Ask the ASCI

The SAMR Model: Technology Transformation

2012-02-02T05:13:00.000-08:00

As we move toward a 1-1 environment, I'm having trouble describing our goals to some friends and family members. The general response is sometimes, "Oh, so you're going to use iPads instead of textbooks, huh? That should makes the kids' backpacks a lot lighter!"

Then I try to describe the difference between a Chromebook and an iPad, and the fact that we felt students could produce more and collaborate better with the Chromebook. That's when I get the same glazed over look, and they usually say something like, "Yeah. My textbooks were really heavy in high school. I could have really used an iPad. That's so cool that you're doing that."

And then I usually smile and say something about the weather.

Nothing against iPads. They meet many schools' needs just fine, but we are are looking for a different dynamic at Leyden. I love this model. It's called the SAMR model, and it's an acronym for a continuum of the level of technology integration in one's teaching.

S- Substitution. (Maybe...putting the classroom worksheets or handouts on the web for students to print, or using a static online textbook to make students' backpacks lighter)

A- Augmentation (An online quiz, perhaps? Maybe it's students typing out a paper on Google Docs, without collaboration)

M- Modification (Perhaps using Poll Everywhere in class for immediate feedback and to spark discussion, or students and teachers editing each others' work in real time)

R- Redefinition (Now we're talking. Think about students creating an entirely different kind of projects, choosing their own tools, collaborating electronically synchronously or asynchronously, and reaching out to experts beyond the school walls).

My categorization of all of these examples is highly debatable, and I'm sure there are far better examples out there.

Maybe enhancing lessons ("Substitution" and "Augmentation") are where some of us start, and that's OK. But we should always keep an eye toward transformative uses of technology ("Modification" and "Redefinition"). That's where we'll get the bang for our buck.

1-1 with Chromebooks: An Update from FETC

2012-01-27T05:13:00.000-08:00

Bryan Weinert and Jason Markey at the FETC Keynote

I've been feeling a little guilty that my blog has been gathering dust, but not much. Since I last posted, we've been busy at Leyden. Really, really busy.

In 2012/2013, Leyden High Schools will provide a Chromebook to every student. At the Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC) 2012, Google made a big push to highlight several districts who are going 1-1 next year with Chromebooks. Leyden was joined by representatives from Council Bluffs, Iowa and Richland School District, South Carolina.

A typical crowd at the Chrome Booth

To say the least, the reaction at the conference was impressive. I guess we're not used to anyone noticing what we do or acknowledging how hard we all work. Google Evangelist Jamie Casap noted that one conference goer said to him, "I needed to come down here and see what was going on, every session I went to today was talking about Chromebooks..."

Here's the full keynote address moderated by the estimable author, blogger, and school administrator Tom Vander Ark and featuring Rajen Sheth, "the Father of Google Apps", AND A SPECIAL PANEL APPEARANCE BY LEYDEN'S TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR BRYAN WEINERT AND EAST LEYDEN ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL JASON MARKEY.

(Skip ahead to the 15:38 mark)

Also read Bryan Weinert's blog post about the event, and find a long list of the blogs and articles written about the event. Jason Markey put together a Storify about the Chromebook "buzz" at FETC.

As one might imagine, there are a number of issues to tackle with any 1-1 project, particularly being an early adopter of a relatively new device: Curriculum, assessment, instruction, professional development, communication with families, infrastructure, hardware, discipline policies, social media policies, and deployment. Its a lot to deal with, and it's easy to get bogged down with the daily struggles involved with getting all of this ready. Putting all of this together has been a team effort involving our teachers, administrators, our fellow Chromebook districts, and the incredibly supportive and responsive Google Chromebook team.

However, being at FETC and talking about the 1-1 project with representatives from Council Bluffs, Iowa and Richland School District in South Carolina, as well as the Google team and the countless conference attendees who expressed interest in Chromebooks, I'm reminded why we're doing it: because it's the right thing to do for students.

Reflecting on our journey so far, the process of getting to this point drives home why we need to go 1-1 in the first place. Quite honestly, this could not have been done in this amount of time solely with "20th Century tools": faxes, phone calls, flights, and face-to-face meetings. We have to equip our students with the same collaborative skills that we ourselves have used to get to this point.

