EdTechSteve Blog

“Always Try Your Best” – Impossible? Unreasonable?

2012-02-01T20:19:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the first rough school day ever for our5-yr-old, Emily. She had to move hermonkey down to ORANGE… (kids start atgreen, can move up to blue or purple…or down to yellow, orange, or red based onbehavior throughout the day). She hadbeen removed from her small group for talking and being silly andshe had played with and pulled another girl’s arm late in the day. For Emily the ultimate rule-follower, thiswas just horrible. So at the end of theday, our little Emily broke down and was very upset with herself. She shed many tears before she got home, mywife and I huddled up to talk about how we wanted to handle it, then we went totalk to her.

As we spoke to her, I found myself saying something I’vesaid to many, many kids over the years “We want you to always try yourbest.” Sounds simple and I’m sure it’ssomething many of us have said to our students…but later I started thinkingabout it more and more. Is this anunreasonable request? Has any human inthe history of mankind actually ever done this? I’m not afraid to admit that I don’t always try my best….Most of thetime I try to do really well, sometimes I try my best, and well sometimes Icoast a bit on things (flag football games with our church come to mind….). Isn’t this what we all do?

So is it damaging to tell kids to always try theirbest? Or is it good to place that highbar in front of them, even though they will never achieve it? Could we change it to “always do your best onthe things that truly matter to you?” Ordoes adding a qualifier take away the simple impact of the phrase by itself?

Just some things I was thinking about and thought I’dshare. Oh, and Em bounced back- sheinsisted on writing cards to her teachers and the girl whose arm shepulled and today came home on purple and was thrilled…pretty sure this setback won’t end up in a life of crime...

Em on a much happier day, rolling around in the leaves...

Unsolicited Educon Advice

2012-01-25T11:43:00.003-05:00

I saw the most amazing thing the other day while I was driving to work. It was a grey and windy day as I was putzing along behind another couple of cars and I happened to notice something out of the corner of my eye. As I rounded a bend there were three leaves gliding perfectly along the road in front of me, weaving in and out between one another as if they were completely choroeagraphed. It was really beautiful to see them glide like this- just enough wind to make them glide, but not enough to lift them off the ground.

As I drove away I started to think about just how complex of a thing this was that I just witnessed. The conditions had to be absolutely perfect- just the right amount of wind, coming from the right direction. The cars in front of me had to be in exactly the positions they were in and moving the exact velocity they were moving to create the effect. The leaves themselves had to be an exact size and shape, and had to have fallen and been blown into the exact position they were in for this seemingly simple beauty to happen. And I had to notice it (perhaps the most incredible part, as I've usually got "driving to work" blinders on)...

This seemingly simple thing was in fact an incredibly complex and delicate balance, working together to create something incredible that couldn't possibly be duplicated. It is with this that I reflect on the Science Leadership Academy, led by Chris Lehmann alongside his incredible group of staff, students, and parents.

I've only been to Educon half a time, last year. I say a half because the night after I arrived I came down with a stomach bug that just wrecked me and kept me away from SLA until the last half of the experience. I'm by no means an expert, but I know an excellent group of staff and students when I see one - and of course SLA has this in spades. But my advice is this- don't go into Educon trying to duplicate or "scale up" SLA back at your home schools. You can't. It won't work.

You see, a great school is very much like those leaves- a complex group of leadership, staff, students, parents, funding, resources, curriculum development, philosophy, support, politics, and timing in the community (and so much more). You can't recreate a great school like SLA, no matter how hard you try- because you can't scale up people. You can't scale up the precise environment they impacted their world within.

So what would I suggest you do at Educon? First, keep your eyes open and notice the beauty of a great school. Then, go into it thinking about how you can take the ideas shared, the work presented, the students you experience, and make these ideas your own in your school or school system. Don't try to do school like SLA- try to mold your own school into it's own greatness and then work hard to make it happen!

I'm going to miss Educon and all my friends this week, as we are getting ready for our 3rd child, due in the next 2 weeks- I will miss you all and am really looking forward to reading the ideas presented. Have fun and I'll see you soon, I hope!

-Steve

The Beatles' Decca Audition and Why We Should Be Open to Genius in our Schools

2011-12-06T10:58:00.001-05:00

The Beatles Van in 1963, after Pete Best was replaced by Ringo (2nd from left)

New Year's Eve, 1961. Around mid-day, the Beatles piled into their road manager Neil Aspinall's Commer Van for a trip to London. It was frigid and they were driving through a snowstorm, which turned the trip into a 10-hour lumbering journey of missed turns. They got in at 10:00 at night, "just in time to see the drunks jumping in the Trafalgar Square fountain", as John put it. They were on their way to London to make history, although they didn't quite know it yet. More specifically, they were on their way to the London Decca studio for a now-historic and infamous audition.

The next morning, New Year's Day of 1962, the 4 young men (John, Paul, George, and their drummer at the time Pete Best) showed up to Decca for their audition. They started at 11 and played for about an hour. Having been an already-seasoned club band, they chose 15 songs directly from their act- 12 covers and 3 Lennon/McCartney originals. The boys were nervous (this was a big deal- an audition for a major record company) and tired.

The order of the songs at the session:

"Like Dreamers Do" (Lennon/McCartney)
"Money (That's What I Want)" (Gordy/Bradford)
"Till There Was You" (Meredith Willson)
"The Sheik of Araby" (Smith/Wheeler/Snyder)
"To Know Her Is to Love Her" (Phil Spector)
"Take Good Care of My Baby" (King/Goffin) (not released)
"Memphis, Tennessee" (Chuck Berry) (not released)
"Sure to Fall (In Love with You)" (Cantrell/Claunch/Perkins) (not released)
"Hello Little Girl" (Lennon/McCartney)
"Three Cool Cats" (Leiber/Stoller)
"Crying, Waiting, Hoping" (Buddy Holly) (not released)
"Love of the Loved" (Lennon/McCartney) (not released)
"September in the Rain" (Warren/Dubin) (not released)
"Bésame Mucho" (Consuelo Velázquez)
"Searchin'" (Leiber/Stoller)

(copied from Wikipedia entry)

The tapes have since survived and been bootlegged/released in various forms throughout the years. Here are a few samples, pulled from Youtube:

Besame Mucho

Like Dreamers Do

Searchin'

The Sheik of Araby

The songs were selected by Brian Epstein to show the range of the band- they were plainly eclectic selections, from ballads to obscure songs, to flamenco, to blues, to rockabilly. But this was exactly who the Beatles were- eclectic. Paul's father had been a trumpet player and jazz pianist- Paul had grown up listening to a huge variety of music and it clearly impacted his eclectic tastes. John had a troubled childhood, was an artist and player with words. George joined the group as a friend of Paul's, had been hooked by Elvis, and was obsessed with guitars. Pete Best was....well, Pete was just along for the (short, as it turned out) ride. It was this rich, eclectic, varied background in music and poetry that set the stage for 7 years of creative, world-changing impact.

Decca took a few months to decide on whether to sign the Beatles and, ultimately, passed on the greatest band in the history of music. Explaining their rejection of the Beatles, they used these now-famous words: "Guitar groups are on the way out" and "the Beatles have no future in show business". As far as historical mistakes go, this one ranks right up there with starting a land war in Asia.

As the magnitude of this mistake became clear, we've now come to know that one of the main reasons Decca passed on the Beatles was because of that very eclectic nature that they actively sought to put on display. The songs they presented were so varied and sometimes obscure, that, as Paul said years later, "they just didn't know what to do with us."

And Decca wasn't the only one and certainly not the first to overlook the genius that the Beatles brought to the table. Not by a longshot. Sir Ken Robinson related these stories from Paul in his recent book, The Element:

Paul said "he'd always loved music, but that he never enjoyed music lessons at school. His teachers thought they could convey an appreciation for music by making kids listen to crackling records of classical compositions. He found this just as boring as he found everything else at school....(Paul) went through his entire education without anyone noticing that he had any musical talents at all." (p. 11)

(in Paul's words)- "The music teacher completely failed to teach us anything about music. I mean, he had George Harrison and Paul McCartney in his classes as kids and he couldn't interest us in music. George and I both went through school and no one ever though we had any kind of musical talent at all." (227-228)

Here was a teacher who had 2 of the most gifted (and passionate) musicians the world would ever know in his music class, and he never noticed a thing. How many kids are sitting in schools right this moment, geniuses ready for the making, that we aren't recognizing? This brings a lot of questions to mind:

How do we recognize the early signs of genius?
Why do we miss these signs?
Early signs of genius will often look like nonconformity. Breaking out from the pack. How do we encourage this? How do we move away from stifling this in schools?
How are our procedures and rules impeding kids from expressing themselves?
How do we foster an environment of mutual respect so that kids feel safe expressing themselves, even if they will be looked at as different?
How can we make "different" safe, and celebrated?

The most important thing we can do as educators is to keep an open mind and recognize genius within our students, in all it's forms. We need to expose our students to a myriad of experiences, let them dive in deeply, then pay attention to them and be open and receptive to what they come up with and what direction it leads them.

So the question for us really is- Do we know what to do with these kids?

Crowdsource Me

2011-12-03T07:37:00.001-05:00

I've started a new, hopefully 50+ year project, and want to share the journey. This year I've been thinking a lot about how I want my girls (Emily, 5, Kenna, 3, and Hannah, 0 in February...) to grow up with a love of learning and trying new things. I kept trying to think about how to model that and engage them in that process. What I came up with is this "Crowdsource Me" project- a lifelong, annual learning adventure in which I'll keep my learning open, transparent, and in public at http://crowdsourceme.wordpress.com . I'm excited to get started and I think as I go through it I'll be able to make a lot of connections as to how to introduce ideas like this to our students to foster this same love of learning.

You can vote here for what I should learn in 2012

Here is the rationale and nuts and bolts, cross-posted from that new blog space:

This is a learning adventure that I plan on carrying with me until the day I croak. Every year, around Thanksgiving time, I’m going to put out a survey asking people what they want me to learn in the following year. Topics can be wide ranging, but may have some restrictions based on how much money I have to spend, how much time I may or may not have, etc. Once I gather a bunch of ideas of what people want me to learn, I’ll pick 5-8, give my thoughts on each and how I might go about giving them a shot, then let folks vote. The winner of the vote is the one I’ll start learning about in January of the following year. I’ll learn all the way through the end of November, when I’ll be crowdsourcing the next topic!

This whole process will take place, published for all to see, on this blog. I’ll post video, possibly audio, and will write about what I’m trying, what’s working/not working, and reflect as I go. Depending on the topic or task, I may “pretest” and “post-test” myself at the end of the year. I’m a big believer in being open and transparent. All material will be backed up in several places so I never lose it.

Why am I doing this?

I think it’ll be a blast to see what people come up with and then give it a shot.
I want to model a love of learning for my girls (Emily, 5, Kenna, 3, and soon-to-be Hannah).
As my girls get older, I’d love to have them join me (my wifey too).
I think open, transparent, published learning is important.
It’ll make it easier for people to buy me Christmas presents for the rest of my life….just buy me something to help with the coming year’s topic! I always used to feel bad for my Grandpa- all we ever got him were peanuts and carpenter’s glue…
Maybe some others will give this idea a shot- who knows? Maybe others will try it, love it, find a subject they love and follow it, learn with their own kids
I believe that the more diverse your knowledge and interests, the more creative you will be…the more connections your brain can make to truly innovate.
Why not? Life’s too short not to jump in.

How this came about

I’ve been interested in the idea of crowdsourcing (defined by the ultimate crowdsourced resource Wikipedia as “the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community (crowd) through an open call”) for several years now. This past spring as I was floating in the pool in my Mom and Dad’s retirement community, I started thinking how cool it would be to, once I’m retired myself, take on an entirely new learning project every year. Learning to speak Spanish, Learning about Greek Mythology, figuring out how to create things out of wood…just countless possibilities. Since I’m always crowdsourcing my ideas over Twitter to get new perspectives and input, it was a natural link to think that it’d be cool to let people tell me what I should try, then let them vote on what I’d be learning for the year. Then I’d document it all via video, audio, and blog posts…

So I shared the idea with my wife and she says….”Why not do it now?” Not only is she gorgeous, but also brilliant (I married way up).

I also think that all my life I’ve been intrigued by sharing decision points and getting input. When I was a kid I absolutely devoured a series of books called “Choose Your Own Adventure” (remember those???). I loved not only seeing the effects of my decisions but also the effects of all the other options within the books. When I taught 2nd grade, I bought a whole case of these old books on eBay and read them to my students- letting my class vote on which choice we’d go with. They loved them as much as I did!

So the idea mashed together with old Choose Your Own Adventure Books, being interested in crowdsourcing, being interested in learning, and wanting to model a love of all of this stuff for my kids. And I’m stoked to get started.

Thoughts on plagiarism, social media, etc.

2011-09-14T20:58:00.001-04:00

I got this email from an intern at Maupin House, asking me for some thoughts:

I’m currently working on a blog post focused on the ethics of digital plagiarism. It’s based off of an eSchoolNews article that states students are increasingly using social networking sites for their essay material. In the article, Turnitin.com has made the discovery about these newfound sources of plagiarism, but the interesting thing is Turnitin is owned by the same company that owns a program that allows students to check their papers for plagiarism, WriteCheck. In this program, students can put their essays into WriteCheck and figure out a way to manipulate their plagiarism to make it undetectable in Turnitin.

I’d love to get your perspective on all of this. Please check out the eSchoolNews article and the WriteCheck article and tell me what sticks out to you. Here are some questions to consider:

-It seems that students have forgotten (or have not been taught) the value of critical thinking and original writing and have instead sought to get the most amount of work done with the least amount of effort. Why do you think this has happened? Has social media played a part in this?

-What resources do you think teachers (technological and otherwise) could use to impress upon their students the value of that mentioned above? Where do you think teachers’ focus should be in lessons that warn against plagiarism?

-Any additional points you think should be made?

***************************************

Here was my response:

1. Students have always searched for and have found the path of least resistance. Social media has just made it much easier to share that path with a hundred of your friends. I think the real issue at hand are the assignments themselves- if you're assigning something that is easily plagiarized or you don't know your students well enough to tell when it's their voice or someone else's, then that's on the teacher. The critical thinking aspects have to be built into the assignment themselves. Instead of just asking kids to regurgitate an essay on the civil war, ask them to compare it to a modern event. Ask them to analyze two things together. Basically, if you're giving an assignment that can be easily plagiarized, then you're not creating an assignment that provokes critical thinking in the first place.

2. I think the focus needs to be on students creating impactful, meaningful products. Products that show their own personal creativity, passion, and thinking. If you get something from a student and you can't tell which student created it, that's a problem. It should scream their name!

One more additional thought- I think a lot of these issues stem from an over-reliance in the past decade-plus on grades, tests, bubble sheets, etc. Kids have been told for quite awhile now that there is one right answer to everything, and one way to solve a problem. That, of course, is far from the real world truth. There is a focus in schools on "getting it right" instead of learning. Which is a shame! It's not about getting it right- it's about the attempts, the mistakes made, the growth, solving problems, looking at things from different perspectives, and all that other good critical thinking stuff that has been too often shoved to the side.

Introducing TeacherTechVids.com

2011-08-01T14:02:00.005-04:00

So I've been working my little fanny off on a project and am now ready to finally share it out! It's TeacherTechVids.com.

So what is this? It started off as some tutorial videos I was creating for my staff at JN Fries Middle School. As I created this resource for their use this coming year, I thought these videos should be things I should share out. So I bought the domain name last spring and started creating more videos than I ever intended to create (whoops)...

To focus the videos I put up, I decided to align them with my book and put them into three main categories- tools for newbies, tools for developing users, and tools for advanced users. Then I pulled a sampling of each section of the book and went from there. I think the pages turned out well, plus I put links to download any of the tutorials for your own use (mp4, wmv, and ipod versions).

What I would really LOVE to see happen with this site, however, is for teachers to have a hub of classroom ideas that they can learn from and also contribute to- real ideas with examples of how each tool has been used with students. So each tool page has 2 links- one to a Google Form, where we can submit ideas for classroom use. The other link is the output of those submissions and should update automatically for each tool. Let's see if we can make this grow! I shared the site with Kyle Pace while it was still halfway done about a month ago and wondered if folks would actually start contributing. As he said, you never know until you try....so let's give it a try. =)

I also started a blog for people to subscribe to, to stay aware of any updates or additions that are made to the site going forward. Find that at http://teachertechvids.blogspot.com .

So there you have it! Please share with anyone you think will benefit and I will start spreading it around my school system so we can start generating ideas!

Reform Symposium Session - Let's Talk About Kids That Come To Us From Poverty

2011-07-29T20:48:00.006-04:00

I'm honored to be a part of the Reform Symposium this year and am excited to lead a conversation that I feel has fallen by the wayside too often in education conferences, for whatever reason. The conversation will be about how we can build empathy instead of pity in teachers who work in high-poverty areas and then what specific actions we can start taking to have a larger and longer impact on these types of students. This will be a conversation, so if you plan on coming PLEASE also plan on thinking and contributing some ideas. I'm selfishly hoping to get great strategies from folks who attend and I know we'll all benefit from learning together.

What: Let's Talk About Kids That Come To Us From Poverty

When: Saturday, July 30th at 21:00 (9:00 PM) EST

Where: Elluminate Room: Direct Link

Who: Anyone that wants to talk more about this issue and walk away with more ideas of how to have a greater impact on the kids that need it most

Here's the survey I'm asking folks to submit prior to the session

Here's the presentation/questions I'm using to drive the conversation:

Here's a video of me describing what I hope we can do in the 30 minutes we have:

Hope to see you there!

In defense of conference sessions

2011-07-21T11:49:00.001-04:00

"What sessions did you hit today?"

"None"

"Oh"

******

I feel like I had this conversation a bunch at ISTE 2011 in Philly this year. It seems like more than ever, a lot of the excellent folks I like to hang with online and off are abstaining from going to sessions and instead hitting the lounges to have informal conversations. This is great and a real source of connections and learning in a conference atmosphere, but I wonder if the trend has swung too far the social way. I'm not here to disparage anyone's personal way of learning at a conference, but rather explain how it works for me and maybe push others to think about the full conference experience.

The 1st question I ask myself at any conference is- why am I here? Why did I come? First and foremost, I go to conferences to be able to bring fresh ideas and strategies back to my fellow teachers, admin, and students. I don't go looking for fads or trends. In short, I go to help students. When I'm looking over my potential daily schedule, I focus on what my school needs most right now. This year, the answer is easy- we're converting to a STEM and International Studies magnet school next year. So I had a clear idea of the types of learning I was hoping to do- anything that would help support these programs.

Others might have socializing and meeting up with people as their primary purpose. Others still might have the informal ed conversations as their primary purpose. There may even be a couple folks out there who are keynote freaks and wouldn't miss a single one. All of that is fine, but it's not me. (Don't get me wrong....when the night rolls around I'm all about a Google/Gaggle/Edutopia party or three...)

I'm an intrapersonal kind've dude. I really enjoy going to sessions I know will help my school, jotting down notes, and then reflecting on how this new info can impact students in the coming year. I have to take information in, roll it around in my brain, make sense of it, then relax and let the ideas for student use flow. That's just how I operate.

And at a national conference such as ISTE, there are SO MANY amazing, intelligent people presenting sessions about things they are GREAT at. It's such an opportunity to see folks that are really passionate about what they do and are given a platform to share their ideas in a focused manner. In an informal conversation or social setting, someone putting their ideas forward in such a manner can often come off as arrogant or self-promoting, which I tune out immediately.

I also think that going to sessions is a great conversation starter for the deeper conversations we all want to have at conferences. Being able to share what a great session was all about is a great springboard toward making sense of everything you're immersed in.

With all that being said, here are the best sessions I went to at ISTE this year:

Becoming a catalyst for change, with Erin Gruwell, the teacher who put together the book "The Freedom Writers Diary". This was an AWESOME experience, getting to hear the stories of a middle class, white, young teacher and the powerful impact she had on a group of 150 inner-city youths, many of which were utterly without hope when she first met them. The power given to students, having them published, having a movie made about them....all from a powerful and inspiring teacher. I felt very lucky to have been able to hear her speak.
Beyond Robotics: Project-Based Design and Engineering. This was a cool session where a student team of robotics/engineering students got to show how they built their award-winning robots. I enjoyed seeing how the competitions worked and especially liked seeing the kids as experts, doing real projects and solving real problems. We're getting robotics equipment in the fall and I'm stoked to help.
Infographics as a creative assessment - Kathy Shrock. I'm always looking for better ways of assessing students and I thought this was a neat way to go about it. There were some great ideas that I'll definitely be able to bring to my teacher's this year, as we're moving toward much more authentic assessments. Site: http://linkyy.com/infographics
Students as content creators. This was a session done via Skype with two teachers from Pittsburgh and Ireland, describing how they had their students connect and share information about their area and culture. It opened my eyes to some of the possibilities of creating connections with our IB kids to other areas of the world and how to structure these types of projects. Site: http://kc3.cilc.org/
ITSI-SU – Science Inquiry stuff. The first thing I thought of once we got started in this BYOL session was "Man oh man, our STEM teachers are going to EAT. THIS. UP." This is a free site that has a ton of great inquiry-based lessons that teachers and students can use in conjunction with probes such as Vernier. The great thing about this is that all the data collecting is embedded right into the site- no need to open a separate program to record data then drag it into another spot to analyze. Everything is right there and it's all web-based. Very cool stuff and will lead to a lot of thinking and discovery next year!

I think the bottom line of all this for me is that it's not about my learning or my experience, it's about how I can be a better conduit for others. And along the way, I learn a ton.

