Visual Storytelling and Interactive Data from USA Today - Finding Your Students' Passions and Correcting Behavior Issues

Yesterday, I attended a meetup developed by Gannett News and USA Today about their Visual Storytelling and Interactive Data Department.  I'm not sure if department is the proper name to give this team, but they are a highly creative group of people dedicated to putting interested people in touch with a story in a unique way- a sort of 360 experience with the data being expertly available at the level the person chooses.  It's a very forward-thinking concept and they follow stories that stir their passions.

Passions is possibly the key word that grabbed my attention throughout the session. These professionals have a gut-level passion about what they are doing.  It is and has been my contention that our job as educators is to keep providing "aha" experiences for our students - not an easy job with all the pressures of curriculum changes, testing and what I like to call the-tail-wagging-the-dog syndrome. I would keep an eye on the stories this team is producing because the powerful graphics, images, narrative and interactive nature of their product should have multiple applications in the classroom - especially in the area of enhancing the appeal of research and technology.

The-tail-wagging-the-dog syndrome has to do with classroom behavior or lack of it.  Teachers tell me that they often lack the support of the administration and that individual students can "pick apart" a good teacher's reputation. This is sad and wrong. Hopefully, getting a committee to survey teachers and get some data about teachers' level of satisfaction focused primarily on student behavior may be an effective way to demonstrate that this is a building-level problem.

I know end-of-year surveys often gather this type of information, but it is often too generic to be effective in driving change. If several teachers are being held hostage by a few students per-class, then maybe some table talk at lunch might generate some solutions. I'm not advocating gossip, but some sort of positive sessions that unite a department or grade level in some strategies to help each other.  Break down the silos - share!  This job is too hard and too rewarding to go it alone.