We have communicated and collaborated via email, Google Docs, Google Forms, Google text and video chats, cross-country video conferences with Google+ Hangouts, Twitter, and sometimes even the phone. Occasionally, we'd get together physically. Work gets done and ideas are shared no matter where the players are physically. What matters is the intellectual capital necessary to get the job done.

It's been the kind of collaboration that I believe our students will have once they leave school, so we had better be preparing them for it while they're in school. We have an obligation to provide an educational experience that prepares students for the world outside of school. That means that they need to be creative, expressive, collaborative information evaluators and problem solvers.

So let's keep working, collaborating, and creating to make this work. August is right around the corner, and our students can't wait any longer.

Technology and the Modern Languages Classroom

2011-11-04T07:38:00.000-07:00

As I write this, I admit that I do not have a modern languages background. Yes, four years of German in high school has served me well, but the pedagogy of language instruction is not my area of expertise. To be honest, English gives me enough trouble most days.

However, as we move toward an educational environment where technology is like oxygen: ubiquitous, necessary, and invisible (to paraphrase Chris Lehmann), can this impact modern language instruction?

I'll argue that it can. In fact, of all the disciplines we teach, language is the area that might stand to gain the most from technology. It seems to me that there are more tools out there to facilitate reading, writing, speaking, and listening than we can count, and language instructors should capitalize on this for the benefit of their students. By the way, I include ESL/EFL/ELL instruction (whatever you'd like to call it) here as well.

Some Quick Resources:
If you get no further in this post, check out:

Technology in Modern Foreign Languages: A Practitioner's Perspective. This is absolute gold, with specific tools to use in languages classes.
Some Diigo links tagged "mlg" (Modern languages). I'm trying to tag tools, resources, research and opinion related to the use of web 2.0 tools in languages classes. All the resources I mention in this post will be collected there.
Larry Ferlazzo's blog: A passionate advocate for ESL/EFL/ELL instruction, his blog has resources for teachers in every discipline
And take a look at this video. It gives a quick description of how Web 2.0 tools can be utilized in language instruction:

It seems to be that the "big four" of language instruction are reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

Well, the reading and writing resources available on the web are never-ending. In addition to providing students with immediate access to language-specific web sites, the web provides tools for communication and collaboration, and endless opportunities for writing and creating. For example, blogs and wikis should probably become a staple in languages classrooms, Here are a few good ones:

Blogger, WordPress. There are so many blogging tools out there, but these are a couple of the big ones.
Google Docs and Google Forms are exceptionally powerful tools opportunity to get students writing and collaborating.
Wikispaces, or Google Sites. Same deal.
Twitter: You an find, follow, and interact with people from all over the world. Using students' twitter feeds, you can facilitate constantly running real-time conversations in the target language.
Edmodo: Create a closed, secure social networking area for your students. If you happen to require your classes to interact on the site in a particular language, well I guess that's your prerogative!

How about speaking and listening? Actually, this is where I think technology can have the biggest impact in language instruction.

Podcasting: Through iTunes or Podcast Player Pro, students can constantly be listening to up-to-the-minute broadcasts in any target language. Better yet, students can create their own podcasts. Require students to write a script beforehand, and you've got a great connection to writing.
Voicethread. I love this tool. I suppose it's somewhat similar to a podcast, but you can assign all students to look at an image or series of images, listen to the teachers' comments, and then post their own comments. Again, this can be done verbally, in writing, or both.

Woices.com. This is a new one I just found. Students can listen to geolocated audioguides from just about anywhere in the world and in any language. Better yet, they can create their own!

So, does technology have to replace what's going on in a language class? Of course not, but the opportunities for reading, writing, speaking, and listening are just too numerous to ignore!

Some recent links I've found....

