support students, teachers, and administrators so that they are willing to meet others from around the world, to learn from their experiences, to visit their communities, and to become passionate learners together.

Just do it.

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