Some Photoshop practice

2011-07-19T11:55:00.006-04:00

It's my anniversary (8 years- woohoo!!! I married waaaay up) and I was looking through some photos from our wedding. I found the picture below with my sister's ex-husband in it and decided to photoshop him out. I figured I'd share, even though it's not my best work it's still fun to tinker around with this kind've stuff!

Before

After

If you've never tried photoshop (or other image editors) before, here are some quick tips as to how to do this stuff.

First remove the objects you want out. Do this by using the lasso tool to select the objects. I used the magnetic lasso tool in photoshop, which kind've "sticks" to the sides/pixels of the object to get a more accurate selection. Once you've selected what you want to get rid of, delete the selection.
Next, take a good look at the walls and items in the rest of the picture and figure out what belongs where. For this one, the molding was there as well as a pillar. I also had to recreate a pew on the left side where the dude's arm came down. Try to use the same picture to pull what you need from- if you try to match with another picture the odds are pretty high that the lighting will be slightly different, which stands out when you try to match it up.
The next tool in photoshop that works this magic is the stamp tool. Basically you give a destination spot (alt-click on where you want to pull from), then go to the area you need to fill in and click/fill in. You might have to zoom in to get tight around the other objects in the picture (in the case above, the hair of my beautiful wifey, the hair of my sister, the molding). Stamp as much as you can get away with.
Next, there might be some areas that you simply have to create. In the pic above, I had to create the lefthand side of the pillar on the left. To do this, I selected the pillar on the right, copied it, then flipped it to the left. It turned out OK. It's a little wider than it's supposed to be, but I'm probably the only one who would ever notice.
Next, clean up- zoom back out to the full picture and look carefully for things you've missed or need to fix. In this one, I had chopped off some of my wife's hair so I had to go back to the original picture, select the left side, copy it, then paste it over top the new pic. That worked well.

So there you have it- how to get rid of doofuses or ex's out of your pictures. Can't wait to send this to my Mom...she's gonna love it. ha!

Dweck's "Mindset"- Review and what it means for schools

2011-07-18T13:00:00.007-04:00

A couple months back I read Carol Dweck's "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success." I was interested in it from both an educator and parent point of view. I had read some articles summarizing what it was all about and they intrigued me. Here's a quick summary, review, and some pieces I pulled out for thinking about how this info can help schools:

Summary

The book hinges on the idea that it is our mindset, not just our abilities and talent, that leads to our success. The basic idea is that there are two types of mindsets you can adopt- fixed or growth. The fixed mindset, she explains, is when you view your talents, abilities, or intelligence as something that is innate and cannot be improved upon. Either you're smart or not. You can either do art or you can't. And all the practice in the world would not help the situation.

The growth mindset, on the other hand, views ability, talent, and intelligence as highly malleable things. Folks who have the growth mindset see that through hard work and perseverance, you can improve in just about any area you choose to improve in. If you can't do something correctly, it's not that you don't have the ability, it's that you need to work at it more to improve. Mistakes are viewed as learning opportunities instead of failures. The growth mindset leads to a more fulfilling view of life and learning.

In short- fixed BAD. Growth GOOD.

Review

I enjoyed this book and wholeheartedly agree with it's central premise. I've seen in myself, others, and my students that those that employ the fixed mindset are much more likely to give up, not try harder problems, and to view themselves through labels. The research Dweck outlines to show the power of these different mindsets is very compelling and jives with what I've seen with my own eyes. This book helped me make sense of my world and my students' worlds, and will help me push my students and children more towards a growth mindset.

The only negative I have about this book would be it's repetitiveness. The message is clear and cogent from the very beginning but then is just hammered home over...and over...and over... I would have liked more strategies of how to move from fixed mindset to growth, rather than simply rehashing "Fixed BAD, Growth GOOD" throughout each chapter.

Takeaways for school

The first overall takeaway is that schools need to be places where students aren't labeled one way or another, where mistakes are truly viewed as learning opportunities, and where growth is pushed for students in many different areas, rather than a heavy focus on "the basics".
The wave of differentiation as practiced in many schools may have some harmful side affects. On p. 64, Dweck writes "Most often when kids are behind- say, when they're repeating a grade - they're given dumbed-down material on the assumption they can't handle more....the results are depressing." This really makes me think about how we differentiate for students by dumbing down assignments, tests, and class work. Are we really doing them any favors by letting them have 2 choices instead of 4 on a multiple choice test? By simply having less spelling words? By lowering the bar? In my opinion, instead of viewing differentiation as an opportunity to dumb down the work, true differentiation should be aimed at giving different approaches to content (instead of limiting it). We should be enriching instead of dumbing down. We should be giving choices to students of different paths to mastery.
More unintended negative effects of standardized testing. On p. 66, Dweck tells of research done of German teachers to see how their mindsets affected their view of their students. Teachers with a fixed mindset took a careful look at their students scores from the previous year and automatically made judgments and predictions for their success in their class the coming year. As I thought about this, this could be an extremely damaging side effect from all the testing we're subjected to in the U.S. The more we test students, the more they become numbers and growth charts instead of children. Teachers are pushed to be "data driven", which I'm sure has made more and more teachers look at their students in fixed ways- "This student came in scoring here and we can predict that they will end up HERE." In my state of North Carolina, this is common practice. Teachers are told at the beginning of the year how much growth each child is expected to make. I can't help but wonder how subconsciously damaging that way of viewing kids is.
On pages 71-76, Dweck talks about labeling and it's powerful negative impact. Students that identify with a label that they are not smart will inherently affix it to themselves in whatever tasks they do at school. Labels lead to fixed-mindset behaviors such as seeing themselves as failures/not smart, etc. It makes me wonder how much damage we do by pulling students out for resource classes. It makes me wonder how much damage we do by pulling EC students out to separate rooms to test them. Before they even begin the test, they've already been fully given the impression that they're not as smart as the rest of the kids. I also wonder if the reverse angle is true- when we identify students as gifted are we damaging them as well in the long run? If they come to see themselves as intellectually gifted, might that lead to a fixed mindset as well? When they finally encounter difficulty in their studies, will they have the perseverance to push through as another child who was not labeled as "smart"?

My main takeaway from this book is that schools need to be environments that are free of labels of all kinds, where mistakes are cherished as learning opportunities, and where effort is seen as the cornerstone of success.

Learn, push, grow!

Simple Truths from Clearing Brush

2011-06-30T12:13:00.008-04:00

Right after ISTE, I drove straight to western PA, (Champion, to be exact), to help my Dad get ready for our yearly 4th of July family reunion. My Dad bought 70 acres of land for $20,000 before he went to fight in Vietnam, over 40 years ago. He, my Grandpa, and uncle built the pond and the whole area has been his baby ever since. Every year he adds another layer to the area, something fun for the kids, something fixed that needed fixing, some amenity that will make people more comfortable...

Each year I try to get here a day or two early to at least lend a hand in the last 5% of prep work. This morning I spent a couple hours clearing brush from the edges of the pond so people will be able to fish easier and so the area would just look cleaner. As I did, some simple truths occurred to me:

"Work smarter, not harder" is not something you should say, it's something you should show
If you try to rake everything in the pile along at once, you'll lose a lot. You have to go back a 2nd or 3rd time to make sure everything gets pulled along
Seeing tangible results of your work is really motivating
Your eyes will deceive you. Have someone else look at your work
Work should result in something useful or beautiful. Or, ideally- both
Meaningful work is never "done"

I hope all that read this have a chance to move, improve, and reflect.

Teachers know assessment. Policymakers don't

2011-06-25T09:56:00.002-04:00

I had the outstanding opportunity for three days last week to join our STEM staff in problem-based learning training. It was provided by Wake Forest Medical, who utilize PBL extensively to prepare their medical students to become highly effective doctors. Their approach has produced incredible results and they now share their strategies with schools, as it has been shown to be effective with students of all ages.

At the end of the 3 days, they asked us to create the ideal assessment system. There were about 40-50 teachers and we worked for about two hours. We worked in small groups and then came back together to share out.

Here's what I saw: In 2 hours, 40-50 classroom teachers came up with a more robust, authentic, powerful assessment system than any policymaker could ever DREAM of creating. Some of the features:

-Portfolio/WORK driven

-work as a conversation starter for reflection

-students able to justify their decisions when self-assessing

-no zero's.

-assessment shows mastery and if students have not obtained mastery they're given choices and options of different ways they can prove mastery of a concept.

-Ongoing, both informal and "formal"- in the sense of sitting down and reflecting and thinking of ways to improve.

There were other features built in, some of them nuts and bolts stuff about how to fit a good assessment system into the mess we're required to do by state and federal policy.

The more time I spend with other teachers talking about assessment, the more I'm convinced they know this stuff. Policymakers just don't seem to(and they're willing to spend millions of millions of dollars coming up with systems that teachers working together could do for free in a few hours).

We need to give this back to teachers!

My book is getting chunky

2011-05-17T20:17:00.003-04:00

No, the book has not gained weight. It's still at a svelte 136 pages of pure learning fun....

But my publisher has started a new program with my book as one of it's pilots- Maupin House a la carte. Through this program you'll be able to download small chunks of my book for $3.95 each. The packs are separated as shown below and you can head here to buy some of the chunks. Hope you enjoy and I hope this helps you use more digital tools to help your students collaborate, create, and publish!

Collaboration Pack I $3.95 Description: This pack consists of five digital tools (11 pp.) that can be used for collaboration and/or group problem solving. Each tool includes an overview, notes for getting started, issues to consider beforehand, advice for classroom use, and specific content area lesson ideas. • Title page • Google Earth • TodaysMeet • Wikis • Collaborative Whiteboards • ePals
Collaboration Pack II $3.95 Description: This pack consists of five digital tools (11 pp.) that can be used for collaboration and/or group problem solving. Each tool includes an overview, notes for getting started, issues to consider beforehand, advice for classroom use, and specific content area lesson ideas. • Title page • Google Docs • Video Conferencing • Ning • Second Life • Twitter
Creation Pack I Price: $3.95 Description: This pack consists of five digital tools (11 pp.) that can be used to promote and express creativity. Each tool includes an overview, notes for getting started, issues to consider beforehand, advice for classroom use, and specific content area lesson ideas. • Title page • Animoto • Digital Storytelling • Glogster • Image Editing • Timeline Creators
Creation Pack II Price: $3.95 Description: This pack consists of five digital tools (11 pp.) that can be used to promote and express creativity. Each tool includes an overview, notes for getting started, issues to consider beforehand, advice for classroom use, and specific content area lesson ideas. • Title page • Word Clouds • Mind Mapping • Voicethread • Prezi • Spore Creature Creator
Publication Pack I Price: $3.95 Description: This pack consists of five digital tools (11 pp.) that can be used to publish content and teach students about audience, editing, and the importance of feedback. Each tool includes an overview, notes for getting started, issues to consider beforehand, advice for classroom use, and specific content area lesson ideas. • Title page • Blogs • Message Boards • Google Forms • Podcasting • Screen Recording
Publication Pack II Price: $3.95 Description: This pack consists of five digital tools (11 pp.) that can be used to publish content and teach students about audience, editing, and the importance of feedback. Each tool includes an overview, notes for getting started, issues to consider beforehand, advice for classroom use, and specific content area lesson ideas. • Title page • Slideshare • Website Creators • Zoho • Live Internet Video Streaming • Schooltube
Digital Tools: Next Level Learning Price: $4.95 Description: This pack (43 pp.) consists of four chapters that provide a foundation for using digital tools in the classroom, a chart of 17 more e-tools, the ISTE and NET Standards for each e-tool, and a list of performance indicators for students. • Title page • Chapter 1: Understanding Today's Tech-Savvy Learner • Chapter 2: Preparing Students for Their Digital Future • Chapter 3: Getting Started Using E-tools for Learning • Chapter 4: How to Assess Digital Products • Even More E-Tools! • ISTE and NET Standards for each e-tool • Performance Indicators for Students

How to create a word cloud from Google Form surveys

2011-05-11T11:10:00.004-04:00

I just posted this post about the word cloud I created from a Google Form survey I sent students and then realized others might want to know how to do this. It's actually not all that difficult and is a great way to start conversations around student (or anyone's) input from a Google Form. Here are the steps:

1. Create a survey that allows users to use their own words. You can do a word cloud from free-form or paragraph type responses but my gut tells me it's probably best to limit the responses. For example, don't ask for an open-ended response, but instead 3-5 words that describe feelings or requests. This will allow your eventual word cloud to be more focused and "hit" on common words.

2. Send the survey out to folks you want to respond. If sending to students, give reminders of checking spelling- the word cloud will not work correctly or as powerfully if words are misspelled.

3. Collect responses. As responses come in, check them to see if any of the ideas need editing to be more cohesive. For example, the students I surveyed used words such as "challenging" "be challenged", or just "challenge". I edited these responses to all read as "challenging" so that the word cloud would pick up that singular concept. You may need to edit some phrases as well. For example, I had students say they wanted things to be "hands on". In Wordle, that would separate those words and they'd lose their meaning. To fix this, put a ~ sign in between words in phrases. This links them together for Wordle to interpret as a phrase.

4. After responses have been collected and edited, inside Google Forms, click on File -> Make a copy... It is this new copy that you'll use to single out the words you need for the word cloud.

5. Delete all columns except for the one that contains the information you'd like to make the word cloud out of.

6. Click File --> Download as... and download as a pdf. In the options box that pops up, UNCHECK "Repeat Row Headers on each page". Then click "Export".

7. Open a web browser and go to wordle.net. Click "Create"

8. Copy the information out of the pdf and paste it into the first box in Wordle. Click Go. The word cloud will be created.

9. You may have to click on some language options to make it look better- go to Language and click on "Guess case for each word".

10. Change layout and colors to however you'd like and save the image by taking a screenshot or just printing.

That's it! Hope you find this helpful.

UPDATE: This seemed to gather some interest when I threw it out to Twitter, so I made a quick little screencast for those visual learners out there! (sorry for the low volume, I didn't have my regular microphone with me):

What our students hope for

2011-05-11T10:54:00.007-04:00

There are very exciting changes happening at my school (JN Fries Middle) next year- we will be converting from a traditional middle school to a magnet school with 2 programs: STEM and International Studies (are in the process of applying to be an International Baccalaureate school). We will serve about half as many students (435), will have a lot of new technology flowing into the building, and the best part of all is that our leadership team truly gets to think outside of the box and create the school we'd love to work in.

As part of this process, I've been pushing for more and more student voice in our decision-making process. You can't claim to be a student-centered school if you don't involve students from the very beginning.... In an effort to do this, I created a quick, optional Google Forms survey and sent it out to our students. (Take a look). The main thrust was in three questions:

Write 3-5 words that describe what you hope JN Fries will be like
Write 3-5 words that describe what you hope to DO at JN Fries next year
Are you interested in coming in with other students to speak to our leadership team about what types of things you'd like to see happen at JN Fries next year?

I loved the responses I got! I decided to make a Wordle Word Cloud of the first two questions to share with our leadership team and I thought I'd share them here as well:

What our future students hope JN Fries will be like:

What our future students hope they will DO:

I'll also be contacting the students that were willing to come and talk to us soon so we can get their input into their new school. Looking forward to it!

Instead of Content Objectives, how about Process Objectives?

2011-05-11T08:50:00.000-04:00

One movement I've seen sweeping through every district I've worked in is the content objectives movement. In case it's not happening near you, this is when teachers are expected to post the content objectives each day for their students to easily see. These might look like this:

Language Objectives

1. Students will learn about how descriptive language paints a picture for the reader.

Math Objectives

1. Students will learn the formula for the solving the area of a triangle.

2. Students will learn how to determine the slope of a given line.

These are just some quick examples of the types of content objectives that are most likely posted in thousands of classrooms across the nation as I type this. I am a big fan of objectives, objective writing, and creating paths to mastering objectives (especially a big fan when students are able to write their own....but that's another post).

But what would a classroom look like if it shifted away from content objectives toward process objectives? How would business be conducted each day? How would it impact student assessment? How would it help blur the rigid boundaries of subjects we currently work within? How could it open things up? It's an interesting thing to think about. Consider these types of objectives:

1. Students will debate their ideas in an effort to build common ground.

2. Students will build a model of their thinking.

3. Students will work together to uncover myths and misconceptions.

4. Students will tear apart and rebuild an idea/object/argument.

These are intentionally wide-open, just to start thinking about how these kinds of posted objectives could impact a classroom. With these kinds of objectives, students are forced into action. Students are forced to think. Students are forced to make decisions. Students are forced to fail, problem solve, and attempt to solve. Students are given choice and freedom. Teachers would be forced to let go. Teachers would be forced to authentically assess processes instead of straight content (not nearly as easy...).

Would your students be more engaged if process objectives were the norm instead of content objectives?

In honor of teacher assistants

2011-04-17T21:53:00.000-04:00

Budget cuts are here and they are brutal. Many school systems across the country will do whatever they can to not have these deficits impact people, but it's inevitable that they will because of the sheer amounts of money that need to be cut.

In many cases, the first people to see cuts will be teacher assistants. In our county (Cabarrus County, NC), the proposal is that TA's will be cut from 8 hours to 6, while still retaining benefits (cuts 25% of their pay though, which is meager to begin with). In addition to this, we are expecting to cut 10% of the TA staff in the county.

It makes me sad to see these cuts because I've been lucky enough to work with some awesome teaching assistants over my 11+ years as a classroom teacher and tech guy. So I thought I'd give some space to honor teacher assistants in a time when they almost certainly are feeling a bit brushed aside....

Awesome stuff I've seen my (and other) TA's do in schools:

Hug crying kids
Buy and put in new hairbows and ribbons for little girls who hadn't showered/bathed in more than a week :(
I'm a guy. If it weren't for Angela, Donna, Myrna, Rhonda, and Lisa my walls both inside and outside of my classroom would have been the lamest, dullest thing you'd ever see.
Teach kids how to read
Teach kids how to write
Sit with kids who have trouble focusing on their own, helping them stay on task and learning
Keep up with kids' medication better than I ever could
Open about a billion milk cartons
Pump kids up to their parents both inside and outside of school
Clean up puke
Clean up spills
Change kids' clothes that had wet themselves, without harming their dignity

For all this and so much more, I want to say THANK YOU to not only the awesome TA's I've worked with directly but also all the others out there on the chopping block. You are much appreciated by myself and I'm sure many others out there, especially the kids you serve every day.

If you're visiting, feel free to contribute to this list if you've worked with an awesome TA!

Free webinar- Enhancing Multiple Intelligences with Technology

2011-04-16T21:07:00.006-04:00

I'm hosting another free webinar, set up by my publisher, Maupin House. I hope you and ten of your friends can make it :-) - I promise to keep it fun and helpful!

Title: Enhancing Multiple Intelligences with Technology

Description: Since Howard Gardner introduced his theory of multiple intelligences in 1983, teachers all over the world have embraced the ideas he presented. Our students can't and shouldn't be reduced to a single IQ score- a single, narrow definition of intelligence. Rather, they (and we) are each a unique combination of 8 separate but often interwoven intelligences- spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, linguistic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, musical, and naturalistic.

Come join me for a free webinar where participants will discuss best practices with utilizing multiple intelligence theory with your students as well as play with some digital tools that will help bring these qualities out in your students! This will be a very hands-on, conversation-driven hour for all involved. Come play with some fun tools while learning more about how to best serve your students!

When: Wednesday, April 20th, 8:30-9:30

If you are planning on coming, I'm asking folks to head to this site to take a survey and fill out the accompanying Google Form to help guide the direction and flow of our hour together. After all, a session about differentiation would be pretty silly without some differentiation right?

Packing bags for the Outer Banks!

2011-04-05T20:28:00.003-04:00

I'm heading to the Outer Banks with 175 8th graders tomorrow morning (we meet at 5:15!!!!). For those that don't know, the Outer Banks are the eastern shores of North Carolina- a fantastic place rich with history and science opportunities. We'll be visiting Cape Hatteras, Ocracoke Island (where Blackbeard hid out and was eventually killed), and will be visiting Kitty Hawk, where we can stand in the actual spot where the first flight occurred.

It'll be a blast, and I'm the tech guy so of course we'll be doing some fun techy things. I've rounded up some student reporters and will set them loose with Kodak Zi8 cameras to take pictures and short videos. I've set up a Youtube account to upload videos as well. We will also be live streaming during the day from my iPhone on the JN Fries Outer Banks channel and will have two nightly recaps led by student reporters live at 9:15 Wednesday night and 9:00 Thursday night. In addition, I'll post pictures as we go as well.

If you'd like to follow along, all of these adventures will be chronicled at jnfriesouterbanks.wetpaint.com.

Oh and....did I mention 175 8th graders? So.....pray for me.

A six-year-old-boy named Saulo taught me everything I need to know about using tools in the classroom...

2011-04-03T20:44:00.006-04:00

I've been given the green light from my publisher to post the Intro to my book, Digital Tools for Teaching. I hope you enjoy it- as a bonus, I've hunted down the picture to the right of the kindergartener the story focuses on- Saulo. He's the one on the left (in the middle is Anthony and the cheeseball is Antonio).

Thanks to Saulo and all my students and colleagues for teaching me how to teach and reach others!

A six-year-old boy named Saulo taught me everything I need to know about using tools in the classroom.

The year was 1998 and I was fresh out of college, just a month into my first year of teaching/surviving as the only male kindergarten teacher in Moore County, North Carolina. Already I had seen and experienced things that no college prep course could have possibly prepared me for; the daily wailing of the still four year old girl (who wouldn’t turn five for another month), the tiny boy who was deathly afraid of the toilet, the brown-haired angel who had seemingly attached herself to my leg. I had seen, smelled, and cleaned up nearly every possible fluid that could be produced by the human body, but still loved every minute of my work.