2011-10-30T11:03:00.001-07:00

Ed Tech and Student Achievement | EdTech Action Network

tags: research edtech 1-1 1:1 1to1
Chromebooks For The Classroom (Installation & First Impressions)

tags: chromebook martinspriggs
Chromebooks For The Classroom (Administration)

tags: chromebook martinspriggs
Chromebooks For The Classroom (Web-Only Computing)

tags: chromebook martinspriggs
Chromebooks For The Classroom (The Bad of Web-Only)

tags: chromebook martinspriggs
Chromebooks For The Classroom – Back To 7th Grade

tags: chromebook martinspriggs
What is the soul of Chromebooks?

tags: chromebook steveloosley
Google Chromebooks: drawbacks and limitations (part 3)

tags: chromebook steveloosley
Google Chromebooks: I'll show you how to make the move (part 4)

Actually, logmein seems to work just fine.

tags: chromebook steveloosley
Google Chromebooks vs. Traditional Computers (part 2)

tags: chromebook steveloosley
Google Chromebooks: What are they? (part 1)

tags: chromebook steveloosley
Chromebook Security

tags: Security chromebook
Crossing the Digital Divide

Bridges and Barriers to Digital Inclusion: Now that we’ve reached the second decade of the new millennium, how is digital access changing, and what are the implications for schools?

tags: 1-1 1:1 1to1 21stcenturylearning 21stcenturyskills 21stcentury rationale
Jeff Vail's YouTube Channel 2

tags: leydenflippedclassroom flippedclassroom
Evidence of Learning 2.0

Great selection of tools

tags: tools web2.0 21stcentury 21stcenturylearning 21stcenturyskills instruction
Google A-Z - Google Docs

tags: google google docs
JoinOpenClass's Channel - YouTube

tags: youtube 1:1 1to1 1-1 lms 21stcenturylearning 21stcenturyskills 21stcentury openclass
Education Week: Publishers Turn to Cloud Computing to Offer Digital Content

tags: cloudbased cloud textbooks 1:1 1to1 1-1 21stcenturylearning 21stcenturyskills 21stcentury edtech
OpenClass Tutorial

OpenClass, a free LMS by Pearson is designed for deep integration with Google Apps. Sweeet.

tags: google google apps 1-1 1:1 1to1 21stcentury 21stcenturylearning 21stcenturyskills lms

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Links supporting "rationale" for a 1-1 environment

2011-10-15T15:32:00.001-07:00

As I've been going through my Diigo links, I realize that I've needed to clean them up a bit. Sometimes, you save links on the fly and don't really tag them effectively or consistently. But since we have had a rather stimulating conversation about technology in our district lately, I've endeavored to organize some of the links and resources I've culled. One of the tags I've added is "rationale", as in: "rationale for going 1 to1". Why would we even consider doing such a crazy, exhausting, terrifying thing? Well, watch these videos and read these blogs. They don't all deal with technology, but a 1-1 environment isn't about the technology. It's about making possible what these amazing people are talking about and writing about here:

Technology In Education - Why?

A great case for 1-1, and technology in general

tags: 1:1 1to1 1-1 21stcenturylearning 21stcenturyskills 21stcentury rationale

Teaching in the 21st Century

A Prezi that pretty much nails everything 21st century learning.tags: rationale 1-1 1:1 1to1 21stcentury 21stcenturylearning 21stcenturyskills curriculum21

