Buzz Words

Last night, I participated in my second Theory of Action Task Force meeting for the Cedar Rapids Community School District. It was an experience that got me to think about what the beliefs around the big ideas were to focus on "Excellence for All." We discussed what was meant by all and what was meant by excellence. In small groups, we identified the key components of excellence and all as was reflected in our hopes for the district. Then we looked at survey data and identified 6 key components of what our actions should focus on.

Our big ideas as a large group were leadership, equity, innovation, culture/climate, student ownership, and student learning. My small group had grouped leadership, innovation, culture/climate, student ownership, and student learning together. We called it empowerment. However, it didn't make the cut when we came back together as the large group and needed to prioritize our big ideas. Once those were decided, we discussed in our small table group how we would draft a belief statement around two of those. Finally, we broke out into each of the 6 sections and created if-then statements concluding with "...and student learning will increase."

I moved my two feet to the innovation area, but as we concluded the evening, I wondered what does innovation mean. To me, innovation is trying new things with the expectation of failure before seeing success. It means that we are thinking outside of the box and not trying to re-create the same product over and over again. It also means embracing creativity. Innovation may not mean the same to you, your children, your neighbor, or your community. It is a buzz word that we use to mean that we're moving forward, but what is the specificity behind the word.

I am a proponent of personalized learning and collaboration, but those words are vague as well. Personalized learning to one person might mean that students choose one project to complete with no regard for seeing exactly where the student's needs are and tailoring the curriculum to meet those needs. Collaboration could mean the meeting of two minds or the meeting of many minds to be in the same room, but not solving any problems.

In Mean What You Say: Defining and Integrating, Personalized, Blended and Competency Education, iNACOL identifies descriptors of common buzz words and checks for evolving understanding frequently. It also has a graphic that shows how student centered learning looks. The student is at the center and wrap-around services regarding students' overall learning picture are around the outside to make it personalized.

As educators, we need to be careful about using "buzz words" for the sake of using them. We need to be cognizant of the meaning of these words and find ways to make them meaningful to the larger community.

Graphic from: http://www.inacol.org/news/what-is-personalized-learning/