Saulo came to me in mid-September as the latest addition to my ever-growing class (I started the year with 18 and ended with 24). His family had just arrived in our area from Mexico, where Saulo and his five-year-old brother Servando had never been through any schooling of any sort. The decision was made to put both boys into separate kindergarten classes- Servando (the lucky one) headed off to the wonderfully talented and experienced Mrs. Pratt. Saulo ended up with the first year teacher shmuck across the way.

The boys had never been apart from each other, knew absolutely no English, and had just started school for the first time. They were completely heartbroken. They screamed, they wailed, and they moaned. These tight-knit boys could hardly stand being apart, so Mrs. Pratt and I decided to try to alleviate some of this by setting up bean bag chairs in the windows next to our doors. Each day, these boys would sit on these chairs and cry longingly at each other through the glass, across the breezeway that separated them.

With each passing day, Saulo would become more and more a part of our class. Little by little, the crying slowed and this little boy would ease his way into our environment. I’d take toys and books over to his bean bag chair and even started moving the chair away from the door little by little in an attempt to bring him into the fold. After three weeks of steady weening, Saulo was finally ready to join us. The smiles and kind words of his classmates helped lure him in (and the snacks didn’t hurt either).

I could tell right away that Saulo was bright. His big, round eyes told the story. He was one of those kids that hang on every syllable, where you can almost see their brains working as they manipulate objects. Unfortunately in my classroom, we didn’t have many objects to manipulate! When I arrived as a late hire in July (school started August 9^th), the room I walked into had been vacant and used for various summer camps and programs. In other words, it was trashed and ransacked. There were no books, no paper or pencils, and there were almost no manipulatives at all (just 16 unifix cubes, actually- which I still carry with me today as a reminder of that first year). Saulo, the rest of the class, and I made the best of what we had.

One thing we did have was a sand table- an old, splintery wooden box that held sand and was up on four legs so that my students could stand and play with the sand inside. This was where Saulo and I really started hitting it off. He loved to dig his hands into the sand, feeling the grains slide through his fingers. I started spending part of every school day with Saulo at the sand table. It was here that he first started to learn English. I would dig my hands into the sand and say “sand”, he would dig his hands in and repeat the word “sand”. I’d grab a cup and we’d practice the word “pour”. I’d throw some onto his arm, make a face and say “scratchy” and “arm”, then “wipe it off!” He mimicked everything and once again, his eyes told the story- he was getting it, right off the bat, one word after another. The kid was a sponge, plain and simple.

The other kids started noticing that we were spending a lot of time at this sand table and would join us as well. They picked right up on the game and started leading the way, thinking of different ways to teach Saulo new words. Loving this new interaction with classmates, I would step back and watch in amazement. The kids truly took over, Saulo grabbed on fast, and eventually at the end of the year would become my very best reader (at decoding words- the comprehension came later). Saulo went on from there to have a very successful elementary school career, eventually scoring a perfect score on his 5^th grade end of course math exam and being highly respected by all his classmates as an extremely bright, articulate, kind soul.

Now, I want to be perfectly clear here- I had no idea what I was doing. I was just a guy trying to survive and make the best of the situation at hand. I had no training in working with Spanish-speaking students. I had no idea how to incorporate tools or utilize them correctly. I truly was a big doofus that was simply blessed with a ton of patience and a love for children.

I had no way of knowing this at the time, but that experience with Saulo completely shaped who I was to become as an educator. It taught me everything I needed to know about tools and how they are to be used in the classroom. You see, sand is a learning tool. So is a cup. So is a smile. Everything on the planet has educational value- it just takes imagination to discover it. It’s not the tool you are using with a student, it’s what you do with the tool. It’s what you accomplish. It’s the learning that it triggers. Sand is just sand. A cup is simply a cup. A book is just paper. These things are nothing without the guidance, support, and imagination of a teacher.

The younger me unwittingly did some things right with Saulo. First, I identified a tool that was already engaging to the student- Saulo was fascinated with the sand and how it felt. Next, I connected the tool to the primary learning need of the student- Saulo needed to learn English first and foremost, and the sand table served as the vehicle. Finally, I turned the process over to my other students as they became interested and let them lead the way, while I fell into the background as support. This allowed for greater learning for Saulo as well as a sense of leadership and empowerment for his classmates. This is not rocket science- it’s what we do as educators every day. We take a tool and mold it into a vehicle for delivering a relevant, engaging learning experience.

In today’s classroom, the tools we have at our disposal are changing. If you haven’t already seen an influx of technology into your school and classroom, then get ready- it’s coming your way! Schools reflect society and there is no turning back from the technological age we have entered. Right now, in your classroom, you have students that are already engaged by technology outside your walls. They use these types of tools every day in meaningful ways. Like the sand that was already engaging to Saulo, technology can be the gateway between your students and their learning needs. Ignoring a tool that could be the key that unlocks a child’s potential should not be an option. Embracing technology tools with your students can open up a wealth of learning that may otherwise go untapped.

For too long, we as educators have looked at technology as an end rather than as a means. We’re amazed that we can write with our finger on an interactive whiteboard, we’re astounded that we can video conference with someone halfway across the world, and we’re fascinated with the idea that you can connect with the internet via a tiny computer that fits in the palm of our hand. Technology can often seem incredible. For our students, however, technology is not magic. The internet is not magic. It just is. They look at technology in a whole new way- not “How does it work?” but rather “What can it do for me?” Google Earth is not a cool collection of amazing satellite images- it’s a way to find a new route to a friend’s house. Video conferencing is not an astounding new way to communicate in real time with people across the world, it’s a means to understanding another person’s culture. This is a powerful shift that I urge you to attempt to similarly adopt- move away from the “how/why” of technology and more towards the “what”. As in, what can these technology tools do for my students?

If you’re like most teachers, you understand that technology in the classroom is headed your way and you are quite aware that technology is an increasingly relevant tool in your student’s lives; you just haven’t had the support you need in order to use it effectively. Your district or school, like most I have seen or experienced, has probably put an emphasis on obtaining equipment rather than training teachers on proper use. The result of this is a school with a lot of great equipment that teachers do not have the support to take advantage of with their students. This book aims to give you that support.

There are many tools within this book that will get you started on the path of incorporating technology into your classroom effectively, but this book is not about tools. It’s about learning. It’s about connecting your teaching to the tools that are relevant to your students. It’s about creating a relevant, engaging learning experience. The 30 technology tools herein are simply cups and sand. The four supporting chapters are simply guidance for you in how to mold them to meet the needs of today’s students. It’s up to you to provide the courage, imagination, and determination needed to make an impact. The world is changing, your classroom is changing, your students are changing, and this book looks to help you meet these changes head on.

Webinar Recording up!

2011-03-31T22:25:00.005-04:00

The link to the recording of my webinar last week is now up. If you'd like to take a look, here's the link: Webinar.

In the session, I focused on building a learning environment on the solid ground of flexible problem-solving. On top of that foundation lay the three main pillars I love to see: collaboration, creation, and publication.

So in this webinar we got to play with some digital tools that enhance each of these areas:

Collaboration: Scribblar, ePals

Creation: Picnik, Aviary

Publication: KidBlog, Weebly

What I thought went well:

It was fun to be able to let people play with Scribblar during the webinar. It made things more interactive.
I felt like the tools that I featured are really good examples.
I felt very comfortable in the webinar environment. This was my first one so I wasn't sure how it would "feel." But it felt natural.

What I'll try and do better with next time:

I think I packed too much into an hour, what with all the playing we were able to do. Would probably just cut down to one tool for each category and play more.
I'd like to think of more ways to encourage conversation and participants offering more ideas. That's hard to do with a webinar because I know probably 80% of people don't want to speak up in this environment (microphone fear? not wanting to contribute?) I understand it because I've done it many times myself- just sit and listen and receive and let someone else be the loud one in the group. We'll see if I can bring out more conversation in the next one.

Digital Tools for Teaching Webinar this Saturday!

2011-03-21T15:17:00.003-04:00

I wanted to make sure everyone knew that I'll be doing my first webinar for my publisher, Maupin House, this Saturday (the 26th) at 1:00 EST. The title is "Using Digital Tools for Teaching."

In this webinar I'm going to share some strategies for using digital tools with kids that I've found to be really effective, focused on three main points.

Helping students to use digital tools to:

Collaborate: We'll look at some easy-to-use tools that help students better connect and collaborate on projects
Create: Here we'll check out some tools that let students express their creativity and create something original
Publish: Finally, we'll look at some ways to put student work out into the digital world so it can be seen and improved by the community.

Each step along the way I hope you'll join into the conversation to help shape the direction we take as a group. This won't be a sit and get session- if you come, please feel free to stop and interject ideas at any time. I welcome all conversation and feedback!

Here's the link to register and I hope to see you there!

Powerpoint + Animoto + KidBlog = Rock on!

2011-02-16T11:11:00.002-05:00

These last two days I've been working with some kids in my school on a poetry project. The teacher wanted them to be able to publish their poetry in a creative way and then link it to their blogs. We decided to go with the following process and it's worked out really well- in just two class periods, all the students were able to create 10-15 pictures that represented each line of their poem, export them as jpg files, sign up for Animoto, import pictures and select music, finalize their videos, then embed them into their Kidblog space. Very cool!

Here's what we did:

Each student created a Powerpoint show where each slide contained a line from their poem as well as a visual representation of what their poem meant.
We exported the Powerpoint slides as jpg's. To do this, just go to "Save as" and choose the JPEG option. It asks if you want to export every slide (say yes). This creates a folder with each of their slides turned into jpg pictures.
Have students sign up for Animoto. We did this by creating gmail accounts for each class period, signing up for Animoto for educators here, then having students sign up using the g-mail sub-account trick. Note: students must be 13 or older to sign up for Animoto
When students sign up for Animoto, remember to display the promo code you were given from Animoto so that they can enter that to be able to create full-length videos!
Once students were in Animoto, we had them upload the pictures they had exported from Powerpoint, add a title slide that had the title of the poem and their name, select music, and finalize.
Once the movie was complete, we had students grab the embed code, copy and paste it into a new post on their Kidblog (which is very simple- all they have to do is make sure they click the HTML tab and paste it into a new KidBlog post).

Voila! 2 days and some really cool projects, ready to be reflected and commented on by other students, staff, and parents! I'd throw a link to some of the finished products, but the teachers are not quite ready to take the final leap of widespread publishing to the world and I respect that. :)

Let me know if you need any help with any of these steps- it really is a simple, fun way to get kids involved and can be used with far more than just poetry- any type of visual representations in Powerpoint can be turned into an Animoto movie pretty painlessly and it offers students a way to express themselves creatively. In fact, the best one of the bunch these past two days was done by a student who is very much a loner and not very outgoing- well it turns out she's quite the artist and was able to put her talent on display. I couldn't be more proud!

G-mail sub-account trick for students

2011-02-16T11:03:00.002-05:00

This has been documented in other places, but I wanted to write the steps down for anyone interested in this...

Email accounts for students should be something done in every school. Unfortunately, it's not. In order to use a lot of the best digital tools out there, you need an email account. Here are some steps to take to get around this particular barrier, all while keeping email monitored and safe.

1. Create a gmail account for your class (or classes). MrJohnsonPeriod2@gmail.com, for example.

2. Whenever your students need to sign up for a tool (like Animoto, for example), have them use this as an email address: MrJohnsonPeriod2+BillyB@gmail.com (Billy being the first name and B representing their last initial).

3. I'd also suggest telling your students to all use the same password (MrJPD7, for example). This way, you can easily log into student accounts if you ever need to.

4. All emails sent to the student email address go straight to your root gmail address. In other words, the registration email for the tool that the student signed up for will go straight to MrJohnsonPeriod2@gmail.com. Since students do not have your password, they never actually access the email address- it is just a safe front for them to be able to sign up to use some of the tools that require email addresses.

Until all students have email accounts (as they should...so they can manage their own tools, content, and communication), this can be an effective stopgap technique!

What I'm Reading, What I Plan on Reading....

2011-02-07T12:35:00.003-05:00

Thought I'd throw this out there, because I'm always interested in hearing what people are reading (which is the main way I found the books below):

Have read recently:

-Drive, Daniel Pink

-The Death and Life of the Great American Education System, Diane Ravitch

-The National Educational Technology Plan, multiple authors

-The Stand, Stephen King (got halfway through, then lost the book...doh. But I've read it before)

-Teaching the iGeneration, Bill Ferriter (need to write an Amazon review of this one yet...good book!)

Reading right now:

-Mindset, Carol Dweck

-Also rereading parts of Drive

In the queue:

-The Element, Sir Ken Robinson

-Fives Miles Away, A World Apart, James E. Ryan

-Making Learning Whole, David N. Perkins

-The Myths of Standardized Tests: Why They Don't Tell You What You Think They Do, Phillip Harris, Bruce M. Smith, Joan Harris

-Alfie Kohn- still need to read more of Alfie, but not sure which book to start with

Why aren't we talking about poverty?

2011-02-01T22:36:00.005-05:00

Where were the discussions at Educon about poverty? I was shocked to see not a single conversation about what I consider to be the largest root cause of most of our education issues in the US. It seems like we're all busily attacking the effects of poverty instead of the causes. Why is the subject so often avoided? Because it's uncomfortable? Because the topic usually carries racial and cultural undertones to it? I just felt like Educon would be such a golden opportunity to really get some of these issues on the table in a respectful, intelligent way so that we can really make a difference in the lives of so many...

To me, we've got two main problems to address if we're going to seriously talk about improving schools in the USA:

1) Generational poverty

2) Boredom

I think we're doing a pretty damn good job of talking about the latter, but we've got too many crickets chirping on the former.

So my main thought going forward is that I'm going to put this topic out front and center with all you smart people and see if we can't make some real strides. I plan on trying to get some conversations going at ISTE this year as well as throughout the fall and then submitting a conversation about it for Educon next year, if I'm fortunate enough to make it back.

Lingering Questions about SLA, Magnet Schools, and Exclusivity

2011-02-01T22:06:00.002-05:00

This is a stream of consciousness, be forewarned....

I came to Philly in the middle of a stream of thoughts about my own situation at school. My school, JN Fries Middle in Concord, NC, is smack dab in the middle of a transition from a traditional middle school to a STEM/IB Magnet school next year. As I type this, applications are being filled out, submitted, analyzed, and either spit back out or accepted for my school.

Let me give you some background on me. I've always taught and worked in high poverty schools. My first 8 years were spent at rural Vass-Lakeview Elementary, I spent a year in impoverished Rockingham County Schools, and the past 3 years at JN Fries, which has a large population of kids that do not have a lot. I've loved working with these kids. These are my kinds of kids- the kids that need help most. I'm just one of many teachers/educators that have bought backpacks, writing materials, covered field trip fees, and on and on for these types of kids. If you've never worked with these kinds of kids, let me tell you- it is both extremely rewarding and heartbreaking. It just is. There's no way around it. You want to give them everything they don't have when they arrive at the school's doorstep.

Which is why it pains me to see and hear what has been happening at my school the past few weeks. I've started asking kids if they're going to apply and come back to JN Fries next year. The overwhelming response is "No way- it's gonna be a school for the smart kids." Over and over, this is the reaction- Science, technology, engineering, and math? Nope....not me- not smart enough. When we've held parent nights about the school, we have received an overwhelming positive response....but a shocking lack of diversity in income level. What I see is a bunch of upper/middle class parents rushing to get their students into a school that will challenge them and push them.

Which is all well and good. But my point is, ALL kids deserve a challenging, project-based, real-life centered school. And I can't tell you how disappointed I feel when I think about all these kids at my school that will no longer be there next year because they don't know that this is exactly the type of school environment they would THRIVE in (finally, for a lot of them). So I've been on a mission this week, handing out applications and pushing kids towards applying- the standards to get into the school really are not that stringent, academically speaking (for STEM, anyway- the IB program carries it's own stricter set of standards). I think a lot of them will take me up on it, but we'll see.

Which all leads me back towards Philly. You see, the students of SLA told us that in order to get in, you needed to have all A's and B's in middle school (with one allowed C) and also have a project that you have done in middle school to show what kind of student you are. Students are screened and interviewed (this year, there were 1,000 applicants for 150 slots), then either accepted or declined. This is awfully exclusive. Which, of course, is completely in SLA's right. But my worry is that magnet schools that function in this way will only serve to WIDEN the gap between good schools and bad schools, the "smart" kids and the "not smart" kids.

It bothers me to think that at my school we're going to be offering a much better program, with much better materials, with a dedicated staff...as soon as all the current students leave. That just feels wrong to me. And I'm going to try my hardest to convince as many of these kids as I can to stick around- and, in the future, I'm going to push hard to spread good strategies out so that every student can have the opportunity at creating, working with their hands, and being challenged on a daily basis by school.

Educon Thoughts - Thanks and Miscellaneous Awesome Sauce

2011-02-01T21:37:00.003-05:00

I had the pleasure of heading to Philly last weekend to attend Educon, an education conference hosted by the staff and students of the Science Leadership Academy. My thoughts before, during, and after the conference are scattered, to say the least. Maybe it was the fact that I got nailed with a stomach bug just before arriving in Philly so I missed Friday and was in mostly a fog on Saturday.... Regardless, I think I'm going to break my scattered reactions into several shorter posts, instead of rambling like a madman.

First and foremost, I want to say thank you to Chris Lehmann and the rest of the staff and students of SLA for hosting the event. It takes a lot of guts to put yourself, your staff, and your students out front and center for a group of highly intelligent educators from all over the country. The flexibility of the planners was outstanding and the conference had a wonderful, laid-back feeling. The vibe of the school is very powerful- pulsing with energy and filled with awesome kids.

I want to say thanks to all those awesome, smart folks that made it. Not only those facilitating discussions, but those that really spoke up and pushed the debate and thinking. I regret to say I wasn't feeling up to this, but will certainly throw my hat in the ring next time more fervently! I went to three sessions on Saturday:

1- Gary Stager's presentation on Reggio Emmilia preschools. I love the model of learning described within. There are many lessons to be learned here, and I am happy that my own daughter attends a preschool that shares a lot of the same qualities as these amazing examples in Italy. Very student centered, taking long looks and attempts at projects, letting the pace flow from the children instead of a script or pacing guide. The really groundbreaking piece was how these exemplar schools were such an important part of the larger community they were a part of. I really enjoyed that. Plus this was the first I'd been in a session with Gary, and he lived up to what I expected- smart, funny, abrupt. Works for me.

2- In this session, I went to hear from the two student co-chairs of SLA, Cody N and Alaya. I hated missing Friday because the main thing I wanted to do was speak more to the kids....after all, that's where you get the real scoop on a school- by probing the students themselves. These two students were very impressive and excellent leaders. They handled themselves very well. I learned about the SLA selection process here, which was the big piece I had questions about, as my school embarks on turning itself into a magnet school next year, much like SLA. Stay tuned for the next post on this...

3- This was a cool session. Since my school is turning into a STEM school next year, I took the opportunity to listen to a mathematician speak about K-12 education and how important math is in the picture. It was headed by Dr. Idris Stovall, a math professor from the University of Pennsylvania. The conversation in the room flowed wonderfully, with lots of folks taking things in different directions, which worked just fine for Dr. Stovall, who rolled with the punches! We talked about why it seems to be ok in the US for people to say they simply can't do math. We shouldn't stand for this... We talked about how important math and mathematical thinking is to the jobs of the future. In the end, my mind had a lot to chew on as we embark on the M piece of the STEM puzzle.

Saturday night was a blast as well! After going out to dinner with my sister (and actually eating something...for the first time in more than 2 days..) I met up with the Educon peeps at the Field House. It was great seeing some old friends as well as meeting some cool new folks as well. I got to finally meet @plugusin, otherwise known as Bill Ferriter, and we got to speak about writing, our books, and what kinds of projects we're heading toward. I met Meredith Stewart from the Cary Academy, Larry Fliegs, Carey Phoanka, Chad Evans, and a bunch more. I also got to reconnect with others... And even though I missed karaoke, I know when I come back in Philly the party will once again be hearty.. And I'm looking forward to it!

Thanks again to SLA and all those that came to connect and share!

The National Education Technology Plan - Final Reflections and the Way Ahead

2011-01-21T11:41:00.005-05:00

It was important to me to really read through this plan so that not only I could see what the future holds, but also to make sense of what kind of policy is being put together in the federal ed tech department. I'm going to once again state the biases I had going into this process (had these on the first post, but want to make sure they're here too):

My biases:

I think standardized testing and standardized anything is harmful to students. Anything that promotes rote learning, filling in worksheets, spitting out simple facts without digging deeper is something I will naturally push back against.
I believe teachers are an integral part of the classroom process and should be given the freedom and support to deliver classroom instruction and create their classroom environment how they see fit. Teachers are the foremost experts in the education system because they are firmly grounded in the everyday reality of classroom life.
I firmly believe that in the 21st century we need to be pushing our students toward collaborating, creating, and publishing their work online.
I have qualms with the idea of "scaling up" reform. In other words- taking something that appears to be working well in one school and stamping it on top of other schools. It rarely works, mainly because the reason the first school was successful is not simply because of the program they were running- it's because of the people running the program. People/educators make the difference, not templates.
After reading Diane Ravitch's excellent book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, I have a much more realistic and cynical eye on any type of federal policy.