Sir Ken Robinson: Changing Education Paradigms (take the time to watch this whole video. You will be smarter for it)
tags: sirkenrobinson rationale 21stcentury 21stcenturylearning 21stcenturyskills 1-1 1:1 1to1
Sir Ken Robinson- Changing Education Paradigms RSA Animate
tags: sirkenrobinson 1-1 1:1 1to1 21stcentury 21stcenturylearning 21stcenturyskills rationale
Heidi Hayes Jacobs at TED
tags: rationale 21stcentury 21stcenturylearning 21stcenturyskills 1-1 1:1 1to1 curriculum21
Will Richardson at TED
tags: WillRichardson 1:1 1to1 1-1 21stcenturylearning 21stcenturyskills 21stcentury rationale
Learning to Change, Changing to Learn
tags: 1:1 1to1 1-1 21stcenturylearning 21stcenturyskills 21stcentury rationale
21st Century Learning: We Need to Change How We Teach
21st Century Learning: We Need to Change How We Teach
tags: 1:1 1to1 1-1 21stcenturylearning 21stcenturyskills 21stcentury rationale
The Seven Steps to Becoming a 21st Century School or District | Edutopia
tags: 1:1 1to1 1-1 21stcenturylearning 21stcentury kenkay rationale
Becoming a 21st Century School or District, Step 1: Adopt Your Vision | Edutopia
tags: 1:1 1to1 1-1 21stcenturylearning 21stcenturyskills 21stcentury kenkay rationale
T&L_Large
David Warlick and David Jakes bring it. "Can a teacher be good without using technology? Yes. But are they doing their job? No." D Warlick @ 3:10
tags: 1-1 1to1 1:1 21stcentury 21stcenturylearning 21stcenturyskills rationale
How Technology Fuels Learning | MindShift
tags: 1-1 1to1 1:1 21stcentury 21stcenturyskills 21stcenturylearning technology edtech rationale
Technology Does Not Equal 21st Century Learning | Connected Principals
tags: rationale 21stcentury 21stcenturylearning 21stcenturyskills 1-1 1to1 1:1 google
20th vs 21st Century Classroom
tags: rationale 21stcentury 21stcenturylearning 21stcenturyskills 1:1 1to1 1-1
21st Century Education in New Brunswick, Canada | quietube
tags: rationale youtube education 1-1 1:1 1to1 21stcentury 21stcenturyskills 21stcenturylearning
Adam Bellow- The Tech Commandments
tags: rationale 21stcentury 21stcenturylearning 21stcenturyskills 1to1 1:1 1-1 edtech
Education Needs a Digital-Age Upgrade - NYTimes.com
tags: rationale 1-1 1to1 1:1 21stcenturyskills 21stcentury 21stcenturylearning
‪The Mooresville (NC) Tech Revolution‬‏ - YouTube
tags: 1-1 1to1 1:1 edtech 21stcenturyskills mooresville 21stcenturylearning 21stcentury rationale
‪20th Century & 21st Century Teachers‬‏ - YouTube
tags: rationale youtube 21stcenturylearning 21stcentury technology 1:1 1-1 1to1

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Why I like the Chromebook: Update 12/10/2011

2011-10-10T05:19:00.000-07:00

Update 12/10/2011: On Thursday, December 8, The Leyden High School District 212 Board of Education approved 1-1 computing in 2012/2013 with the Chromebook as the primary device. Many thanks to all who collaborated with us on this proposal, and many thanks to the Board.

This is a game changer for our students, but now the real work begins.

Backing up a bit, on Monday, December 6 and Tuesday, December 7, Leyden administration held staff meetings at East Leyden and West Leyden, respectively. Our intent was to inform the staff about the content of the 12/8 proposal to the Board and answer as many questions as possible. The videos below are the recording of the presentation from 12/6.

Superintendent Dr. Kathryn Robbins

East Leyden Principal Dr. Beth Concannon

Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction (ASCI) Mr. Mikkel Storaasli. (That's me)

My Original post is below:

I'm writing this on a Chromebook. I've just gotten one for my own use, and I'm going to use it as my main computer for the foreseeable future. Of course, I'm using it because I want to get used to it, but I also want to be in a position to test stuff out as questions come up.

Since Dr. Robbins unveiled our interest in this machine, we've received many questions and comments. Before I address some of them, here's a short video from one of the schools that Mr. Markey, Mr. Wagner, and I visited in Iowa:

Yes, those swivel chairs are awesome. So are the folks at Thomas Jefferson HS: teachers, administrators, and especially students. If you guys are reading this, thanks for putting up with us. You're fantastic hosts, and I look forward to collaborating in the future.

So, why do I like the Chromebook for a student device?

First and foremost: it gets technology out of the the way.

Please don't try this in class.

I see our netbook teachers struggle with the number of laptops that are working at any one time in a class, with battery life, and with start up time. While the technology that these teachers are using in this setting may have benefits, it can also get in the way of learning. While "start up time" isn't a particularly sexy selling point on a computer, it is a HUGE issue. If 5 minutes is lopped off of every class period, you've systematically lost 10% of instructional time. That's unacceptable.

