“Unpacking” Learning and Reflections Upon Trajectory of Where Education Needs to Go

Over the past four long days, I attended my first NSBA (National School Board Association) conference as a school

board member.  Friday started very early (waking up at 4am) to catch a 7 am flight and I will be returning this evening, Monday, on a flight that so far has been

delayed to arrive at 11 pm.  The conference was held in Philadelphia, the birthplace of this great nation.  While I was there four full days, I was learning, networking and building my board member support system the whole time.  My brain hurts from all that was absorbed and will need a few days to unpack all that I learned.  I highly recommend you check out the twitter hashtag #nsba19 to catch the highlights of a number of the sessions.

There were a number of common themes of this conference, intended or not.  Starting with Sir Ken Robinson‘s keynote Saturday morning.  “If relationships are not occurring, education is not happening” and “When children find what they are are good at, they get better at everything else!” He is preaching to the choir, I believe everyone has a reason they were put on this earth, special skills and talents.  No one is incidental, they have a purpose.  We must help our children find their purpose.  For those who may not know, Sir Ken has the most watched Ted Talks, is a best selling author and just recently became a US citizen and proud grandpa.

Talents were not lacking at the conference.  We were privileged to be entertained by many talented students.  From the student DJ group at the beginning of each general session.  The student musical performances were jaw dropping and if you wouldn’t have told me, I would have thought they were all professionals.  Check out the video’s on NSBA’s social media platforms.

As we moved into the break-out sessions, the common themes continued – the need for “life ready” skills, the need for career and technical education, social media and “marketing” of schools, mental health and school culture, embracing diversity and school safety.

The second keynote speaker of the conference, Johnny C Taylor, Jr, CEO of SHRM, highlighted “The #skillsgap is a real threat to the economy. @SHRM research says it’s worsened over the past 2 years. 80% of HR pros report difficulty finding qualified candidates in the past 12 months. Through the combined efforts of ed and HR pros we can close it.”

I am thrilled to finally see businesses and communities breaking down the wall to the education silo and for them to be working together.  We need to revamp education for what is needed for not only kids but also for people in our society who are unemployed/underemployed.  If a business produces a product no one wants, is anyone going to buy it?  No, the company needs to do its market research, revamp its products and market them to consumers.  Education needs to take the same lens and be flexible to meet the needs of its consumers – businesses and the community.  Mr. Taylor stated it beautifully “let’s measure ‘success’ differently”.  But in order to do that, schools need to be allowed to be innovative and not be held accountable to the old standards that have been proven to not work.  Only then, can we meet the employment needs of businesses and the needs of our world in the future.

There was a clear intention to bring career and technical education (CTE) to the forefront in this conference.  I attended multiple sessions from the research to how do we get parents on board.  This topic is near and dear to me in that I used to be a fiscal officer of a community college in Ohio.  It also ties into the work I am currently doing on the Steering Committee for the Perkins V re-authorization plan for Kentucky.   I am thrilled that CTE is finally getting the attention that it needs.  We are going to face a crisis in CTE careers if we do not start seeing kids and adult learners go into these pathways.  We need kids and parents to know it is “ok”.  Good lifelong, satisfying careers and lives can be lived in a career and technical education field.  A NSBA Commission just completed a study on how to Close the Skills Gap can be read here:  https://cdn-files.nsba.org/s3fs-public/2019%20Skills%20Gap%20Report_FINAL.pdf

College is not for everyone, but lifelong learning is.  Lifelong learning means you may pursue a certificate or multiple certificates, attend professional development, really anything that you continue learning.  I may have been out of “college” for 22 years, but I have never stopped learning.  Every morning I get up and wonder what I am going to learn that day.  We need to teach kids a love of learning and how to search out learning opportunities.  Encouraging an innate curiosity to learn and figure things out.  If someone tells me something can’t be done, I accept the challenge and figure out how it can be done.

Going along with the concept of lifelong learning, I have been formulating a blog post for sometime and I thought I would just incorporate it here.  It is about why “time” dictates learning.  There are benchmarks set from the time a child is in pre-school.  If a child doesn’t hit those benchmarks determined by those who do not even know the child, the child is considered “behind”.  Maybe they aren’t behind, maybe they just need more time or to be taught a different way in a particular area.   Their learning timeline could be completely different in each core area.   Why is our learning not on a continuum and we move along the continuum in the different areas at our own pace?  Why is time and putting a grade level label so important?  Aren’t we missing the boat?  The important concept is that our kids are learning and mastering the content.  We wonder why our children have so much anxiety and mental health issues.  The pressure put on our kids is incredible.

That leads into a session which I attended this morning which was on Mental Health.  There where many sessions on SEL (Social Emotional Learning) and mental health throughout the conference.  Finally!  We are being proactive and looking at the “whole child.”  If a child isn’t mentally with us during the day, how are they going to learn?  During this session, a school district described their process to try to identify students dealing with anxiety and suicidal tendencies.  The realness of the issue set in during the session when one of the attendees who was a student board representative revealed that he contemplated suicide within the last four weeks.  Mental health cannot be swept under the rug.  It is real and for our kids’ lives, we need to talk to them about it and talk about it NOW.  Being upfront and dealing with mental health, it will change the dialogue around school safety from being reactive to being proactive.

There were a number of sessions on the use of social media and marketing your schools.  From a digital marketing professional, this is a  no brainer.  If you do not tell your school or district’s story, someone else will and you may not like the story being told.  Be honest, use facts, know your audience, know where your audience lives on-line, understand the nuisances of each platform and don’t forget those who do not have access to digital devices.  Tracy Novick had a great graphic to go along with understanding your audiences.  Bottom line is, social media is not going away, so your schools and districts needs to know how to use and embrace it.

While 90% of my time was spent at the conference, I did enjoy a couple of good meals.  I was able to try a traditional Philly Cheesesteak, eat some Italian and found a cute little Mac & Cheese bar close to my hotel.  If interested in any reviews, they can be found on my Yelp account.  No time for sightseeing but I did pass a cool statute of Ben & Thomas on my walk back and forth to the convention center and play frogger through a sea of runners for the Love Marathon.

There were a few indications of home and other connections throughout the trip.  Danville Independent Schools in Kentucky won an award for their support of the arts in their school district.  Our Kentucky banner was next to the Kansas banner which reminded me of my ParentCamp colleague Laura Gilchrist who is working hard to spread ParentCamps across Kansas.  One of our Boone County Schools, Mann Elementary was highlighted at the International Thought Leader Network booth with their work with Orange Frog.  And Kentucky was highlighted for the partnership between Kentucky Education and Workforce Cabinet and Department of Veterans Affairs for innovative apprenticeship programs.

All in all, it was a great learning and network experience, and I look forward to staying connected and to continue learning in this new role and put it to work for the benefit of all of our kids, staff and families.

#LifelongLearning #NSBA #Philly #NSBA19 #MentalHealth #CTE #SocialMedia #SkillsGap #BreakingBarriers #FindingWhatYouAreGoodAt #HappinessAdvantage