Here are links to my previous posts on each section, if you're interested in more thoughts of each:

Learning: Engage and Empower

Assessment: Measure What Matters

Teaching: Prepare and Connect

Infrastructure: Access and Enable

Productivity: Redesign and Transform

R&D: Innovate and Scale

Here are my overall thoughts on the National Education Technology Plan...

The Good

I felt that section three on teaching was the most powerful and persuasive. The model of teaching as connected practice is a good one. That is definitely a direction that we need to move in and technology should play a huge role in making that happen.
This plan calls for putting computing devices into the hands of students and puts forth ideas for making it happen in cash-strapped times (including letting students bring their own devices to school)
While I'm skeptical of rhetoric from federal policymakers, I did appreciate that this plan calls for more individualized learning and technology being a driving force behind making this happen
There were good and helpful case studies throughout. These were often the strongest parts of the plan- multiple times in each section there was a case study that highlighted a real example of the piece they were presenting. These were helpful to see notions of what the writers felt were exemplars of the pieces of the puzzle they were trying to put together.
This plan promotes transparency in budgeting processes. I think this is a huge piece in terms of keeping policymakers honest and showing folks exactly where money is being spent is always a good idea.

The Bad

Overall, the feeling I got from this plan is that it devalues teachers and what great things are already happening in classrooms. When it spoke of assessment, it made it seem like formative assessments are something that just don't happen in schools- that the federal government needs to come in and tell teachers how and when to do formative assessments. But good teachers are always....always doing formative assessment. That doesn't mean it is ever entered into some unwieldy data system, but it is taking place. I felt that teachers were also devalued when the plan promoted the use of an integrated system that tracked these assessments, told students what they should be trying next, re-introduced concepts, etc. This is what good teachers already do, and I don't like how this is put forth as some sort of novel idea.
I really don't like that there isn't a stronger push in this plan for more curricular support for teachers in their endeavors to utilize technology more effectively with students. I think this is a very large disconnect- teachers simply need help to not only get started using technology with their kids but also to maintain it. I've watched it many times- if a teacher does not have support for use, the technology does not get used. There needs to be a certified person in every school that specializes in helping teachers and students use the technology at their disposal effectively.
Having looked at the authors of the plan, the vast majority are professors. Out of the 15, it appears that only one is a classroom teacher. I am not saying that these folks are unqualified, but what I AM saying is that this is obviously a trend in education policy for the past ten years (and probably beyond, of which I've not researched yet)- not including classroom teachers in the process. In my opinion, their voice and STUDENT voices should be the most important and valued ones in the room. There is definitely a need for professors, superintendents, and other community members to have input, but from what I've seen- when policy is being created, it is being created by folks that simply don't walk the walk in a K-12 classroom. This is how we get things like "All children will be 100% proficient by 2014". And I'm disappointed that this trend continues in this plan.

The Ugly

This plan definitely has some great ideas in it and some good vision. But a lot of the best pieces are going to be naturally overridden or completely twisted by Race to the Top. The push for more individualized, differentiated instruction flies in the face of the increased standardized testing that RTTT promotes. It makes no sense to instruct for the individual and test them all the same way.
I've already seen the future of RTTT and this plan in my county, and in practice it looks pretty ugly. Formative assessments that check student progress regularly so that teachers know exactly where they stand sounds great, right? But here's the reality in my county (and I'd wager many others soon, if not already). These assessments will be rote, multiple choice format. They will be delivered online. What does this mean in practice? 1) Our computers will increasingly be test taking devices instead of tools for creation, collaboration, and publication. 2) assessments will not be competency-based. 3) The focus of these assessments will be to get better and better at taking the BIG standardized test at the end of the year, which means more narrowed curriculum and more teaching to the test instead of learning. Those are the real outcomes here. And I'm already seeing it happen in my county.

Moving Forward

So, where does that leave me, and us, moving forward? I will say that our voices need to be heard as these initiatives are rolled out so that we can help keep the focus on learning. I'd say that the knowledge of what this plan entails and how it might play out is a crucial step in affecting how it impacts our schools and local situations. The more knowledge you have about what is coming down the pike, the more aware you can be in order to help shape implementation. I can say for sure that now that I've read and reflected on this plan, I will feel much more comfortable sitting down with admin in both my building and county to discuss how this affects teachers and students. That right there is gold, in my book, and I hope these posts help others to be able to find a solid voice as well!

Dissecting the NETP: Part Six- R&D: Innovate and Scale

2011-01-19T15:28:00.003-05:00

This is part six of a new blog series where I want to take a closer look at the newly released National Education Technology Plan. I outline my plan for this series in this post.

Part Six- R&D: Innovate and Scale

Section Goal: None Stated

This final section deals with developing and implementing an R&D program for the department of Ed. It's goals would be similar to the defense department's DARPA program- trying out new techniques and practices and then scaling up successes and moving away from failed efforts. I must honestly say that anytime I see the phrase "scale up" in education reform, the hairs on my neck tingle. I just don't like it because I don't think it really works in education. It would be nice if it did and our lives would be a whole lot easier, but I don't think there is a solution that you can spread out and fit every school, every teacher, every student into. The main reason I think this is because the reason educational programs succeed are not because of the programs- it's because of the people leading it and keeping it going every day. And you can't scale those people... With that said, here's some thoughts on what I liked or didn't like about this section:

What I liked

Not much. I think the idea of an R&D department within the Department of Ed is interesting and has potential if done right....but...

What I didn't like

...I have little faith that the Department of Education could get it right. This is the department that gives us No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. This is the department that cheers on the mass firing of teachers, tying teacher pay to high stakes tests, and is led by yet another person who has never stepped foot in a classroom (the only Secretary of Education that has ever been an actual K-12 teacher was Terrel Bell, who served 25 years ago...). Here are pieces from the NETP that help to add to my distrust:
One of the main goals is listed as "Transferring existing and emerging technology innovations from such sectors as consumer, business, and entertainment into education" (p. 75). This isn't that simple. You can't take business, consumer, and entertainment innovations and just plop them into a school system and expect it to work. Plus this is incredibly vague- what innovations? Are we talking about business practices here? What are the downsides involved with introducing capitalist and market forces into a public institution that is supposed to serve all equally (insert joke here about what we can learn in education from Snooki)?
The idea of an R&D department is interesting, but the comparison to DARPA unnerves me a bit. I mean- if the defense department tests out a new missile or jet and it fails miserably, crashing and burning...well it was just a missile. But our schools are filled with kids who need an education. What if the idea fails miserably? Well, now you have a bunch of kids who lack an education at the most crucial point in their lives. And something tells me that the guinea pigs for these types of research projects would be inner city/high poverty kids, just the ones that can't afford to lose a year or two.
Look at the wording here on page 76: this department should "bring together the best minds and organizations to collaborate on high-risk/high-gain education R&D projects. It should aim for radical, orders-of-magnitude improvements by envisioning the impact of innovations and then working backward to identify the fundamental breakthroughs required to make them possible." Does this scare anyone else? High-risk education R&D projects? What are we trying to boil kids down to, here?
The plan calls on the identification of "grand challenge problems"- which are problems that establish a community of experts to work together towards finding a solution. I agree with this, but think the focus is off. As soon as I read this, my mind went to poverty. Why can't we focus these efforts on what I believe is the single largest issue in education as well as society in general? Instead of attacking the effects (poorly educated students), why not attack the true cause? Now, that's not to say that our education system cannot be vastly improved, but I firmly believe that as long as poverty is such a problem in our country, the education reform fight is always going to be a steep, uphill battle that may never be "won".
The plan calls this the "ultimate grand challenge problem in education" - "Establishing an integrated, end-to-end real-time system for managing learning outcomes and costs across our entire education system at all levels." (p. 77). That's it? THAT is the ultimate problem in education? My head is spinning at the disconnect here. I can't fathom how this document, with some really solid ideas throughout, can come up with this as the ultimate problem in education.
When talking about this integrated system, here is how they describe this grand/wonderful innovation: "Design and validate an integrated system that provides real-time access to learning experiences tuned to the levels of difficulty and assistance that optimize learning for all learners and that incorporates self-improving features that enable it to become increasingly effective through interaction with learners." (p. 78). You mean like....a teacher? Is this plan really proposing that we spend millions upon millions of dollars to provide experiences for students that teachers already provide, every day?

Conclusions

This final section really did surprise me. Maybe I was naive as I read all of the earlier sections, but I didn't see this coming. I think this section is filled with poor assumptions, misguided goals, and, frankly- scary rhetoric for teachers. I believe in the opposite of this section- I don't think we should be doing high-risk research on our students, I don't think we can effectively scale up education reforms, and I don't believe we need to create a data/learning system that would end up doing what a good teacher already does. And I don't trust the federal government to touch any of this, given their recent track record of reform.

The next post on this will be my final thoughts on the plan. I'm glad to finally have finished reading it and, frankly, I'm looking forward to getting back to some less heavy topics in this space!

Dissecting the NETP: Part Five- Productivity: Redesign and Transform

2011-01-14T13:59:00.003-05:00

This is part five of a new blog series where I want to take a closer look at the newly released National Education Technology Plan. I outline my plan for this series in this post.

Part Five: Productivity - Redesign and Transform

Section Goal: Our education system at all levels will redesign processes and structures to take advantage of the power of technology to improve learning outcomes while making more efficient use of time, money, and staff.

This section is titled with the somewhat ambiguous "productivity" tag. As I read through it, I realized that this is the catch-all section- there seem to be ideas in here that they couldn't really fit neatly into the preceding sections so they flopped them in here. Not to say that they're bad ideas, necessarily- they just don't cohere neatly.

What I liked

The document points out right off the bat that reforming education is not really about pouring more money into the system. I agree. It's not about adding more money- it's about spending it more wisely and more focused on the right things (in my opinion, not textbooks, test prep, or testing materials and departments).
There is a clear and consistent call for increased transparency, especially in the budget process in schools and counties. It correctly states that many districts have areas of spending/funding that are labeled much too broadly - "instructional support", for example. They make the case that there should be clear, transparent methods of showing how money is broken down and spent within school systems. I'm 100% on board with this- the more transparent, the better. There shouldn't be secrets in these areas and all constituents have a right to know how money is being spent and have the ability to question priorities and programs being funded.
There is a call for districts to hire technology directors that have curriculum and instruction backgrounds. I believe firmly in this shift.
There is a neat little case study on page 65 that I found to be a good use of data collection in schools. It outlines a data system in the state of Michigan that allows educators to collect data that can help them identify students that are at high risk of dropping out. They then use this data to provide support to these students in order to keep them in school. Now...I'm not going to get into all my feelings about high school dropout programs (the #1 reason kids drop out is because school is boring yet so many programs focus on all the peripheral reasons instead of working hard to make school more interesting and relevant....but I digress), but I do find this type of data collection a positive thing for kids.
The plan makes a point I hadn't considered in a while- that we need to be working on useful metrics that show how technology is being used in schools (or not used). It states that "Very little information on how technology is actually used to support teaching, learning, and assessment is collected and communicated systematically." (p. 67) I agree with this statement and the first spot I'd look to gather this type of data is from the students themselves. It would be great if every teacher would simply poll their students on how well they feel technology is being used in their classroom (teachers should be asking students to evaluate all other aspects of their teaching and classroom environment too). The simple asking of students can provide a lot of insight to teachers, administrators, students, and parents alike.
The plan advocates moving away from standardization in the classroom and in assessment procedures. It talks at length about the positives surrounding competency-based assessments, where students have to SHOW their proficiency. It denounces using seat-time as a method of showing proficiency. It denounces how we organize students by age rather than interest or ability level. This plan says a lot of things that are very progressive in these regards- that we need to move away from this traditional/industrial model of school. But stay tuned in "What I didn't like" to hear more about my feelings on this- they're talking out of both sides of their mouth...

What I didn't like

This plan talks out of both sides of it's mouth, or at least those that put it together have little to no input or effect on actual federal and state policy that dictates many of the conditions this plan seeks to transform. On one hand, they decry the rigid organization of schools and on the other hand they praise a charter school that has significantly lengthened the school day / seat time each student is required to attend. It talks about how learning needs to be individualized and timely, how "it no longer makes sense to give every 13-year-old the same set of 45-minute American history lessons" (p. 68), but it makes sense to test them all the same way? And then label schools, districts, and now teachers based on standardized tests that allow the linguistic and logical-mathematical kids to shine and the others to wallow? It leaves a sour taste in my mouth when policy writers or politicians say one thing they believe and then their actions completely undermine what they supposedly believe in.
This plan seeks to extend learning time. As in, longer school days. I'm in the camp of- let's fix the time we spend with kids now, before we start asking them to stay longer.

Conclusions

For a catch-all section, it had some good ideas. But they lacked focus and were disjointed. They didn't all have to do with productivity and that made the whole section read like a hodge podge. As I approach the final (tiny) section on R&D, I can feel my overall thoughts on the plan starting to form. Stay tuned- I should be able to catch up on those last two posts soon!

Adding customized looks to your Google Form directions

2011-01-07T13:50:00.007-05:00

The directions box in Google Forms is pretty straightforward. But sometimes it would be nice to add some layout changes such as bold, centered text, etc. I was just showing my principal how to do a few of these tricks, so I thought I'd write up a little post on how to add some customized looks to the directions of your Google Forms. Remember- these tips only apply to the directions area of the form- the actual questions themselves are not customizable with code.

While trying to add this post with directions, things got messy....so I decided just to make a short video instead (put it to full screen and HD to see the codes clearly):

So there you have it- some basic codes to help spruce up your directions section of your Google Forms (at least until they add this functionality- which has to be on the horizon, right?).

Link to more html codes to play with if you'd like

Link to site to easily copy/paste html color codes, as described in the video

Here's a paper copy of the same directions that you can use to copy/paste code from.

Dissecting the NETP - Part Four: Infrastructure- Access and Enable

2011-01-06T13:02:00.006-05:00

This is part four of a new blog series where I want to take a closer look at the newly released National Education Technology Plan. I outline my plan for this series in this post.

Part Four: Infrastructure - Access and Enable

Section Goal: All students and educators will have access to a comprehensive infrastructure for learning when and where they need it.

So this section interested me before reading because we are in very difficult economic times in the public school system, and infrastructure is a spot where it's difficult to improve without spending cash. I was also very interested to see how much of the human element the writers would build into their infrastructure plan- I personally believe this is the most ignored piece of all educational technology spending- the curricular support for educational technology. I've seen many systems spend a ton of money on hardware, software, tech support, and great tools...but hardly anything on the types of teacher leaders that need to be in every building, helping their peers actually USE all of this great new equipment effectively... So those were my main focuses going into this section.

What I liked

The plan promotes the idea of "Broadband Everywhere". Their definition of this includes "abundant wireless coverage in and out of school buildings. 'Adequate' means enough bandwidth to support simultaneous use by all students and educators anywhere in the building and the surrounding campus to routinely use the Web, multimedia, and collaboration software." (pp 52-53) I love this goal. It's definitely a noble pursuit, to enable the kind of wireless coverage where all students anywhere on the campus can be working at the same time.
The plan outlines the "National Broadband Plan" from the FCC last March, 2010. This is some of the nuts and bolts, behind the scenes stuff that needs to happen for the above vision to become a reality. It (partly) focuses on E-Rate procedures (more info here about E-Rate). It pushes for raising the E-Rate camp to account for inflation, allowing community members to make use of E-Rate funded connections outside school hours, and streamlining the application process for funds. Since E-Rate funds are a large part of many school systems' infrastructure funds, all of these changes would be very helpful in not only getting more money to pump into infrastructure, but also opening up connectivity to the community at large, something I'm very much in favor of.
Promotion of a device for each student, whether provided by the school or brought from home. I'm glad the NETP promotes this, because I feel like this is the natural direction we're heading in our schools- going 1:1 in a blended way, where some devices are brought by students and some are provided for those in need. With a lot of services moving to the cloud, this is more and more doable and realistic from a management perspective. Here at my school, we have multiple devices running at the same time on our network- PC's, Macs, iPod Touch's, netbooks, iPads.... the network supports these devices concurrently and our filter is web based instead of client based, so we're covered under CIPA. This is the way things are heading, and it's a good thing.
The document, on page 60, encourages the use of students as technical resources. This is a component I've long believed in and I think needs amplified as much as possible- it's a great way to provide authentic, service-based learning for kids that helps a ton when managing a large amount of technical equipment (like in a 1:1 school).
This quote about the difference in technical support in school systems as opposed to businesses: "The number of computers per computer technician in K-12 education is estimated at 612 compared with 150 computers per technician in private industry." (p. 59) What does this mean? We have computers/technology that is down more often, for longer periods of time in public schools. This isn't news to anyone in the schools themselves, but I wonder how many front offices and school boards understand this fact and how it impacts what we try to do daily?

What I didn't like

The graphic on page 59 is probably the worst and most confusing graphic I've ever seen in a major publication... All I wrote next to it is...huh?? (about 3/4 down the page here).
Once again, the piece I was hoping for is at the end and way too short and shallow. In the very last section, at a grand total of less than a page, is the piece about "Human Talent and Scaling Expertise." (pp 59-60). And half of this tiny section focuses on technicians. It's my opinion that this is a huge issue. If we want to have technology be an important piece of instruction, then we need to have a leader in every building working with teachers and supporting them in this endeavor. For those of us working in schools, we know that this is a critical component! The human element in the educational technology business has to shift away from a focus on tech support towards instructional support. Obviously, we still need to have a strong technical support system, but we're not going to make the jump to the next level of technology integration if we don't have the instructional support component. The fact that this piece is not considered a weighty piece of the infrastructure puzzle in this document is troubling to me. And when it IS mentioned, we see the problem addressed with "innovative approaches to staffing in schools" (p. 60). In other words- you all figure this one out and by the way, you ain't getting any funding for it.

Conclusions

Despite the above misgivings about the light regard given to the instructional support aspect, I thought this section mostly had it's head in the right place- broadening access, changing E-Rate policies to help grease the wheels, offering connectivity to the community at large, and allowing students to bring in their own devices to help cut costs moving forward. I just hope we don't continue further down the path that I've seen some school districts on- a lot of great equipment being maintained very well, but no teachers actually using it (or using it in teacher-directed ways). Without instructional support in each building, our visions for success become a lot foggier.

Dissecting the NETP- Part Three, Teaching: Prepare and Connect

2010-12-19T21:42:00.003-05:00

This is part two of a new blog series where I want to take a closer look at the newly released National Education Technology Plan. I outline my plan for this series in this post.

Part Three: Teaching, Prepare and Connect

Section Goal: Professional educators will be supported individually and in teams by technology that connects them to data, content, resources, expertise, and learning experiences that can empower and inspire them to provide more effective teaching for all learners.

We now get to how technology can be used to transform and revitalize the teaching profession. This section is the one I have connected to the most, thus far. I felt it made a lot of solid points and paints a good picture of the ability of technology to improve teaching as well as the quality of life for those with the hardest jobs of all- classroom teachers.

What I liked

I like the ideas centered around connected teaching. Technology really does allow us to connect and grow in ways never seen before. The chance to connect to other teachers in your field as well as content experts is a big deal. I definitely like how this entire section pushes educators in this direction. We all need to be heading this way, and those systems that figure this out sooner will be ahead of the game.
Now, it's not enough to simply connect. There has to be depth behind the connections being made, if they're to have any real impact in the classroom. That's why I like the time this section spends on the reflective process. I feel that this is where blogging can have such a large impact as a growth area for teachers. The chance to publish their reflections on their practices is a huge component to growth and will amplify whatever professional development is already in place. If I ran a school, we'd all be blogging together and inviting each other into our thinking.
This section focused a lot on teacher prep programs. I strongly agree that this is one area in education that needs a lot of attention, especially in the realm of effective technology integration for learning. I liked this passage because it's something I've seen with my own eyes on a near daily basis: "Young teachers are similar to their students in that they have grown up in a world where laptops, cell phones, and handheld gaming devices are commonplace...They are as comfortable interacting with digital devices and accessing the Internet as their students are. Still, this does not mean they understand how to use the technology of their daily lives to improve their teaching practices." (p. 44) This is very true, in my experience. It points to the fact that before we worry so much about effective technology use, we need to make sure new teachers are strong teachers...period.

What I didn't like

There is a movement mentioned in this section that makes me a bit queasy. On p. 47, the plan mentions that "colleges of education will be held accountable for the effectiveness of their graduates..." I've seen this idea floating around for a couple years now- that there will soon be studies that show the effectiveness of teachers, delineated by their alma maters. Now, I want to be clear- I actually think the underlying premise of this is strong. It would be interesting to see and be able to compare how certain colleges prepare their teacher grads. I think if it were done right, this could be a powerful motivator for schools of education across the country to really start doing things differently. The problem I have is that, once again, I'm sure the "accountability" mentioned will be based pretty strongly on standardized test scores. You can't use something as broken as standardized testing to measure effective teaching strategies. You just....can't. It flies directly in the face of everything this particular section says should be happening in the teaching profession. It makes no sense to measure effective teaching with rote, fill-in-the-bubble tests.
The other major problem I had with this section comes on page 48. In three short paragraphs (half a page), a section on "closing the technology gap in teaching" is addressed. Well, I'm sorry- but folks, this is the single greatest challenge we have in utilizing effective technology integration in schools. There are simply a ton of teachers that do not feel the impetus or do not have the SUPPORT to tackle technology effectively with their students. Without support, leadership, and perseverance, all of the wonderful things in this plan will fail. And there is half a page on this issue. That ain't good.

Conclusions

I felt like this section really described a powerful model for teaching in the 21st century. I like the focus on connecting with other educators and learning and reflecting together. I think the plan is right when it takes a hard look at teacher prep programs. While I had some misgivings in this section, I feel it was the strongest yet.