In contrast, when we observed TJHS, the kids walked in, grabbed a Chromebook from a cart, and they were up and running before the period began. It was smooth, seamless, and the teacher was ready to go immediately with no technology management issues. I'm not saying there won't be any management to think about, and I'm sure we will encounter issues along the way. However, from what we heard and what we observed, the technology was generally not getting in the way of learning.

Some Questions:

What can you do if you can't install programs? Lots of things. In fact, I would argue you can do most things via web based tools that you can with installed applications. For example, this question came to me from a teacher this week: "Some of us were looking forward to asking students to listen to some assigned podcasts. Without iTunes installed on student machines, how can we have kids listen to podcasts? "

Answer: I downloaded Podcast Player Plus from the Chrome store for free. I was able to search for podcasts and import lists of podcast subscriptions from an iTunes account. Students could also save specific podcast files on a flash drive.

Here's how I did it in Chrome, just like I was using a Chromebook (sort of). Actually, using a Chromebook would have made the file saving bit a little easier.

Frankly, I find this podcast player easier to use than iTunes. Actually, after seeing how easily this tool works, I can't wait to see how our teachers all across the curriculum might use podcasts.

Look, podcasting isn't specifically the point here. This is just one example of how a web-based tool can replace an installed application, even a program we know (and love) like iTunes. Using strictly web-based tools on student machines may require us to think about things a little differently, but web apps have much much to offer in addition to Google Apps and YouTube.

However, not everything can be done on a web-based tool.

Yet.

In the meantime, I feel confident that we can come up with workarounds for these situations. Remember: teachers would still have a full PC laptop. We know that no one device will fit every curricular situation, but we're pretty smart people. If it's necessary for student learning, (and "student learning" is different than "adult convenience") we'll make it work.

Aren't we doing a disservice to kids by not teaching them Windows?

I am of the opinion that you can lead a full and happy life without knowing the Windows operating system.

Actually, I think it's more likely that you will.

Separate from my hang-up with Windows, I have to disagree with the idea that any particular operating system is an essential skill. This could be Windows, Apple's Desktop OS, iOS (on an iPad), or some other system. There's no way to prepare students for every operating system, not to mention that Windows four years from now won't look like Windows now. Or Apple's OS. Or an iPad. Or Chrome OS.

Inevitably, students will have to be able to navigate multiple operating systems, and be able to move flexibly from one to another. Separate from any decision we make about technology at Leyden, students will have to be flexible life long learners in this regard. So, to be consistent with our mission statement, it's our job to prepare them for this. Depending on their curricular choices, students will certainly have the opportunity to work with different operating systems. Even if it's Windows. ::Sigh::

Similarly, I think it's our job to teach word processing, not a particular word processor. There are lots of tools out there for word processing, and the latest and greatest version of Word is just one of them. But again, that particular program has changed, and will continue to change in the future. If students specifically need to learn MS Word because it's appropriate for a particular curriculum, then we'll address that in a different way. We still have plans to keep dedicated labs for certain applications that we wouldn't put on every student's device, whatever the device: Chromebook, Windows PC, Mac, or other.

Is "The Cloud" here to stay? Yes. More and more applications are going to the cloud- in business, college, everywhere. Many operating systems are really going toward a browser-like interface, and storing things in a Cloud-ish way. iCloud is just coming out from Apple, and MS Office Live is continuing to develop. I'm still not a fan of Microsoft's overly complicated and glitchy attempts at cloud computing, but that's probably just my Microsoft issue again. At least they're trying.

Our Technology Director Mr. Bryan Weinert alerted me to the fact that the U.S. News and World Report released their annual ranking of top higher-education institutions about a month ago. This report found that 61 of the top 100 are using Google Apps. Furthermore, many companies use Google Apps for Business, which is basically the exact same suite of tools we have, only they pay for them.

We have students in the district who have begun to use the Chromebook, and the comments have been very positive at this extremely early stage. We still have lots of questions, and I won't pretend to say we have the answers to them yet.That's why we need your input. Please stay informed an involved.

Steve Jobs: The Think Different Tribute

2011-10-05T17:50:00.000-07:00

Working out some issues: Curriculum 21, technology, and the need for a Flux Capacitor

2011-10-04T20:36:00.000-07:00

Pardon me while I work out some issues. While our school is at the point of really getting going with curriculum mapping (electronic tool going live in January), we're also looking at a significant upshift in our technology use.

So, my fear is that while we're all abuzz with the use of technology that the hard work of mapping will get lost-- pushed aside as something that we don't have to do anymore because we're on to technology now.

While I think "Curriculum 21" is a great read overall, I'm focusing on Chapter 2 right now. Written by Heidi Hayes Jacobs, the chapter is titled "Upgrading the Curriculum." In my opinion, this is the argument to connect technology use with curriculum mapping.

With respect to technology and teaching practices, Dr. Jacobs writes that we need to use the word replace, not integrate. That is, technology should not be a way to do old things with new tools. For example, we should not look to integrate a tool like Google docs into a lesson that might as well use a typewriter.

So, technology should lead us to new forms, new ways of eradicating the keep-quiet-eyes-on-your-own paper-don't-talk-to-the-kid-next-to-you-or-you'll-get-an-F mode of teaching.

New forms require new ways of thinking. She writes, “the fact that we assimilate immediate time and space communications requires new skills for processing and sorting that information. New forms give us new platforms for thinking. What has also changed is the fact that business, political, and cultural institutions re partners with schools in emphasizing those shared proficiencies."

New world. New forms. Newly important skills and literacies.

It should lead us to infecting every lesson, and every unit with the 4 C’s:

Creativity and Innovation,
Critical thinking and Problem Solving,
Communication,
Collaboration.

So, if you're using Google Docs to have kids write, but you're not taking advantage of its collaborative capabilities, stick with a typewriter. Uses less electricity and makes fun clicky noises. You could also work in a teachable moment on educational antiques. More likely, you've got a great science lesson going for you because you probably have a time machine, since I don't think typewriters exist anymore. (Remember: the flux capacitor is what makes time travel possible. "1.21 Gigawatts?!?")

(And please insert your own comparison between transparency projectors and SMART Boards here)

But how to actually do it? How do you start? I know some state boards of education would like to adopt a new set of standards in...say.... June and pretend that educators can completely overhaul curriculum by....ohhhh...I don't know.....August. However, it ain't that easy. (Yeah, I'm looking at you, Illinois State Board!) The same can be said with technology. You don't go from "zero" to "geek squad" because some Assistant Superintendent says you should.

Ahhhh, but here's the ingenious part of Dr. Jacobs' method: One concrete way to upgrade your curriculum, and replace outdated practices with relevant ones is to attack ONE assessment first. Everything flows backward from that. Just ONE assessment to start, not EVERY assessment.

For example, instead of the standard multiple choice assessment, you could have students collaborate on a screenplay, write a script and produce a podcast, start a blog and curate content for it. These are off the top of my head. I'm sure there are better 21st Century assessments out there. Go find them for yourself.

Anyway, by working backwards, this pulls in an Understanding by Design mindset: What are the final products kids need to produce? What are the big ideas? What would you accept as evidence that they've mastered them? What activities and experiences will get them there?

It also is consistent with the fact that you don’t have to do it all at once. You could learn one tool per semester, and get good at it, and not be overwhelmed.

And here's the connection to mapping: “The goal is to formally upgrade all three fundamental areas of the curriculum (Content, skills, and assessments) and reconsider the essential questions that bind and focus them.”

So, here's the thing: in creating a new form of an assessment, you work backwards to create the unit, and to the individual lessons, and you map it all. With your colleagues. Using technology. In creative ways. Solving the problems that will inevitably come up along the way.

Now, here's the other thing, related to the first thing: in doing this you will have created experiences that require students to...

employ technology appropriately,
utilize creativity and innovation,
critical thinking and problem solving,
communication, and
collaboration.

And therefore, you will have yourself....

employed technology appropriately,
utilized creativity and innovation,
critical thinking and problem solving,
communication, and
collaboration.