Dissecting the NETP- Part Two, Assessment: Measure What Matters

2010-12-09T10:09:00.003-05:00

This is part two of a new blog series where I want to take a closer look at the newly released National Education Technology Plan. I outline my plan for this series in this post.

Part Two: Assessment- Measure what Matters

Section Goal: Our education system at all levels will leverage the power of technology to measure what matters and use assessment data for continuous improvement.

Measure what matters. Such a simple truth, but seemingly so elusive in education these days. Why so elusive? Well.....what matters? Ask 100 different teachers and you might get 100 different answers. Therein lies the main problem with addressing assessment from a large-scale, pushed-down-from-the-top model such as the one we're currently a part of here in the U.S.

Nonetheless, the NETP tackles the issue of assessment and how it can be enhanced and customized through the use of technology. There are some good, substantive uses outlined and also a few items that left me scratching my head. Here are my impressions:

What I liked

I really like the Obama quote that kicked this section off, taken from an address to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in 2009: "I'm calling on our nation's governors and state education chiefs to develop standards and assessments that don't simply measure whether students can fill in a bubble on a test, but whether they possess 21st century skills like problem-solving and critical thinking and entrepreneurship and creativity." This is a noble and powerful statement.
Assessment through simulations. On page 28, the plan outlines ideas for how online or computer-based simulations can be used simultaneously as learning and assessment tools. It speaks of students performing simulations and, embedded within the programming there is code that records the process that students go through when performing the simulated task. For example, a student is given a task to build a bridge across a ravine. Within the simulation, the student tries different materials, records why they did or did not work, tests the bridge, re-applies materials, etc. I like this approach, as it is problem based and allows the student to simulate something with technology that they otherwise would not have an opportunity to work on.
There is a good strategy mentioned on page 29 that utilizes classroom quiz systems (where students have clickers and respond to questions). Typically, I am against the use of any technology that promotes a more efficient way of asking rote, multiple choice questions. However, it's all about the use of the tool/questioning. On page 29, there is an example of a teacher using quiz systems to pose a question, then he asks his students to find others who answered differently and reason through why their answers were different. If there is a "correct" answer, this process allows those who answered incorrectly to collaborate with peers to learn from their mistakes. If there is no correct answer, this strategy promotes discussion, reflection, and persuasion.

What I didn't like

On the summary page, I take issue with the underlying assumptions this section makes about teaching and teachers. It states "Most of the assessment done in schools today is after the fact and designed to indicate only whether students have learned. Little is done to assess students' thinking during learning so we can help them learn better." This statement is CERTAINLY true of the federal/state testing that is pushed down to schools, but is absolutely false about classroom assessment in general. It's almost as if the inherent assumption here and in the rest of this section of the document is that if the state/fed doesn't force teachers to do formative assessments, they'll never get done. The fact of the matter is that teachers use formative assessments all the time. Just because they're not logged into some unwieldy data system doesn't mean it's not being done, and done well I might add.
There is more talk about utilizing technology to assess- by doing formative assessments frequently to take stock of where students are in the learning process. This sounds great in theory, but in practice I fear what it means is that we're going to be forced to spend all of our students' computer time on assessment instead of using technology to collaborate, create, and publish. There is a limited amount of time and a limited amount of computers in schools. We cannot increase the use of technology for assessment without decreasing the use of technology to actually work on the skills students need. It is a trade-off, and I can envision this increased use of tech to assess turning out badly in practice.
This quote on page 35 struck me: "An important direction for development and implementation of technology-based assessment systems is the design of technology-based tools that can help educators manage the assessment process, analyze data, and take appropriate action." Isn't this just calling for increasingly efficient ways to maintain a broken system? If students continue to be looked at as data-sets and all we're doing is making it easier to perpetuate this, are we really transforming anything?

Conclusions

I'm passionate about getting assessment right. And right to me is all about student reflection, problem solving, interaction, and growth. And it's not about numbers for me. How the federal government approaches assessment has huge impacts on where schools focus their energy, where teachers focus their energy, and where students focus their energy. Narrow the assessment focus to reading and math and guess what two subjects are pushed to the front of instruction (to the detriment of the arts and humanities)? Utilize assessments based on "correct" answers that address simplistic items or ideas and instruction begins to mirror this. With all the pressure of labeling schools (and soon, it seems, teachers) as failing or successful based on test scores, it's no wonder that instruction is forced to shift toward delivering content in the same manner in which it is tested- boring, rote, and straightforward.

But I'm a hopeful kinda guy. I hear things like "assessment 2.0", assessing critical thinking, promoting digital persistent portfolios of student work, and I have hope. Maybe this plan can help shape assessment so that it truly does "measure what matters"- a lot of the words being used aim in that direction. I'm just looking for more ways to do my part to make these words become classroom realities and I hope you'll join me!

Next week, we'll look at the next section- Teaching: Prepare and Connect

Dissecting the NETP- Part One, Learning: Engage and Empower

2010-11-30T12:44:00.004-05:00

This is part one of a new blog series where I want to take a closer look at the newly released National Education Technology Plan. I outline my plan for this series in this post.

Before I dive in to the first meaty section of the plan, I think it's only appropriate to reveal some biases I carry with me as I begin this process. So here they are:

I think standardized testing and standardized anything is harmful to students. Anything that promotes rote learning, filling in worksheets, spitting out simple facts without digging deeper is something I will naturally push back against.
I believe teachers are an integral part of the classroom process and should be given the freedom and support to deliver classroom instruction and create their classroom environment how they see fit. Teachers are the foremost experts in the education system because they are firmly grounded in the everyday reality of classroom life.
I firmly believe that in the 21st century we need to be pushing our students toward collaborating, creating, and publishing their work online.
I have qualms with the idea of "scaling up" reform. In other words- taking something that appears to be working well in one school and stamping it on top of other schools. It rarely works, mainly because the reason the first school was successful is not simply because of the program they were running- it's because of the people running the program. People/educators make the difference, not templates.
After reading Diane Ravitch's excellent book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, I have a much more realistic and cynical eye on any type of federal policy.

So with all that being said, now you have an idea for the lens I'll be using when looking at this plan and my own personal standards that I'll be applying. For each section I'll give a brief overview, what I liked, what I didn't like, and some conclusions for what this means moving forward.

Part One: Learning- Engage and Empower

Section Goal: All learners will have engaging and empowering learning experiences both in and out of school that prepare them to be active, creative, knowledgeable, and ethical participants in our globally networked society

This is the first section of the plan and it rightly kicks things off with the learning component. The plan lays out visions for some critically important concepts such as "What Learning Should Look Like", "What People Need to Learn", "How People Learn", "Where and When People Learn", and "Who Needs to Learn." Each of these topics could (and has) filled volumes of literature and careful reflection on their own, so it's interesting to see a plan take them on in a few short pages each. Once each of these aspects are laid out, the plan offers action steps to obtain the goal outlined above.

What I liked:

The language rings true. A lot of focus is on expanding the borders of school, blurring the lines between school and life, giving students more choice and freedom, providing relevant contexts for learning, and utilizing technology as a means to help students self-direct their own learning.
Digital Portfolios are addressed. "Student-managed electronic learning portfolios can be part of a persistent learning record and help students develop the self-awareness required to set their own learning goals; express their own views of their strengths, weaknesses, and achievements; and take responsibility for them." (p. 12).
Leaning on science and research. The plan takes into account what we know about how people learn. There is an emphasis on research-based strategies such as how people are motivated to learn and how that varies from person to person: "We learn and remember what attracts our interest and attention, and what attracts interest and attention can vary by learner."

What I didn't like:

Too broad when speaking of deep topics. The topics brought up in this section are enormous. It felt like the plan was glazing over them, saying the right things in broad terms. That is what always worries me about federal documents- the verbiage always sounds great, but the devil is in the actual implementation and execution.
The contradiction between the learning model presented here and what Race to the Top seems to be pushing for- ie, more standardization of curricula, more standardized testing. This plan, sponsored by the federal government and with Secretary Duncan's name on it, calls for flexibility, choice, multiple methods of instruction, and pushes for student-directed learning. This plan calls for "transformational change" but Race to the Top is not that at all- more than anything, it seeks to amplify the policies of No Child Left Behind. I'm worried that this plan, even if it seems right on target the rest of the way, will not have teeth in it because of Race to the Top and what it calls for.
Something gnaws at me when the plan discusses the idea of layering what it considers to be best practices on top of "what all students should know". This quote makes me think: "A core set of standards-based concepts and competencies form the basis of what all students should learn, but beyond that students and educators have options for engaging in learning: large groups, small groups, and activities tailored to individual goals, needs, and interests." (p. 10). This bothers me and I can't put my finger on exactly why. Maybe I've seen too many students not given opportunities for choice, freedom, and engagement simply because they hadn't learned the "basics" yet- in other words, first we have to drill the basics into you with a hammer, then later we'll let you have fun and be engaged in school. I think that's completely backwards and dangerous. I feel that EVERY student at every level should have access to choice, freedom, creativity, and engagement in their own learning. I don't agree with the idea of "Once you get these basics down, then we can let you have some fun in school" and that's what this plan reminds me of in this section.

Conclusions

I like the wording of this plan so far and I like the direction it wants to move us. My only fear at this point is that while it may be spot on, it may be undercut or replaced by the current administrations' main policy push, Race to the Top. But teachers, don't let that stop you from creating a fun, engaging, tech-driven classroom environment of flexible problem solving and reflection!

Next week, I'll dive into the next section entitled Assessment: Measure What Matters.

Dissecting the NETP- New Blog Series

2010-11-23T12:18:00.001-05:00

The National Education Technology Plan was just released this month. This long, ambitious document lays out both the general and specific direction that the Department of Education is looking to move forward with. In the next 7 weeks on this blog I'd like to dive into the plan, summarize what it is trying to say, relate what it means for teachers, and offer up my own opinions as to how it is laid out and structured. Any time a plan such as this comes forward from policymakers it is very important to not only wrestle with it in an attempt to understand what it will mean for everyday classroom teaching, but what directions we can expect to be pushed, poked, or prodded to go in the near future!

The name on the plan is "Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology." In Arne Duncan's accompanying letter, he stresses that "the model of learning described in this plan calls for engaging and empowering personalized learning experiences for learners of all ages." Within the first page of the executive summary, we find that the plan calls for "revolutionary transformation rather than evolutionary tinkering" (p. ix), a statement that I very much agree with. However, right after this statement are listed four major emphases of the plan that aren't all that revolutionary:

Be clear about the outcomes we seek (Is this a new idea?)
Collaborate to redesign structures and processes for effectiveness, efficiency, and flexibility
Continually monitor and measure our performance (Is this revolutionary?)
Hold ourselves accountable for progress and results every step of the way (there's the A word that often gets us into debate...)

The plan is then laid out into five goals with recommendations for states, districts, the federal government, and other stakeholders. These goals address what the plan calls "the five essential components of learning powered by technology: Learning, Assessment, Teaching, Infrastructure, and Productivity" (as a side note, that is an interesting order isn't it?). Each of the next five weeks I will dedicate this Tuesday blog space toward each section. On the 6th week, I'll look at the Research and Development piece included with the plan. And, finally, on the 7th week I'll offer up my final thoughts, conclusions, and ways we can move forward in schools to reconcile the plan with our everyday work with students.

Outline

Nov. 30th- Learning: Engage and Empower
Dec. 7th- Assessment: Measure What Matters
Dec. 14th- Teaching: Prepare and Connect
Dec. 21st- Infrastructure: Access and Enable
Dec. 28th- Productivity: Redesign and Transform
Jan. 4th- R&D: Innovate and Scale
Jan. 11th- Final Reflections and the Way Ahead

I hope you enjoy these posts and I hope they offer some insight into what will be coming down the pike in our schools.

Happy Thanksgiving!

-Steve J

Yargh! The Internet is Down! (What next?)

2010-11-16T18:12:00.003-05:00

Cross-posted to maupinhouse.com

We’ve all been there- we’ve put together a lesson where we take our kids to the computer lab and all of a sudden student hands (and voices) start shooting up and the worst four words you’ll hear that day start to echo off the concrete- “The Internet is Down!” or “My computer’s not working!”

I’m here to tell you not to panic and give you some ideas for productive/fun things you can do with your students when the Internet comes crashing down. In fact, the whole reason this post is being written is because this situation is exactly what happened at my school today.The Internet came crashing down in the middle of the day and stayed down for the rest of the afternoon. Across the building, varying waves of panic and discomfort spread. I’m proud to say that the teachers I work with handled it with a great amount of flexibility and patience (go JN Fries!).

I was supposed to write this post about the National Educational Technology Plan (NETP) that was just released, but after today’s events I decided to shift direction (stay tuned next week for more info on the NETP). In my office, I found myself reflecting on what I’ve done before when the Internet has gone down with a bunch of students in a lab. I figured I’d give some ideas I’ve used in the past and will surely have to rely on in the future.

Do some drawing! PC's have a drawing program installed on every machine, MS Paint. On a Mac, there is no preloaded drawing program but there are two free options that schools can install- Paintbrush (download here) and Tuxpaint (download here). Have students open up a drawing program and create a picture related to the content of the day. They could draw a flag that represents a fictional country in the region you are studying (or where the novel you are reading is set). Students could try to draw a character from a novel they are reading and explain why they connect with that character and how the author worked to make that character relatable to the reader. Students could create a logo, a family shield, or a representation of a math concept such as fractions. Once students are done creating, allow them to walk around and see each other’s creations (a makeshift art gallery opening!).
Allow students to get into partners and create a presentation in Powerpoint or a brochure in MS Publisher.
Many monitors now have microphones attached to them. If the ones in your lab do, have students work together to create podcasts relating to the content you were hoping to work on. They could come up with interview questions and interview each other. Or, they could roleplay an interview with a character or actual person that is being studied (interview Abe Lincoln, characters from Twilight, or if you’re really creative have them imagine they are inanimate objects such as a tectonic plate or Pluto).
Allow students to explore the other programs on the computer. Most of the time, when kids are in the computer lab their time is highly scheduled/regulated. Break that rule by giving them some time to simply open whatever they want on the computer and keep a short log of what they discover. Around the midpoint of class, have students share some of the programs they found that were interesting so that the other students can take a look at those too.
Have kids create a revolving story. Ask each student to open up a word processing program and start a story- just two to three sentences is plenty. This story can be completely silly or related to content. Next, every three minutes have students stand up and move to the computer to their left. Before they finish the sentence that was just interrupted, have them change the font color so you can track where each change was made. Keep revolving around and watch the stories grow and evolve! At the end of the period, pull out and display some good examples.

So there you go- a few ideas for things you can do in a lab if you’re ever caught, stuck with the Internet going down. Just remember- don’t panic or get too upset. Like everything else in teaching, roll with the punches and have fun with it!

Using Mahara for Online Student Publishing / Digital Portfolios

2010-11-09T14:23:00.002-05:00

Cross-posted to maupinhouse.com

In my fourth and final installment of my "Power of Students Publishing Online" series, I take a look at a tool that is completely new to me,Mahara (found at http://mahara.org). I stumbled across this tool overTwitter, where I was able to ask an excellent educator from Nebraska,Brenda Smith, more about how she uses the product (by the way, if you're not connecting with educators yet over Twitter, what are you waiting for?).

That conversation led me to investigate further to see how well Mahara stacked up with other publishing platforms such as the ones I've detailed in this series- Kidblog, Weebly, and Wikis. What I've found is that Mahara offers some excellent features that the other services do not!

So, what is Mahara? It is an open source ePortfolio system. If you're new to the term "open source", this refers to software that is developed as a huge group project, with software developers pitching in through global collaboration! It is all completely open and free for anyone to use, create add-ons for, or make improvements upon (read more on open source here, from Wikipedia). This means that Mahara is constantly being upgraded by the users themselves and will continue to be free for as long as it exists- a definite bonus!

Mahara offers every user/student a portfolio space, a blog (or multiple blogs), access to groups/classes as set up by a teacher, access to forums, the ability to make friends with other users, upload files, create a resume, and more. As with all digital tools, the best advice I can give is for you to create an account and start playing with the interface. As you play and research, here are some pros and cons I discovered while doing the same:

**Special thanks to both Brenda Smith and Rob Griffith for their help in testing Mahara out!!**

Pros

Free!
Lots of storage space per user. Each user has up to 1 GB of storage space, which is plenty for almost all uses. If your students are creating a lot of videos or large images, they might need to host them elsewhere (like Youtube, Vimeo, or Schooltube) and link to them on Mahara.
Social Networking aspect. Users can interact with one another through friending on Mahara. This enhances the community atmosphere of the class.
Forums, Blogs, and simple file uploads. This is the only tool I've seen that seamlessly allows all of these for free (especially the 1GB storage space).
Ability for students to have several classes at once. As a teacher, you can create several classes or courses (or "groups" in Mahara). You can then invite the correct students into each class. This means that students can be set up in multiple classes with just one account. That is a big plus, management wise.
Ability to export the portfolio when the course is over. This is a big plus for me. One of the biggest pains in the neck when tackling digital portfolios is the question of "What do we do once the class is over?" You don't want to delete all that wonderful work- you want students to be able to take it with them and use it as they need to. Mahara offers this functionality under "My Portfolio" and "Export."

Cons

Requires students to have an email account to set up. This can be a major sticking point.
Some of the embedding is glitchy. I was able to embed a Voicethread and a few other tools, but Glogster, Timetoast, and Animoto did not seem to work correctly for us.
A bit more technical to manage. Of the four tools I've presented in the past four weeks, Mahara will take the most time to learn how to manage. It is not much more difficult, but there are more moving parts here when dealing with users, setting up permissions, forums, blogs, etc.

The bottom line is that if you have student email accounts and feel comfortable after playing around with Mahara, it may just be the best portfolio tool of them all so far! In fact, after playing around with it I may push for this to be our main vehicle for student portfolios in our county next year.

Have fun with it and let me know if I can help!

-Steve

Using Weebly to Publish Student Work

2010-10-26T14:58:00.000-04:00

cross-posted to Maupinhouse.com

In this third part of my "Power of Students Publishing Online" series, I'd like to introduce you to another great tool for organizing and publishing student work for the world to see. Last week we talked about KidBlog and this week I'd like to present Weebly.

Weebly is a website creation tool. It's free, easy, and allows you to create up to 40 student accounts that can start your students on the process of creating and maintaining a positive presence on the web. Here are some pros and cons to using Weebly that I've discovered so far:

Weebly Pros

Free!
Easy to set up
Easy to edit. Everything in Weebly is very straightforward for students. It is all drag-and-drop and exactly what you see on your screen is what you will get when you hit the publish button.
Unique URL addresses for students. This is a big pro for me. Weebly allows your students to have their own, personal, url address. They will look something like www.billybob.weebly.com. This gives students a web address that they can easily pass along to their friends and family- whoever has an internet connection can easily bring their site up!
Easily embeds files from other online tools. Many other digital tools offer the ability to embed themselves into other sites. Excellent tools such as Glogster, Timetoast,Animoto, and many others have what is called an embed code- some text that you can copy and then paste into you or your students' Weebly sites. In Weebly, simply drag a "custom HTML" box onto your site and paste the code in there. This will embed your file for you!
Ability to include easy blogs. Simply click on "New Page" and select "New Blog". Voila! Your students have their own blog space built right into the site. And even better- the blogs and comments are moderated easily by the teacher.
Students able to add content easily at home or anywhere else they have an internet connection.

Weebly Cons

Student content that is posted to Weebly is not moderated or filtered. In other words, if little BillyBob wants to upload inappropriate stuff at home, it will post automatically- it does not wait for approval of any kind (blog posts need approval, but everything else does not). This is not a major obstacle as long as you have strong and well-understood consequences for misbehavior online, just as you would have when they are in your classroom.

I'm a big believer in Weebly and think it can be used effectively to house student work online! Take a shot, create an account, and see for yourself how quick and easy it is to create a very nice, professional looking website with students.

And remember, just let me (edtechsteve) know how I can help!

The first and last post about myself

2010-10-20T14:48:00.007-04:00

Welcome to the first and last post that I'll ever talk about myself.... (definitely a good thing).

Ever since my book has officially been released, I've been struggling with walking a line I've never had to walk before- the balance between promoting myself/my book (what I don't like to do at all) and wanting to make a big difference (which is something that, if a bunch of teachers read my book, I think I could make). I'm very comfortable speaking and writing about a wide array of issues surrounding education and technology, yet I am very uncomfortable when someone praises me or my work. I don't like the spotlight on me at all- I'd much rather it be on the great teachers and students I work with. This sounds crazy, but I'm even embarrassed writing this post- I just don't like talking about myself, plain and simple.

I am proud of how the book turned out and I truly believe that if every teacher had a copy, we'd have a much better shot at seeing some of the things we'd love to see in today's classrooms, with both instruction and the use of educational technology. And while I'm proud of it, it's been much more about the accomplishment of actually doing it and it's chance to help, rather than making any sort of money from the book or other opportunities that may arise as an outgrowth. In short, I don't want to be well known or well paid- I just want to help as many teachers and students as I can.

So why am I writing all this? I guess I want people to understand why I react weirdly when someone asks me to autograph a book or compliments my work. I want folks to know that I do appreciate the recognition and praise very much, even if I seem awkward when you're offering it (not that I've been showered with praise, by the way).