Whoa. I know. It's a mind scramble. A dream within a dream. A coffee table book about coffee tables.

As I said. I'm still working out some issues. Wish me luck.

Activity or achievement?

2011-10-01T17:54:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed that there's been a lot of activity in the district?
In case this fact has been lost on you, let me get you up to speed on a couple things:

Leyden continues to refine practices to benefit students with disabilities. The Special Education and Student Services Departments have had initial training with a new IEP system, and more training is to come. Everybody in the district has been working like crazy to make these changes.
Curriculum Teams have been matching semester exams with standards. Ultimately, teams will do the same with unit exams. In addition, teams will continue with curriculum mapping.
Faculty, administration, and support staff throughout district are figuring out Google Docs, Forms, and Sites, and Twitter. With some upcoming training many, many more will be ready to use these tools to benefit students.
We continue to explore the possibility of going 1 to 1. Quite a bit of work has gone into investigating this, and more details are coming soon. Let's just say that would be a game-changer.

Again, that's lots of activity, and I haven't listed everything that's going on. Not by a longshot. However, to paraphrase John Wooden, we have to be careful not to confuse activity with achievement.

So...... are we? Are we confusing activity with achievement? Is this all sound and fury, signifying nothing? Is this leading to something? How does it all fit together? Actually, I believe strongly that we are achieving a great deal. We are making significant, fundamental changes that will lead to a better education for our students.

Wait. Scratch that.

We are making changes that will lead to THE BEST education for our students. (Yeah, that's right. A bigger font, bold, italics and even some caps thrown in there. That's how strongly I feel about it).

All the work we are doing has been to build and strengthen specific systems that will ultimately allow us to work smarter, not harder. These systems will work together, and in the hands of our staff, are going to lead to great things. For example:

Systems of Support: Through the hard work of our Special Education Department, we are refining the IEP process, changing how students are served, and improving how we communicate to each other regarding student needs. This year is going to be tough, but we'll get our processes and procedures straight, and it will benefit our students.

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs): With assessments matched to standards, we will be able to analyze our students' learning better and more easily than ever before. But we have to do the up front work first. This year we will begin to test our new data analysis tool, Performance Tracker, with a few curriculum teams. We hope to expand its use to everyone by the end of the year. When you see what we can do with this system, all the work with assessments and standards will pay off big time. In January, we will implement Curriculum Tracker, our curriculum mapping tool. Same deal: the mapping work will pay off in a hurry. This system is unbelievably powerful, it will allow us to work together better, and it will benefit our students.

Personal Learning Networks (PLNs): The internet has provided us with interactive tools to connect us to colleagues and educators from all over the world. Social media tools such as Twitter, social bookmarking, professional Nings, and blogs offer new opportunities for professional learning. While the district will provide time for formal professional training, you will be able to develop your own personal learning network, one that provides what you need, when you need it.

Tools to support learning with the 4 C's: According to Ken Kay, former president of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, the 4 C's of 21st Century learning are: Critical Thinking, Creativity, Communication, and Collaboration. We can use these to frame our thinking about teaching 21st century skills, especially in a 1:1 environment. The reason to bring in networked devices for every student, and to learn tools like Google Apps, won't be to teach technology for its own sake: it will be to support skills like these across the curriculum, skills that our students will need throughout their lives.

With the right systems in place, and the right tools put in the hands of our staff, all of this activity will pay off. It will lead to achievement for our students.

Social Bookmarking - An introduction

2011-09-06T05:13:00.000-07:00

Ever come across a great resource on the web, but you don't have time to read it at that particular moment? If you're like me, I know I'll forget where I found it in about 30 seconds. And I hate cluttering up my computer's bookmarks tab, partly because it's messy and partly because I use multiple machines. I would like one place to store the links that I find and access them, no matter where I'm at.

Better yet, I'm sure there are other educators searching for resources on the same subject. Wouldn't it be nice to share our resources in one place? Sure would be nice to work smarter, not harder.

And now that I'm thinking about it, if you could do that, why couldn't you have a class research a subject and combine their research all in one spot? So, no matter whether the kids are at home or at school (or the library, or at Starbuck's), they could access their knowledge base and add to it?