In the past year or so, I've toyed with the idea of becoming an independent consultant or even starting my own consultant business with some awesome folks I've met online and off. I've been lucky enough to have done some of those gigs and have some pretty great connections that I think would invite me into their buildings, districts, and businesses. I'm positive it would pay a lot more money than my little old teacher contract. I'm positive it would be challenging. I'm positive I could make an impact in the places I would visit. But after thinking about it a lot, I'm also positive that this just ain't my path. I'm not a businessman. I'm not a brown noser. I don't shmooze well. I don't like to be away from my family. I'm not a marketer, especially when it would be myself that I'm marketing. It feels good and freeing to know myself well enough to veer away from that path.

So if anyone is interested in knowing, I'm going to just keep plugging along- helping as much as I can and turning red when someone comes up to compliment me or asks me to autograph a book. Because that's me.

Let me know if I can help!

Using KidBlog to Publish Student Work Online

2010-10-19T15:39:00.002-04:00

This blogpost is also cross-posted at www.maupinhouse.com

I'd like to introduce you to a free, easy-to-setup, kid-friendly way of starting a digital portfolio with students: KidBlog (http://kidblog.org).

For those that aren't sure what a digital portfolio is, think of it in exactly the same terms as you would a traditional portfolio- a collection of a student's work that illustrates how they have grown throughout the course of the year as well as how well they have mastered content. The only difference with a digital portfolio is that the products are published to the Internet and are therefore great ways to interact with an authentic audience of peers and others.

Here are some pros and cons I've uncovered while utilizing KidBlog with students:

KidBlog Pros:

Free!
Very simple to set up a class and create student accounts
Safe and easy to moderate. In the Settings tab, you can choose how open you want this blog space to be- from completely private to completely public. Also in this area, you can set your class up so that every new post and comment needs to be approved before it is published to the blog. Comments are easy to preview and approve within the Control Panel.
Easy interface- looks and feels just like any other word processing program that your students have used in the past.
A unique URL. When your class is set up, it will then have a unique url that you can use to post as a link (ex, http://kidblog.org/yourclassname)
Responsive support/help. I had a question about the amount of storage space and was contacted within an hour by someone that worked at KidBlog.

KidBlog Cons

Not much storage space. The default is 100MB, which gets eaten up quickly if your students are posting a lot of pictures. There are ways around this, however- you could upload pictures/files to a separate account (Flickr or Schooltube, for example) and simply have students put links on their blogs that point to these offsite hosts. Contacting KidBlog through this link, support@kidblog.org , can help this situation slightly- the support person I emailed with immediately upgraded our storage space from 100MB to 250MB. Not a huge jump, but every little bit helps!

In my school, our entire 7th grade class has started this year on the path of using KidBlog as a digital portfolio tool. If you get a chance, check them out and leave a comment! (Scroll down to the bottom of this page).

Good luck, have fun, and let me (edtechsteve) know if I can help you set up an online space for publishing your students' work online!

Next week, we'll explore the use of Weebly as a space for publishing student work. Until next time!

Reclaiming "Student Achievement"

2010-10-17T09:06:00.008-04:00

For a long time in education, and particularly in the past ten years, we've seen the bastardization of the word "achievement" and I think it's time that we, as educators, start to take it back.

Ask just about anyone you know, inside or outside of school, what student achievement means and I bet you'd hear something about grades, AYP Results, and/or test scores. Our students, schools, districts, states, nations, and (increasingly) teachers are all being judged by this narrow, blind definition of the word achievement- results on standardized tests. NCLB has taken the meaning of this word and twisted it to simply mean test scores.

Alternatively, ask anyone you know, inside or outside of school, what their achievements are. I bet you'd hear a completely different story. I've tried hard the last couple of weeks to think of any institution or job where the word achievement is defined by test scores. Plumbers? Businessmen? Doctors? Artists? Writers? Journalists? Fry cooks? If you were to ask anyone outside of school what the achievements in their job look like, you'd see descriptions of people doing, creating, publishing, and performing. You know....actually achieving something!

Looking at my own life, what do I list as my achievements? As a classroom teacher, my achievements were measured in the way my kids wanted to come to school, the affirmations of parents that trusted me with their kids, teaching a low ability kid how to read, bringing out student passions.... and on and on. Outside of the classroom, I married waaaaaaaaay up. That was a big achievement for me. Writing a book was a big one, especially since, when I finished my masters, I had announced that I'd never write a long paper again....whoops. We can all list our achievements in life and I bet they'd be as far away from filling in bubbles as humanly possible.

Any realistic, serious look at transforming education has to deeply analyze and reflect on what achievement is. What does it look like? What are we wanting students to achieve? How are achievements recognized? What do they look like? How can we tell if a student has achieved? I don't know the answers to these questions, per se, but I'd love for the national conversation to be centered around trying to figure them out.

The point is- to become better achievers in life, we need to be doing, creating, publishing, and performing. Why aren't we viewing our students with this same lens? Why do we continue to allow the world to view "student achievement" so narrowly? I've said before and will say again- testing does not improve achievement- ACHIEVEMENT improves achievement. In other words, let's start getting our kids to produce some authentic work for an authentic, participatory audience. The more they achieve in school, the more they'll achieve in life outside of school. It's just that simple.

How I became a better teacher

2010-10-13T14:28:00.006-04:00

Last night's #edchat focused on the idea of "what is a good teacher? bad teacher?" It was a really interesting conversation and caused my mind to reflect on my own classroom experiences. I will never claim to be an expert or master teacher (and will always be automatically skeptical of anyone who anoints themselves in this way), but I know for sure that I improved a lot over the years. So the question I've begun asking myself is: How did I become a better teacher? I feel like if enough experienced teachers were to reflect on and answer this question, we'd get a pretty stark handle on ways to help teachers begin to improve.

So here is what I've come up with, when thinking back on those years:

How I became a better teacher:

I asked for and was receptive to help. Seems simple, right? I remember asking the other kindergarten teachers and my assistant principal (a former K teacher) for help often in my first year of teaching. Mostly it was about behavioral things that I was nowhere near ready to handle on my own yet! I can remember I had no idea how to help this little dude named Christopher. Someone along the line had told Chris that when he flushed the toilet, he would get sucked down and swallowed up forever (must've had older brothers, right?). Well he would freak out about it every day. He wouldn't go to the bathroom without me, he had to have the door wide open... this was a big issue! I couldn't leave the whole class alone every time he needed to go and at age 5, the rest of the kids don't need to be watching you in there. So I asked the other K teachers what to do. They helped me help Chris by letting him have small successes which eventually led to him being able to conquer that fear. That's just one small example. One thing that is tricky about this is that it's one thing to ASK for help, but it's entirely another to be open and receptive to that help. Without the second piece, you'll never improve. Be receptive to others' knowledge!
I had to make my own stuff. When I got to my first classroom, there were very very little materials. I had to scrape together books by going to yard sales, my Mom donating a bunch, and going to the library every single Sunday to borrow tons of books for the coming week. I had to create alphabet songbooks and print them out and bind them for every student. I didn't have the means to go and buy posters- I made them (and I am the opposite of artistic...trust me!). Now, how did this force me to improve? Pretty straightforward, really- I had topics/content I needed to teach, and had to come up with fun ways to do it. My kids needed to learn how to tell time by the hour and half-hour, so I was forced to come up with my own way of doing it (a giant clock and cardboard long and short hands- every half-hour the clock helper kid was responsible for stopping the class and leading us back to the big clock, where he'd stand and put his arms in the right spot- totally fun stuff). That's just how it went- every Sunday at the library I got to sit and pore through books that were interesting and hit the letter of the week or some other science/ss concept. I became better because I was forced to make my own stuff. I worry about all of these canned instructional methods these days mostly because of this fact- we improve when we're challenged to do so (just like our kids, right?)
I began to be able to visualize a lesson as I was planning it. This was huge and is something that helps me stay connected to the classroom now, even as I've been out of it for almost 6 years. As I was planning lessons, I started to play it out in my head- how the kids would react, how complicated the directions were, which kids would need an extra hand right away, how the transitions would work (or not work), how I could prep the materials so that the materials wouldn't distract from the actual lesson... everything. Actively practicing this visualization led to my lessons becoming much more effective. Plus I had already done the lesson in my head a few times, so when it was time to actually do it, it was like an old shoe- nice and comfy.
I was forced to see my kids for who they were. One thing I loved about my first school, Vass-Lakeview Elementary, is that for the first two weeks all the teachers had to man a bus route. The stated purpose of this was to help the bus drivers maintain control for the first two weeks but the underlying purpose was much more powerful- we all got to see firsthand exactly where our students lived and the environments they were coming from. I won't go into the squalor and living conditions, except to say that if you haven't seen poverty before- when you see it up close and personal and experience it in your classroom, you will never be the same if you truly care about kids. But seeing these conditions and then many more as they walked about my classroom every day didn't sadden me as much as inspire and embolden me. It made me want to do more, to teach better, to be warmer and more kind. That was probably the single biggest way I improved- being able to see my kids for who they were, what they were coming from, and what they were dealing with.

So those are the thoughts that jumped out at me, as to how I personally improved as a teacher. Hopefully they make sense to someone out there reading, and I'd love to get more folks together to reflect on this question so we can have something to hold onto and share with other teachers to inspire them to improve as well!

The Power of Students Publishing Online

2010-10-12T14:37:00.000-04:00

There is one major moment that every teacher loves to experience as often as possible- the look on a student's face when they finally "get it". The way their eyes light up is probably what drives a lot of us to keep at it over the years and inspires us to reach students in new ways.

Over the years, I've been lucky enough to have seen that look many times. But today and for the next four weeks, I'd like to introduce you to another big moment that you may have been missing out on in your classroom- the look on a student's face when they realize that work they have published online has been read and appreciated by someone in their now-worldwide audience. Whether it's another teacher, a parent, a community member, or someone from another part of the world, once a student comes to the realization that someone out there is looking at and appreciating their work the effects on their motivation are as priceless as their surprised faces!

This is the power of publishing student work online- your students begin producing authentic work for an authentic, interactive audience. It's this second part, the interactive, that pushes this type of publication ahead as a must for your classroom. Because publishing online also means allowing the public to view and, yes, comment on their work. This leads to students striving to be responsive to their audience's feedback, justify choices, and in short- produce better work.

There are many excellent digital tools available to allow students the opportunity to publish online (many are found in my book, Digital Tools for Teaching!). For the next four weeks, every Tuesday, I am going to focus on four specific tools that can help you organize and manage your students' online work: KidBlog, Weebly, Wikis, and Mahara. Every one of these tools are free, easy to use, and easy to monitor and moderate.

I'm looking forward to sharing these powerful ways to impact your students in new, exciting, engaging ways!

Scribblar - Awesome collaborative whiteboard

2010-08-10T12:02:00.001-04:00

This blog will also be cross-posted to the Maupin House blog

I’d like to introduce you to Scribblar – a new online tool to enhance collaboration in your classroom. It’s easy to set up, maintain, and is completely FREE!

So what is Scribblar? It’s a whiteboard that is housed online at http://Scribblar.com. On this board, students can draw, create shapes and lines, insert images, add textboxes, utilize highlighter ink, and much more!

But the real power of Scribblar is its potential as a collaborative space for your students. All you need to do is send the link to students and they can work together on the same whiteboard, in real time! To enhance the collaborative nature, Scribblar also provides a chat space to the side of the whiteboard. And if that isn’t enough, students can also utilize the Microphone button to broadcast their thoughts and ideas to the group.

The rooms are easy to manage and give you control over whether the room is locked, public or private. Within the room, you can also add multiple pages so that students can work on different steps together. The rooms also persist online so that students can interact with the page both at home or at school.

The potential for this tool in your classroom is enormous! You could create rooms with pages of math problems for small groups to solve together, at home or school. You could post short reading passages and ask your students to highlight parts of the text depending on what they are studying. You might ask students to collaborate and create a new map for the country you are working on in social studies. And, beyond your personal classroom, Scribblar could be used with students in different classes from around the world. The only limit to this tool is your own imagination.

I encourage you to give Scribblar a try and report back how you were able to use it with your students for enhanced digital collaboration!

Trusting sources- thoughts from EBC session

2010-06-28T12:36:00.004-04:00

Fair warning- this post was written on the fly before a session. Will hope to more fully develop some of these thoughts later.

In a really great Edubloggercon session we were discussing the idea of "crap detection" and how to help students navigate the overwhelming flow of information. In short- how do we teach kids what sources to value and what not to value. Angela Maiers spoke up and suggested 3 questions that students/ all of us need to be asking every time we are presented with new information. I don't have the questions jotted down and couldn't find them in a quick search, but they boil down to- making sure where the source is coming from, what is their purpose, etc. The questions were very good, but my thoughts aren't centered around the 3 questions as much as they are centered on the very process of attaching three questions every time we encounter new information.

What I spoke of then is that I feel the whole issue revolves around trust. My question is - at what point do we begin to trust a source? And if we trust the source, do we need to constantly question it? Or do the questions change? By trust I mean not that the source is "correct" or factual necessarily- by trust I mean I consistently find value in that source's information, whether it's a person, a site, a newspaper, a chat- trust lies in the value it brings to me, not it's correctness or even if it agrees with my own views. My thoughts are steering toward not having to ask those three questions every time we encounter information. There has to be a time where we move past that, or else we turn into spinning wheels- for time's sake, there has to be a level of trust involved.

Now, maybe the questions change once trust has been developed from a source. Or maybe they're the same questions, but not as often. What could some possible new questions be?

Has this source changed affiliations since I first trusted them? Have they grown/changed? If so, how does that affect my trust level? I'm thinking that once a source has built trust, perhaps this is a lasting thing...if they change or grow in a different direction, I would still value their input. So what situation would occur where the trust would be broken? Sometimes when I personally meet someone my opinion changes- they try too hard, they are more narrow minded than I imagine, etc. I guess my trust would be broken if I feel they are not as authentic as I once thought. Authenticity and connectedness to classroom realities is important to me.

Which brings me to my next thought- maybe it's more important to figure out what's important to me, before I think about how I place or not place trust in sources. So what is important to me when I consider sources of learning?

Authenticity. I don't like fake people or those that put on different shows for different people. If they are telling people what they want to hear and changing their story for different audiences, I've got no faith in them
Connected to classroom realities. This is important to me. I want sources that have walked the walk and haven't forgotten what it's like to try to affect change at the local level
Practical. I enjoy real, grounded ideas and thoughts. Something that can be used. I don't like those that get hung up on semantics. Yes, words are important, but action is more important than debate. There is a place for the more theoretical aspects, but their point should be to inform action. Those that argue/debate just for the sake of doing so are not advancing the cause.

As I head into my next session, I'll finish by saying that the process of information fluency seems to be as much about each individual's trust levels and what is important to them as it is the simple methods of "crap detection". Once you figure yourself out and what is important to you, you can have a much better chance of also figuring out how you apply your values to the information landscape.

Until next time!

The most awesome and free creature creator- Spore!

2010-05-20T09:44:00.006-04:00

For those that don't know, Spore is a game created by Will Wright, the same dude that created The Sims. In a nutshell, it takes you through 5 stages of evolution- you start off as a cell, then you sprout legs and come onto land as a creature, then you become sentient and enter the tribal stage, then you enter the civilization phase, then finally you blast into space and try to dominate the galaxy. Every step of the way, the decisions you make affect the type of existence you will have- aggressive, social, economical, religious, etc. There are many paths to complete domination!!!

Anyway, the game is pretty cool by itself, but one thing I've been doing with students is to use a small piece of the game that is available for free- the trial version of the creature creator! Just click here, click on "Try Now" and download for PC or MAC)

The creature creator is a really easy to use builder. You start with a torso that you can bend and shape however you want. Then you start adding parts to the creature- mouths, eyes, arms, legs, noses, wings, spikes, etc. Then you can paint the creature any way you like. And finally, you can take em for a test drive to see how they would walk, roar, dance, sing, and do flips. It's a really sweet program. I suggest you download it at the links above and give it a whirl (You'll have to install DirectX on your computer if you're using a PC)

Finally, the other cool thing is that it is very easy to take pictures and video within the creature creator. This media can then be included in all kinds of other creations- slideshows, digital stories, movies, wikis, etc.

Things I've used this for with students:

Character creation - I've had students in groups on wikis, creating characters together. Each time they add an attribute they have to think about what that means for the character they're creating (for example, if they put the eyes in the back of the head, what does that mean? Is this character paranoid? Does it run into things? How does that make it feel or act? How does that impact others around it?). It's a great tool to activate students' creative writing- once they've developed a good character, often their stories flow much more freely.

ESL and Foreign Language students: We've done labeling of body parts, vocabulary of the movements, etc. It's a great way to work on these things. One Spanish teacher had her students create the creatures, import pictures into Word, then write a descriptive paragraph in Spanish about their creature.

Genetics: I've been working with our biotech teacher for the past two years, using Spore for her genetics unit. It's really very cool- the kids are given genotypes and are asked to build the parents and then work out the Punnett square to guide them in building the offspring. Then they create a powerpoint that pulls pictures taken in Spore and describes the genetics principles they used.

There are other things I've used it for like creating charts from the attribute points, having students try to create a creature based on a novel's description (Goosebumps work great here), and a few other things.

Here are some documents I've created to use with Spore- feel free to use/pass on to whoever:

Small Creature Cutout cards

Spore Genetics Cards

Spore Genetics Activity

Handout I've used for sessions I've done on Spore (.pub file)

Anyway, this program is FREE, it's VERSATILE, and is very engaging to students. I highly recommend you give it a try!

Final Thoughts on Ravitch's "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education"

2010-05-13T10:10:00.004-04:00

First off, I enjoyed the book. I think it's appropriate to reveal the biases I had going into it:

** I've felt from the beginning that NCLB was a failed policy- another grand sounding idea that wasn't thought out through implementation

** I don't use the word hate, but if I did I'd say I hate standardized testing. I think it's a terrible way to judge just about anything that is useful in the 21st century and the unintended effects of widely spread testing make my skin crawl- I've had the throw up on my shoes from the 3rd graders and up nervously working on the one test that determines their fate for the year...

** I value people that are advocates of a certain position but keep an open enough mind not to cling to it when new evidence comes up. I don't mind flip-floppers- it shows that they're human, make mistakes, and learn from them

So I was set up to like this book going into it. It made me think, gave me some history I was not aware of, and offered real insight into how this all came about and how decisions about education reform are made. This is good knowledge.

The overall feeling I get after reading this is one of disappointment in the system. My eyes have been opened as to just how ed reform gets driven by those that are not educators. Rather, it's lawyers, politicians, and businessmen that frame the debate and offer their solutions. They are in power so they make policy. It's just that simple, and sad. And not only this, but they are obviously incredibly persuasive- whether it be because of their positions of power or the fact that money talks. They were able to persuade curriculum minded folks like Ravitch with their ideas about reform, after all. And the public was persuaded too (and still are). Throwing out bullet points such as these are simple, powerful, and persuasive: 1) the system is broken, 2) teachers and schools need to be accountable, 3) parents should be able to move their kids out of a failing school and into a better one, 4) all students must be required to be proficient. Who can argue these points? The problem lies in the SHALLOWNESS that this boils ed reform down to. Which is perfect for politicians because it avoids the hard truth- there is nothing simple or shallow about true ed reform. It's hard and blueprints don't work.

So I agreed with much of what Ravitch is saying, although I take issue that it took her this long to realize it. I'd love to see someone with FOREsight instead of just HINDsight here. I mean, how many educators saw NCLB's requirement of every child being proficient by 2014 and started laughing? Getting educators in the discussion and in positions of policy power would have halted a lot of what was wrong with the bill.

Here are a few things I take issue with from the book, however:

There is nothing about the impact of 21st century learning, literacy, skills, tools, or anything else. In fact, at one point Ravitch states that we should go back in time 10 1983 and follow the recommendations of the A Nation at Risk report, stating "These recommendations were sound in 1983. They are sound today." This is a huge mistake and oversight. The very meanings of information and literacy have changed immensely since 1983. Students now are growing up in a completely different landscape. The answer to ed reform for this generation is not to dig up relics of the past.
There is no mention of Bloom's taxonomy and how the testing movement has undermined higher order thinking skills. That's a huge missed opportunity here.
She relied way too heavily on urban reforms. Of course, this seems to fit with the overall theme of education reform- it is driven by what urban areas are doing. I would have liked to see her explore the effects of urban driven reform on the rest of the country's students. It's my opinion that it is a huge mistake to take an urban reform and try to apply it to a rural area. Having worked in both environments, there are simply things you can do in an urban setting that will never work in a rural area. School choice is an obvious one.
There seems to be a cultural elephant in the room. All throughout the book she referred to high performing students/areas and low performing students/areas. She speaks about how charter schools siphon off the top students and leave the public schools with the worst of the bunch. Let's be clear here- she's talking about whites and blacks/Hispanics. There are significant cultural differences that she is shirking (and no one really wants to touch, especially in politics)- there are real differences in how some cultures view schooling, learning, being smart, etc. I'd like to see more attention given to some of these real issues instead of skirting around it every time. Let's work on solutions instead of pussyfoot around the problems.

The way forward

So I leave this book thinking about how it affects my thinking and actions. Here are some thoughts:

Is it time to incite or encourage student protests of standardized tests? I know my wife doesn't want to hear that (she is an AP and a test administrator, after all!!). Bubble card burning? What can we do to wake the public up to the effects of all of this testing and the time/money wasted on it?
Encourage as many teachers to forget the test as possible. Just teach and do what's right for your students.
Keep pushing for collaboration, creation, and publication. Focus on high quality learning environments that help students be creative, flexible problem solvers. Because that's what the world needs moving forward.

And, finally, it is really interesting to finish this book and jump into Drive, by Daniel Pink. A great convergence that is really shaping how I think about things. I'm looking forward to starting a project revolving around Drive in the future- a global book club of sorts. Stay tuned!

Ravitch Book Review Pt 6 (Final Chapters- 10 and 11)

2010-05-11T09:46:00.002-04:00

Chapter 10 - The Billionaire Boys Club

Chapter Review

Here Ravitch dives into (and tears into) the foundations and corporate financiers that are changing the face of education based on the dollars they are shelling out. She goes into the history of big money philanthropists and the reforms they wanted to see happen. This leads up to the current decade, when a big three of billionaire entrepreneurs got into the education reform game by making targeted monies available to schools. The big three are Eli Broad, the Walton Family (Wal-Mart), and of course Bill Gates. They are what is known as "venture philanthropists" because they operate similar to a venture capitalist- they try to find something that will work and then throw money at it to make it happen.

With targeted investments, the big three have come to have a large impact over American Education Reform, at least according to Ravitch. Ravitch argues that the idea of capitalist driving public school policy is "fundamentally antidemocratic". She artfully argues that there is a lack of accountability on the very folks that are pushing the accountability argument in schools. They can't be voted out of office. If their plans fail, there are no penalties. As she states, "they are bastions of unaccountable power".

The agenda of these foundations is choice, competition, and privatization. She points to the Gates' initiatives to produce smaller high schools as an example of a failed experiment. The idea sounded grand and made sense, but the foundation didn't take into account the benefits of going to a large high school- including, mostly, the much more varied course offerings, more ability to take AP classes, etc. The results of the smaller high school initiative were that attendance was better, but academic results were no different than other high schools.

Ravitch also touches on Race to the Top and how it grew out of these types of reform efforts. It is described as "NCLB 2.0: The Carrot that Feels Like a Stick". She then touches on the more human side of school choice- that parents shouldn't be burdened with shopping for a school. Their neighborhood school should be high quality.

My Reactions

I'm not a big fan of bashing Bill Gates and others that are pushing money into school systems. I'm usually not on the fence on things, but on this one I see both sides. On the one hand, I agree wholeheartedly with Ravitch that Gates in particular is pushing corporate ideas and driving reform more towards privatization and linking teacher pay to test scores- ideas that I think are simply wrong for American public schools. But on the other hand, I respect Bill Gates and anyone else that is willing to do what they can monetarily and philosophically to HELP. The system is broken and at least here is a guy that is putting forth some ideas and efforts to help. I have trouble faulting someone that is actively engaged in trying to help, even if their efforts are misguided.

And the other thing is- Gates wouldn't be able to push these reform ideas if we didn't LET him. If superintendents drooling over cash didn't bend over backwards and compromise their ideas to receive the handouts, they wouldn't be embraced.

I'm not sure what it might take to steer Gates and other corporate minded reformers away from the measure and punish/use data to steer every decision mindset. It feels like NCLB all over again- many educators can see the writing on the wall with these reforms- they will lead to corruption, increased teaching to a test, brainless bubble-fillers focused on the lowest levels of knowledge, and many students that are good at taking tests but bad at the kinds of creative and flexible problem solving this century will require in it's workers. The question remains- what can we do about it? How can we stop it and steer the ship another direction? This is a question I look forward to working on for the next 10 years or so. :)

Chapter 11 - Lessons Learned

Chapter Review

Here's the recap chapter. Lots of soundbites in this chapter that illustrate the main thrust of Ravitch's arguments. Here are some that stand out to me:

"The fundamentals of good education are to be found in the classroom, the home, the community, and the culture, but reformers in our time continue to look for shortcuts and quick answers."

"The most durable way to improve schools is to improve curriculum and instruction and to improve the conditions in which teachers work and children learn."

"Our schools will not improve if elected officials intrude into pedagogical territory and make decisions that properly should be made by professional educators. Congress and state legislators should not tell teachers how to teach, any more than they should tell surgeons how to perform operations."

"Schools that expect nothing more of their students than mastery of basic skills will not produce graduates who are ready for college or the modern workplace."

"Our schools will not improve if we value only what tests measure....Not everything that matters can be quantified."

"Closing a school should be only a last resort and an admission of failure, not by the school or its staff, but by the educational authorities who failed to provide timely assistance."

"Schools are not businesses; they are a public good. The goal of education is not to produce higher scores, but to educate children to become responsible people with well-developed minds and good character."

"Our schools cannot be improved by blind worship of data....If the measures are shoddy, the data will be shoddy. If the data reflect mainly the amount of time invested in test-preparation activities, then the data are worthless. If the data are based on dumbed-down state tests, then the data are meaningless."

"Our schools cannot be improved if we ignore the disadvantages associated with poverty that affect children's ability to learn."

"There is no single answer to educational improvement. There is no silver bullet, no magic feather."

My Reactions

I agree with every statement above. I really do. But I think she has some wide gaps in her thinking that are mostly attributable to the lack of attention she gives to how the Internet, Web 2.0, the explosion of mobile devices, and the changing face of information changes everything.

But I think I'll save those thoughts for my final post/reflections. That one will be next!

Part 5- Ravitch Book Review (Ch. 8 and 9)

2010-05-10T21:31:00.004-04:00

Forgive me blog, for I have sinned. It's been over a month since my last entry. (hmmm you can take the boy out of Catholic school, but...)

Anyway, my spring break ended and craziness happened at work, as usual. I did finish the book a few weeks ago but hadn't had the chance to come back and finish up these review posts. So here goes, I'm going to do chapters 8 and 9 here, then 10 and 11, then a post with some final thoughts. Again- these are just my gut reactions/reflections and they will probably read as such!

Chapter 8- The Trouble with Accountability

Chapter Review:

Ravitch speaks about how the mantra of accountability came to be embedded into education reform in the 1990's. The movement grew steam until President Bush, in 2001, introduced NCLB- the ultimate throwdown in accountability, proclaiming that all students would become proficient. It was entirely tied to testing and "came down from elected officials who did not understand the limitations of testing."

Ravitch spends some time going into detail about the limitations of testing. She is not anti-testing, per se- she recognizes that tests can be quality measures if used to inform, assess, and guide a teacher towards reteaching. She told about how they are imprecise, have margins of error, only take a snapshot, don't take into account wide abilities of students, NCLB-based tests only happen once a year, etc. Basically all the stuff that educators are already aware of, I'd say. =)

She then gets into the real troubles with "accountability", when it's based solely on test scores. The tests completely absolve the student and their parents of any responsibility whatsoever. Basing high stakes decisions, money, and labeling on test scores leaves the door wide open for corruption. Test-prep actitivites emerge as a way to game the test. In short, "What matters most for the school, the district, and the state to be able to say that more students have reached 'proficiency'. This sort of fraud ignores the students' interests while promoting the interests of adults who take credit for nonexistent improvements." (p. 159)

My Reactions

Most of what Ravitch writes in this chapter rings true for me. It boils down to one sentence in this chapter for me: "When we define what matters in education only by what we can measure, we are in serious trouble." (p. 166). This is exactly how I feel. School should be so much more than filling in bubbles and forcing students into the boxes that testing puts them in. School should be about opening the mind, allowing freedom, nurturing self-directed learners, and of course creating.....collaborating...publishing. The jobs the majority of our students are going to be doing in the future will require them not to be robots, but to solve problems creatively.

I am not anti-testing- I'm pro assessment. Tests are necessary, but only if used as they should be used- for helping students. The first year I taught 2nd grade, at the end of the year there was a test we had to give in our county. One of the questions seemed so benign- it showed a bunch of shapes (trapezoids, squares, triangles, pentagons, rectangles, etc.) and asked the students to simply color in all the rectangles. My kids totally BOMBED it- I think only one out of twenty-four got it right. My class was by far the lowest in the county on this question, and it wasn't even close! Why did they bomb it? Well...I had never taught them what a rectangle was, pure and simple. I assumed they knew it...but they didn't color the squares, and most colored any shape with 4 sides. Did I get embarrassed? Nope. Was I worried? Nope. Did I care? YES. I cared and was actually excited to see it- I knew exactly what I had to go over. We did some fun little activities to address it, they nailed it, and we moved on. That's what assessment should look like- a guide and opportunity to help students understand something better.

But that's not what we do with standardized testing at the end of the year. It's not designed for the student and it's not an opportunity. In fact, what often gets done is the scores come in, then we write little goals into the school improvement plan to increase the scores a little bit more the next year...In other words, we take the scores from one set of students and, instead of using those to help those students, we use the data to guide decisions for the NEXT group of students (the ones that didn't take the test...). This overlooks one huge issue- every teacher knows that every class is different than the last. One group is nuts, one is low, one is high, one has the extremes, one has all the talkers, one has a lot more ESL students, one has huge attendance issues, etc. Boiling teachers, students, schools, districts, and states down to points of data is way too narrow.

Chapter 9- What Would Mrs. Ratliff Do?

Chapter Review

This chapter finally starts to personalize Ms. Ravitch a bit- she starts by talking about her favorite teacher, Mrs. Ratliff, who obviously had a big impact on her. Mrs. Ratliff was her senior English teacher. She challenged Ms. Ravitch to use proper English and to provide deep answers that revealed her thinking. Accuracy mattered. She had larger goals for her students- beyond teaching literacy and grammar. Stuff that doesn't show up on standardized tests. They dove into rich literature and the classics.

Ms. Ravitch sets this teacher up as an example of one that would not be valued in today's education world. This type of teacher has more and more trouble existing and functioning in today's high stakes testing environment. They are too pressured to prepare students for the test, their tests mirror the EOG/EOC, deeper thinking is not as much of a focus. If merit pay were around back in Mrs. Ratliff's day, she might find trouble eating....

Ms. Ravitch then spends a decent amount of time talking about teachers' unions and how they have become a lightning rod in the realm of education reform. The issues of merit pay, teacher tenure, teacher compensation structures all set battle lines between teachers' unions and market-minded corporate reformers.

Finally, she tells about the idea of good teachers being quantifiable based on data. Many reformers out there talk a lot about the effects of a good teacher on students, but what they're really doing is equating "good teacher" with "teacher that raises test scores".

My Reactions

So what we're talking about in this chapter is "What makes a good teacher?" What would the answer to this question be from parents? From principals? From businessmen and women? Most importantly- from students? I'd bet most of them wouldn't mention better-than-average results of standardized testing....and if so, that would be near the bottom of the list of qualities. Here are some qualities I think make good teachers, in no particular order and off the top of my head:

someone who can make students laugh at the same time they learn
someone who can tell you a personal story or some background about each student in their class
someone who identifies a students' interest and adjusts to meet it
someone who listens
someone who offers an ear more often than a pointed finger
someone who takes content seriously
someone who can make igneous rocks seem interesting
someone who tells students (and parents) about the GOOD stuff that is happening
someone who pushes and pushes and pushes and doesn't let kids give up

There are a million other qualities I'd list before I touched a stupid test score. And I'd wager most others feel about the same way. So this begs the question- why are so many "reformers" moving towards boiling a teacher down to their testing data? And why are so many people letting them do this?

Pt 4- Ravitch Book Review (Ch 6 and 7)

2010-04-07T19:22:00.003-04:00

I'm going to keep the same format as the last entry- chapter summaries and gut reactions.

Chapter 6- NCLB: Measure and Punish

Chapter Review:

This is the money chapter. The one that made me buy this book in the first place. If you're going to pick one chapter out of this book to read, this is the one (unless one of the later chapters measure up).

Here we get to see how and why Ravitch changed her mind about NCLB. She started out as a strong advocate and by the end of this chapter pretty much completely disowns it. She tells of the four main tenets of the law: 1) every child should be tested every year in grades 3-8, using state tests, not a national test, 2) decisions about how to reform schools would be made by the states, not by Washington, 3) low-performing schools would get help to improve, 4) students stuck in persistently dangerous or failing schools would be able to transfer to other schools. Sounds pretty damn good, eh? But as always with federal legislation, the politics often sound great and the devil is in the details...

This was an issue that both Democrats and Republicans rallied around. Republicans liked the increased accountability and market reforms/choice, Democrats liked that the government was getting more involved and lower income and racially diverse groups were a main focus. It passed with rare bipartisan, broad support.

Now on to the details that doomed NCLB from the start. The first and most glaring is the impossible goal it set of having 100% of students proficient by 2014. No one in education believes this goal is attainable. The law provided tougher and tougher sanctions each year a school did not make all AYP goals- from labeled as failing to requiring extra tutoring, to closing the school or turning it over to the government. Every year the number of failing schools grows as we get closer to 2014, the year where all students are supposed to be proficient.

The next large issue in the details was letting each state determine their own tests as well as define what is "proficient". This of course led to states creating tests and sliding scales that would allow nearly every student to pass the test.....eventually. This led to fudging numbers, shifting results, changing definitions, etc.

Each subgroup of students was separated out so the numbers for each subgroup could be used for sanctions. As those of us in schools know quite well, if even one subgroup does not make AYP, the school as a whole is labeled as failing. Often, this happens with the ELL or special needs students- a group that it is nearly impossible to bring to 100% proficient, no matter how you slice it.

So Ravitch pinpointed a date when her mind changed- November 30th, 2006. On this day, she went to a conference in Washinton D.C. to hear a dozen or so scholars report on the effectiveness of NCLB and it's accompanying remedies. Here is what she found out- even though NCLB provides parents a free opportunity to transfer their students away from a failing school and towards a non-failing school, hardly anyone was taking advantage of this. The numbers were amazing- less than 1 percent in CA, less than 2% in CO, less than 1% in Michigan. The scholars argued that parents didn't want their kids taking too-long bus rides, that parents generally felt their school was good despite it's "failing" label, ELL parents prized the neighborhood school.

The numbers were similar for the free tutoring that was offered with federal monies to students in failing schools. In short, it was rarely used and even more rarely effective. NCLB created a multi-billion dollar industry of testing and tutors, but was doing virtually no good for students. Scores remained the same, classrooms were too narrowly focused on reading and math, and all other subjects faltered.

A couple quotes from Ravitch:

"Under NCLB, the federal government was dictating ineffectual remedies, which had no track record of success. Neither the Congress nor the U.S. Department of Education knows how to fix low-performing schools."

"Every state was able to define proficiency as it saw fit, which allowed states to claim gains even when there were none."

"I realized that incentives and sanctions were not the right levers to improve education; incentives and sanctions may be right for business organizations, where the bottom line- profits- is the highest priority, but they are not right for schools."

"If all students are not on track to be proficient by 2014, then schools will be closed, teachers will be fired, principals will lose their jobs, and some- perhaps many- public schools will be privatized. All because they were not able to achieve the impossible."

"Perhaps most naively, NCLB assumed that higher test scores on standardized tests of basic skills are synonymous with good education. Its assumptions were wrong. Testing is not a substitute for curriculum and instruction. Good education cannot be achieved by a strategy of testing children, shaming educators, and closing schools."

My Reactions:

I thought this was the strongest chapter yet. It was nice to see Ravitch laying out how she changed her mind and why. Basically, the facts slapped her in the face and made her wake up. My main question is- why is she seemingly the only sane / logical one? Where are the others that supported this piece of crap legislation? The facts are the facts- it's not working, plain and simple.

I can admit that the bullet points of NCLB sure sounded good. Politically, it was a slam dunk- we want all students to improve, we don't want to let all these subgroup kids fall through the cracks, we're going to require schools to be accountable, and we're going to give parents choices about their school. These are all good tenets. The problem is that the policymakers did not think this thing through to the end- they didn't think about the realistic consequences of making tests the primary determinant of a successful school. They didn't think about schools meaning more to parents than test scores and labels. They didn't think about how states would bend the model to make themselves look as good as possible. They didn't think about how narrow the classroom would be- on reading and math. It just is so typical of policymakers and how much they are disconnected from classroom and school realities.

Chapter 7- Choice: The Story of an Idea

Chapter Review:

Going to keep this one short. It was kind've dry and more of the same. She tells the history of the idea of school choice and how it manifested itself in urban areas. It morphed to vouchers and eventually to charter schools. The bottom line is we now have some decent data about charter schools and how they compare to public schools. Many folks have researched and pored over the data and the results are, in a nutshell- no real differences. There are good charter schools and bad charter schools, just like there are good public schools and bad public schools.

The main thrust of this chapter for me was the idea that so many reformers want to hinge their hopes on- that you can take a school's model and spread it to other schools and get the same good results- is flawed. You can't carbon copy schools and what they are doing. It takes time and hard work to achieve improvement, and it's as much about the staff and students as much as the model they are following. If you take a great model and combine it with different staff, the results invariably are not the same. It's not easy to create a successful school. There is no magic bullet.

My reactions:

It's harsh, but I'm glad she acknowledges the reality- there is no easy way to create a school model and then spread it. Schools must pave their own way. It's up to the government to provide SUPPORT, not dictate circumstances. I've never been in a school where the staff did NOT want the students to succeed. The teachers and admin are in the best possible position to know what their students need to be successful.

One other thing that I don't like about this book is that it has thus far completely ignored schools outside of urban areas. I'm not sure if she'll touch on this or not, but it's a huge mistake to take urban reforms and spread them to rural areas. Especially in the focus of this chapter- school choice. In rural areas, school choice simply is a geographical impossibility. It's just not going to work. I hope she touches on this aspect in future chapters. I'm getting a little tired of reading about all of these urban driven reforms, thought I must say I'm not surprised.

Pt 3 (Chapter 5)- Ravitch Book Review

2010-04-06T21:00:00.003-04:00

All right, so I didn't get so far today- had some awesome beach time with my Mom, Dad, and Emily (my 3-yr-old), then naps and general laziness. I did get through chapter five, though.

Also want to throw a disclaimer out there- these review posts are not going to be well written. They are mostly my own gut reactions and gibberish and since I'm on vacation they will read more like that kind of nonsense rather than anything sequenced or actually analyzed. These are just reactions and first reflections!

I'm going to split the rest of these posts into two sections- chapter review, then my reactions.

Here we go. Back to New York City (would be nice to see something other than urban reforms, incidentally):

Chapter Five- The Business Model in New York City

Chapter Review:

This chapter told the story back in NYC, between 2002 and 2009. Mayor Bloomberg did some nifty political manuevering to pretty much take sole control of the NYC school system. Of course, Bloomberg is a businessman, so he laid out a corporate model going forward. He hired an antitrust lawyer named Joel Klein to run the system to his specifications. Klein visited and modeled a lot of his efforts from Alan Bersin, the evil corporate guy in San Diego. So now we've got a lawyer and businessman setting the agenda for all 1,200 schools in the NYC area.

There was a swift consolidation of power and the micro management began. They followed the Balanced Literacy program that appeared in the previous chapters and basically told teachers how they need to teach. Teachers were required to fall in line. The focus was on raising test scores in reading and mathematics, so that's what got taught. The other subjects were shuffled to the side and of course, suffered.

In order to bolster numbers, they secretly changed the requirements for passing. There are four levels (I'm sure most that would read this know about this)- Levels 3 and 4 are passing, Level 2 is almost there, and Level 1 is the lowest kids. In NYC, the Level One kids were held back. In an effort to make it look like more kids were doing better, they re-normed the tests so that more kids would make it to Level 2. Students in NYC needed only a 17.9% to score Level 2 in reading and 22% to score Level 2 in math. This means that a student can completely randomly guess answers and get a Level 2.

The other aspect of NYC reform was choice and charter schools. Parents and students were offered choices and high schools were developed that met specific goals- a school for future socialologists, a school for future firefighters, etc. Large high schools were closed and new smaller schools (500 kids) were opened instead. What ended up happening to the high schools is that the majority of kids would apply and get accepted to some of the smaller high schools- but the hardest to reach kids were shuffled to another large high school, which then had a timetable for it's closure.

Ravitch also goes on to tell about how the natural effect of focusing on test scores is for the school system to game the system- fudge the numbers, teach to the test, only include certain groups in grad rate numbers, etc. In other words, the same stuff that happens nearly everywhere because of NCLB and it's focus on test scores. And the end results were statistically insignificant improvements in reading and math and a decrease in science skills (and all other subjects that weren't tested as well).

My Reactions:

The first thing I'd like to say is that so far it seems like all reform that Ravitch talks about is poor. The way she writes makes it seem like every idea is horrible and no good came of any of it. That's hard to believe. In this chapter she talked about high schools being an place of choice that can offer specialized programs based on student wants and needs. Well, I'm sorry- but that's a pretty cool idea. I bet a lot of those schools really served those students well.

The corporate takeover of school policy has brought some really evil things along with it, primary to me is the introduction of unchecked corruption and fudged numbers. With all of the emphasis on test scores, people all over the place are gaming the system to make themselves and their systems look better. The graduation rate is a prime example of this. SAT scores are as well. There are so many ways to define/delineate graduation rates that it's easy to fudge the numbers in whatever direction you like. In Moore County, NC, where I taught for 8 years, our superintendent actively had principals encourage college bound students to take the SAT and encouraged other students not to. In other words- to boost SAT scores, he wanted the smart kids taking it and the not as smart kids to take some other alternative. Slimy....

Another slimy aspect is the Levels for the testing- 1, 2, 3, and 4. I know in North Carolina the percent you have to get for a level 3 was around 45%. In other words, you are proficient if you score a 45% or better on the test. This is dumbing everything down and fudging the numbers to make things look better than they are. It's the same thing that happens in corporations- they fudge numbers so that their business looks better on paper to stakeholders. Here's the difference, though- at least there are laws and oversight agencies to take corporations to task for doing this kind of thing. Where is the accountability for school systems when they essentially do the same thing? Where is the oversight? Are we leaving it up to the media to uncover? If so, is this smart???

Reading all of these stories of centralized power consolidated by businessmen and lawyers makes me sad. It demonizes teachers and makes it look like they have no clue what to do, when the reality is the exact opposite. Here's a radical idea- what if we gave TEACHERS a voice in curriculum/pacing/testing, then asked THEM what they needed to teach it, then actually provided what they request to make it happen? They develop what content students should work on, what skills they need, and then the school system delivers any materials or support they need to make it reality. Is there a school model out there that gives the primary voice/respect to teachers, instead of administrators and policy makers? My guess is that you would see an amazing school system that actually serves the needs of the students, where teacher morale and flexibility would be at an all time high.

I've got some other things jotted down but may save them for some other time. I'm off to watch a movie and go to bed. More to come tomorrow for sure!

Ravitch Book Review- Part Two

2010-04-05T19:38:00.008-04:00

This is the 2nd post in a series that I'm doing, attempting to review and comment upon Diane Ravitch's new book, The Death and Life of the Great American Education System. Today I read chapters 3 and 4- not at the beach this time. At the pool. And with Pepsi instead of beer. Not sure how that will affect the review :)

Chapter 3- The Transformation of District 2

This chapter tells the story of changes that swept through District 2 in New York City in the late 1990's, which consisted of 50 schools and over 20,000 students. It had a cross section of races and some pockets of poverty, but housed many of the wealthier neighborhoods of NYC. In comparison to the rest of NYC students, District 2 was affluent and housed a much greater percentage of white/Asian students than the overall NYC student population.

Under the direction of Superintendent Tony Alvarado, District 2 made some significant changes- they focused on a literacy program called Balanced Literacy, which was 3 hours of literacy every day, K-12. It involved a lot of stations and very little whole group instruction. The teacher was facilitator. It actually sounds like a pretty good program that had emphasis on both phonics and constructivist learning. The district poured tons of money and staff development into their key improvement piece. Coaches were placed in schools, teachers and principals were trained in methods and vocabulary, etc.

The program produced improved reading scores (imagine that, 3 hours of literacy a day improves reading scores!). But it shortchanged other areas of the curriculum. It made instruction less of an art and more of a prescribed process that teachers were expected to follow without questioning. Coaches became less of coaches and more enforcers/reporters. District 2 improved their scores, but Ravitch points out that the scores were not improving any faster than the rest of NYC schools. She also points out that the demographics of District 2 changed as well- basically, it got whiter and Asianer (like that?). So the actual improvements were questionable.

Now, one thing I don't like is how things so often come back to race and demographics in these conversations. It's a topic we shouldn't dance around, but it still feels slimy to say "well, of course these schools were better- they had more white kids." But that's a topic for another post.

Another thing that keeps popping up that feels slimy is the idea of quantifying a good school completely through test scores. Those of us that have worked in different types of schools know that this is far from the truth. I'm proud to say that I've worked primarily in low income schools whose test scores will probably NEVER be the best. But those schools, those teachers- they love those kids and they'll do anything for them. You can't tell me that schools with low test scores are bad schools. That doesn't fly with me at all. I've seen some awesome schools with some awesome yet challenging kids with some not so awesome test scores. Focusing on proficiency rather than growth is always a poor idea.

Anyway, back to District 2- Ravitch says:

"District 2 is important because it caught the eye of the corporate reformers who came to prominence at the turn of the 21st century. They became convinced that District 2 was the model for success in an urban district, that Balanced Literacy was the key to the district's success, and that other districts would experience experience similar improvement if every teacher were compelled to adopt District 2's methods unquestionably." (p. 33)

As the program wore on, teachers started rebelling against the micro management of their classrooms. They were fearful of reprisal, however, because they were being watched! This of course happens all the time. Those that refuse to include teacher's in the process of reform will always see teachers being subversive in order to do what's best for their kids. That's what rocks about most teachers- they know better than anyone what their particular class needs. If those needs don't match up with the latest initiative, they'll find a way to get around it.

So the end of chapter two says that the corporate minded reformers thought they had found THE formula for improving schools and sought more places to implement it. This brings us to chapter four....San Diego.

Chapter Four- Lessons from San Diego

Man, you think your school is a hot mess? San Diego from 1998 to 2005 has to have you beat (unless you were there). A dude named Alan Bersin was elected by the board to be the new superintendent. Here's the thing- he had never been in education before. He was a former federal prosecutor (fun boss!). He stormed in with the philosophy of instant change, complete centralized control of reform, and take no prisoners. Those that would not toe the line were fired- teachers and principals alike.

Bersin brought with him Tony Alvorado from NYC as his partner in crime. Together, they "got tough" with teachers, principals, and schools. They implemented Balanced Literacy with an iron fist- reprimaned resistant teachers and fired principals. They created fear and obedience.

Here's my first question- since when do we have to "get tough" with teachers? There seems to be this huge opposition to teachers because of teacher unions. All of us fat, lazy teachers who want huge salaries and all....right? I just don't get this perception. Yes there are bad teachers and yes there are teachers that shouldn't be in the job at all. But is the solution to get tough and create fear among the good ones?

Anyway, back to San Diego. This basically comes down to two schools of thought- one, evidenced by Bersin in San Diego, is to forge ahead with a vision regardless of what any of the stakeholders feel, want, or believe. The other is to build consensus, take input from all stakeholders, and work change slowly. My thinking is that neither of these are good. The first creates fear, obedience, and stifles differentiation. The second leads to paralysis/death by committee. The best solution lies in the middle- get input for key/large decisions and move forward without discussion on the smaller ones. The important thing is to remember to keep learning #1. The impact on student learning should be considered for every decision.

So the reformers in San Diego made a big splash, completely changed the system, created fear, and in the process completely alienated the teachers and parents. The major complaint was that they were never consulted on anything- they were told exactly how to teach and reprimanded if they wavered. This resulted in just what you might expect- huge teacher turnover, massive revolts, and all time low morale. But the scores improved, even if only slightly. So this model was seen as "working".

I can see where Ravitch is going here. These models for urban schools were probably the ones that influenced NCLB. She hasn't talked about it much yet, but I'd imagine part of the urban solution was providing choice, where the school system will pay for bussing to a better (as in, higher test scores) school. Which is all fine and dandy for urban schools. As a teacher in rural North Carolina, I can tell you that this policy is a joke when applied anywhere but in urban areas. There is no way a parent is going to put their child on a bus for 1.5-2 hours every day to go to ANY school. And the folks living in poverty are the least likely to be able to take their own kids to school- either because they don't have a working car, or their job would never permit it. So from my perspective the provision of NCLB that promoted school choice was never thought through on a national perspective.

All right, that's all I'm going to write for now. I'm surprised if any of you made it this far, but I'm just getting this stuff down for my own notes anyway, mostly! These two chapters were interesting background/history. So far I'm enjoying this book and the insight it gives behind the scenes of policy. It's sad and disturbing, but you can't fix something if you don't know how it broke.

Ok, one more thing- the main reservation I have so far is that I want to know the REAL stories. I'd love to hear more from actual teachers in District 2 or San Diego. I'd love to actually hear what the real deal was. I never take writers about education for their word when they speak in a historical sense. I've seen too many crappy school systems shined up with fake numbers and shiny gadgets. I've been in schools where the perception of the school is terrible, but the reality inside is a wonderful place for kids. So I'm skeptical. Still, it's been interesting.

Ravitch- Death and Life of Great American Education System - First Thoughts (Ch 1 and 2)

2010-04-04T22:05:00.005-04:00

Precursor

I first saw this book's title cross my Twitter Feed via @garystager and @jonbecker, I think. saw the title, researched the premise, and knew I wanted to read it. For those that don't know what it's about, I'll give you a little background.

Diane Ravitch has been involved with education reform since 1969, through articles, books, critiques, etc. In 1991 she began working as assistant secretary of Education. She was a strong advocate for curriculum and instruction based decisions and was very involved with the creation of national curriculum standards in the 90's. After her time in the department, she began to hang around the bad crowd....the thinkers that sprang directly from the corporate world and tried to apply these principles to the American Education system. She got involved with the groupthink that promoted accountability and testing as the way to correct schools. She was an advocate for this approach for years, but has now changed her mind and changed her thinking. Basically, this book is interesting to me because here is someone that was entrenched in a position but has the smarts and sense to see the truth as it lays in front of her now- the testing movement has backfired, hasn't produced the results they thought it would, and she is rebelling against the very thing she once strongly promoted.

So that's why I'm reading. I really value people that are open to their mistakes, admit them, then try to figure out: a) why they made the mistake, and b) how to go about correcting it and finding better solutions. From this point forward, I'll quote sections of the book that stood out to me as well as my honest gut reactions as to how this makes me think and feel.

Chapter One- What I Learned about School Reform

Right off the bat, I must admit that I was disgusted. On page 2, when Ms. Ravitch is outlining her changing of position:

"It is the mark of a sentient human being to learn from experience, to pay close attention to how theories work out when put into practice." (p. 2)

Ok, that's all well and good, but shouldn't we shoot a little higher here? It's great that she is realizing the folly of her ways, but wouldn't it be nice if, for once, the policy makers in America had some foresight instead of (rare) hindsight? The mark of a sentient human being is to learn from experience, but isn't the mark of an intelligent human being to think through the implications of a policy before shoving it down people's throats? I mean, why are we always dealing with the consequences instead of having foresight to do it right in the first place? I think the answer to this lies in the policymakers having complete disconnects with classroom/school realities.

She goes on to explain how all of her professional life she criticized those that looked for magic feathers or silver bullets to "fix" education. Prior to getting mixed up with the wrong crowd, she advocated real change rooted in curriculum and standards. But then she says:

"In the decade following my stint in the federal government, I argued that certain managerial and structural changes- that is, choice, charters, merit pay, and accountability- would help to reform our schools. With such changes, teachers and schools would be judged by their performance; this was a basic principle in the business world. Schools that failed to perform would be closed, just as a corporation would close a branch office that continually produced poor returns. Having been immersed in a world of true believers, I was influenced by their ideas. I became persuaded that the business-minded thinkers were onto something important. Their proposed reforms were meant to align public education with the practices of modern, flexible, high-performance organizations and to enable American education to make the transition from the industrial age to the postindustrial age." (p. 8)

This is sad. Here is a highly intelligent leader, a school reformer with influence on policy, who basically jumped on a bandwagon. Groupthink is so dangerous and it scares me to see it laid out so obviously in the area of federal education policy.

So the answer to education reform is now coming from the corporate world and market forces. Lovely. This next part actually made me growl when I read it. Good thing the waves were so loud that I didn't scare any small children...

"Market reforms have a certain appeal to some of those who are accustomed to 'seeing like a state'...In education, this belief in market forces lets us ordinary mortals off the hook, especially those who have not figured out how to improve low-performing schools or to break through the lassitude of unmotivated teens. Instead of dealing with rancorous problems like how to teach reading or how to improve testing, one can redesign the management and structure of the school system and concentrate on incentives and sanctions. One need not know anything about children or education. The lure of the market is the idea that freedom from government regulation is a solution all by itself....The new corporate reformers betray their weak comprehension of education by drawing false analogies between education and business. They think they can fix education by applying the principles of business, organization, management, law, and marketing and by developing a good data-collection system that provides the information necessary to incentivize the workforce- principals, teachers, and students- with appropriate rewards and sanctions."

Wow. This outlines how NCLB came to be played out. How infuriating. Here we are as educators dealing with so much day to day nonsense of labels, standardized testing, and rote learning for dumbed down tests, and why??? To provide data so they federal government can better qualify what they believe are passing or failing schools. We're dealing with all of this testing because corporate-minded reformers needed strong data points to be able to label schools as failing? That is nuts to me. I wonder how many corporations spend as much money as education does in testing- the extra positions, the materials, and of course the gigantic amounts of TIME it takes to perform these tests? The great irony to me is that if a corporation were to spend as much time and effort on gathering data points as schools do, they would fold up in a heartbeat...yet here we are, plugging along to provide this data. Yikes.

I will say that I give credit to Ms. Ravitch for seeing the error of her ways. As she watched NCLB be implemented she has started to realize the negative impact it has had (of course, people I talked to the year it took effect had already figured this out...but I digress). She writes, 'Testing, I realized with dismay, had become a central preoccupation in the schools and was not just a measure but an end itself." That's great she noticed this....finally. But again- some foresight would have been nice.

Chapter Two- Hijacked! How the Standards Movement Turned into the Testing Movement

She starts this chapter off with this:

"NCLB changed the nature of public schooling across the nation by making standardized test scores the primary measure of school quality. The rise or fall of test scores in reading and mathematics became the critical variable in judging students, teachers, principals, and schools. Missing from NCLB was any reference to what students should learn; this was left to each state to determine." (p. 15)

She goes on:

"I saw my hopes for better education turn into a measurement strategy that had no underlying educational vision at all...Accountability makes no sense when it undermines the larger goals of education...What once was an effort to improve the quality of education turned into an accounting strategy: Measure, then punish or reward. No education experience was needed to administer such a program. Anyone who loved data could do it. The strategy produced fear and obedience among educators; it often generated higher test scores. But it had nothing to do with education." (p. 16)

This is striking to me. It's hard to believe that this actually happened. We actually let this happen. We allowed (and are allowing) folks to set sweeping education policy that have no idea what they're talking about. Are you scared yet? I had no idea this book would be so frightening...

She then goes on to tell an interesting back story that I was not aware of. Did you know that Lynn V. Cheney (wife of Dick) played a large role in the mess we're in today? Apparently this is the case! When Ms. Ravitch headed the task force to produce national standards in history, the arts, economics, geography, foreign languages, science, civics, etc., the first one they put together were standards for history. The first (unreleased) draft included a broad array of topics that promoted a more balanced view of U.S. history that included the warts as well as the stars. It encouraged students to learn about McCarthyism, the Ku Klux Klan's role in the civil rights movement, Harriet Tubman, etc. In other words, folks other than just the rich white dudes were included. Well, Cheney wrote a scathing critique in the Wall Street Journal that opened up a can of worms. She felt that the history standards were a warped vision of American history that painted us as oppressors (which we kinda were). The debate got picked up in a large way and all of a sudden this draft of history standards (not even final and completely voluntary) became a political hot potato.

The standards movement died because once this issue because so hot and public, politicians backed off. They didn't want to get dirty. The Clinton administration backed off and basically said "we didn't write it- the former admin did". Ravitch writes:

"In January 1995, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution condemning the standards by a vote of 99-1. After the vitriolic front-page battle over the history standards, the subject of standards, curriculum, and content became radioactive to political leaders." (p. 18)

So our leaders (predictably) chose the politically smart thing to do- avoid the subject at all costs. Instead of working to improve the standards, they were scrapped and the issue of content and curriculum was punted away. They passed a law that said every state should write it's own standards, pick it's own tests, and be accountable for achievement. Classic politics! But in this case, it led to horrendous education "reform"- instead of tackling the real issues of learning and curriculum and raising standards, it begat NCLB- which bypassed these issues entirely and went straight for "here's what you gotta do, we don't care how you do it- just get it done." Not good....not good at all.

One question I had while reading this was- why in the world would they start with the most potentially contentious- history? Why not start with math, or foreign languages, or really any of the other areas? That was an obvious failing, in hindsight.

Another outcome of this is all these dull, overly broad standards we have to deal with in education. Stuff like "students will demonstrate an understanding of how ideas, events, and conditions bring about change." States wrote these non specific broad standards for the same reason the federal government punted the issue to begin with- to be inoffensive. We have to deal with these extremely broad, poorly written standards because of politics, plain and simple. They didn't have the cajones to do the right thing, educationally speaking.

For the rest of the chapter she speaks about 1983's A Nation At Risk report, which sparked it's own maelstrom at the time. This report recommended that schools should strengthen the curriculum for all students; setting clear and reasonable high school graduation requirements; establishing clear and appropriate college entrance requirements; improving the quality of textbooks and tests; expecting students to spend more time on schoolwork; establishing higher requirements for new recruits into the teaching profession; and increasing teacher compensation.

Her basic argument is that we need to move away from the NCLB model and go back to the ANAR model above. I agree with some but not all of this. I agree that we need to get back to improving curriculum and learning. I agree that major changes need to be made in teacher prep. I agree that teachers should be paid more. I don't agree with requiring students to spend more time in a broken school. I'd say let's fix the school before we even begin to think about requiring more time for students.

All right, so this is incredibly long I'm sure and I'm tired so I'm heading to bed. This takes us through the first two chapters and we'll see how far I get on the beach tomorrow!!!!

Beach Reading

2010-04-04T21:51:00.002-04:00

ahhh Spring Break! I'm in Hobe Sound, FL, visiting my Mom and Dad's house on the golf course, which is just 5 minutes from the beach....ahhhhh. I brought my 3-yr-old Emily and we trucked down for 11 hours to get here. I worked very hard to be able to take this break and am planning on setting the gold standard for relaxation while here. :)

I've decided to pick up and read a book for the first time in a long time. The one I've had my eye on is Diane Ravitch's The Death and Life of the Great American Education System. I grabbed it today and started reading.

Today was the first of a weeklong series of "3 beer reading sessions." Basically, I take a book, a funny looking beach hat, a highliter, a pencil, a bag of Frito's, and 3 beers. Then I read, take notes, jot down ideas/analysis, then by the time I'm done with the 3rd beer I head home. It's one of the most relaxing and thought provoking things I can think of. I never thought I'd be a nerd like this- to relax I grab a book and take notes, but it works for me...

Anyway, I've decided to jot my thoughts and reactions down into this blog space to log my scratchy notes somewhere. If it helps someone else to read and react to this book, all the better. If it serves as a reference point for some future writing, that's all good too. If no one reads it, that's totally fine too!

Anyway, I'm off to create the first of several posts about it. Hopefully anyone that is reading finds some value on what could be a very important book for us education nerds.

Making the Case for Social Media in Education- #edchat thoughts

2010-03-11T22:54:00.003-05:00

The post below is a cross-post from a blog that Edutopia asked me to contribute. I want to thank them again for the opportunity.

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The 3/9/10 #edchat discussion was another example of the most scrolling fun you can have in an hour on the Internet. The topic this time was "How can social media create real change in education?"

Right away, folks got busy reframing the question in more "real" terms:

@blairteach: Question might be better to say, "How IS social media creating real change in education?"

@dtitle: better topic... how will education keep up with social media and not be left in the dust

@unklar: I don't see any change at all at my school since the district is trying its best to block any and all social media

These additions brought to light the fact that we are struggling once again in education to keep up with the pace of a drastically changing society. Outside of schools, social media outlets are THE way that people now communicate, young and old alike (stop sending me chickens in Farmville, Mom!). The fact that we as educators even have to have discussions on whether or not social media is good for schools is sad. Social media just IS…..it's life.

Despite this, inside the vast majority of our school walls, social media tools are blocked and filtered. Why? In #edchat, the general consensus for the answer to this question revolved around fear - fear of cyberbullying and inappropriate use by students. Many blamed the media for blowing the negative out of proportion. In light of these fears, @benpaddlejones summed up exactly where we need to shift in the coming years:

We need to stop talking cyberbullying and start talking cybercitizenship. Flip to the positive.

He's absolutely correct. Our focus in schools needs to shift towards responsible, positive use of social media. The giant elephant darting about in the shadows needs to be drug into the light. In a world where this type of communication is king amongst our students, we need to stop ignoring and blocking and start embracing and amplifying.

When the filters come down, will there be problems? Will there be inappropriate use by students and staff? Absolutely! As a parent of two young girls, I understand the fear that this type of shift can create. But my response is that I would MUCH rather have these mistakes happen transparently where learning can take place. Every mistake and misstep in social media is a brilliant learning opportunity for all involved. I'd much rather these mistakes occur in the open and with the support structure of caring adults, rather than in the pockets or bedrooms our students are currently making them.

So we have this institution that has permeated society but is still blocked by your school. How can you make the case for the filters to be lifted? Here are some points you might make to bolster your case:

It is quickly becoming our duty as educators in the 21st century to guide our students towards responsible use of social media. We teach sex ed, we teach healthy living, we teach about drugs, we teach character ed., and on and on. We do these things each and every day, yet we are ignoring the aspect of our students' lives that is larger than all of these things (and completely interconnected with them as well). It is our duty to our students to start modeling responsible use of social media and encouraging them to follow our lead. We can no longer afford the veil.
Social Media use is becoming our new first impression. In June 2009, a Harris Interactive Poll found that 45% of employers researched social networking sites of prospective employees. This was more than double the percentage of employers stating they did this type of research in June 2008 (22%). What this means is simple - when our students start looking for jobs or applying for college, their use of social media is going to be studied. We must act now to ensure our students are portraying their skills and creativity in a positive way so that they can separate themselves from the pack and create opportunities for themselves that they may otherwise be shut out from.
Connected, community based learning is important. By blocking social media use, we are depriving our students of a huge opportunity to allow them to learn in connected ways. Society is moving toward a model of shared knowledge building, where people from all over the world can interact, question, reflect, and reshape thinking in meaningful ways. #edchat itself is a perfect example of this very phenomenon. Blocking our students off from this opportunity is a mistake.
In five years, the filters will be gone whether you like it or not. The expansion of wifi networks linked directly into smart phones that are being carried by students each and every day is inevitable. They will have an unfiltered access point in their pocket, whether we want them to or not. Wouldn't it make sense to be proactive? Wouldn’t it make sense to guide our students towards responsible, productive use?

It is my hope that when the filters come down, transparent use will allow everyone in the school system - students, teachers, parents, admin - to grow and utilize social media in responsible, productive ways. Let's stop holding sparsely attended workshops about internet safety and start modeling the process of unlocking the power these highly relevant tools hold for both ourselves and our students!