Well, that's what social bookmarking is for. Social bookmarking works through sites like Diigo or Delicious, and it allows you to collect and organize the wonderful resources you find and access them via an online account. You can save links, images, or screenshots, and "tag" them with specific categories that you choose. Here are a couple tutorials:

Diigo, Part 1: Logging into Diigo, saving a link, using the Diigolet

Diigo, Part 2: Using the Diigo toolbar, and sharing your bookmarks via one web link

COLLABORATING USING A DIIGO GROUP.

Diigo Groups Part 2

Here's another demonstration from YouTube. It's a US History teacher demonstrating Diigo for his class.

For those of you who have not heard me preach on the subject, I believe we are entering a new era of professional learning, exactly the same as the new era of student learning we've entered. The "sit and get" model of learning is ending, where professional (or student) learning is limited to whatever the district (or classroom teacher) decides to roll out at an institute (or in class).

This is rapidly being replaced by "anywhere, anytime learning." We have the tools to differentiate our own professional learning, based on our discipline, area of interest, or individual need. It's "just in time learning" for teachers - getting what you need when you need it - rather than a "just in case" presentation from the district office.

With this in mind, I believe there are three essential tools for educators who take their learning to the next level. There are other great tools, but I've found the the most powerful to be a mixture of:

1. Twitter
2. Blogs (organized with a tool such as Google Reader)
3. Social Bookmarking

In the coming weeks, I'll be creating tutorials for the use of social bookmarking. I'll start with with collecting links, highlighting passages, and tagging them via Diigo. (Delicious.com is just fine, and I actually use both, but I'm more familiar with Diigo these days). Then, I'll demonstrate how to create a group of your own and invite others to collaborate with you. Finally, I'll show you how to join groups to combine your efforts with educators throughout the world.

For example, suppose you and your curriculum team are researching a particular instructional strategy like "reciprocal teaching". You can all individually search for resources on the web, and save them in a group called "Leyden Reciprocal Teaching." All the links you find individually can be saved in the same area, building a collective knowledge base for your team. You could even share them for the district or the world!

Better yet, suppose your class is researching a particular topic, such as McCarthyism. Same deal: all of your students could be saving what they find in a common area called "US History McCarthyism resources."

So, more to come!

Creating Google Sites

2011-08-24T18:11:00.000-07:00

Since we implemented Google Apps in January, we have enjoyed some extremely powerful tools for communication and collaboration. For example, anyone can create a great looking website in minutes with Google Sites, and open it for viewing or editing to anyone we choose. I recorded the following four videos to demonstrate exactly how easy it is. (Note: these will be part of a bigger website devoted to Google Apps, which will be completed soon)

Fair warning: with these sorts of screencasts, some people seem to prefer to see a human face connected to the narration, as opposed to hearing a disembodied voice. So, I turned on the picture-in-picture setting for these recordings. If this works for you, great.

In my opinion, this is exactly what sticky notes are for: feel free to place one over the lower right-hand corner of the screen at any time.

1. Getting Started: Creating a site, adding pages and subpages.

2. Editing Pages: Changing fonts, colors, and adding links.

3. More Substantial Changes: Changing titles of sites and pages, changing themes and colors

4. How to add a class calendar to your Google Site

5. How to embed a YouTube clip on a page in your Google Site

Flipping the Classroom

2011-08-18T13:53:00.000-07:00

So, we've already got one week almost down. In the last couple of days, I've been trying to get around to classrooms as much as I can. I've seen some pretty amazing things- educational tech-wise. I have come to the conclusion that we are farther along in this "digital evolution" than I even thought.

For example, I have come to learn that several teachers (and courses) are in the process of "flipping" their classes. That is, these teachers are video recording particular lessons or lectures, and posting the videos online for their students. Here's the "flip": students watch the lectures at home, and then class time is spent working with the teacher on what used to be homework problems.

Here's a pretty good description of the model from a math teacher's perspective:

Here's the link she mentions at the end. There are some great resources there.
Also, check out the amazing Cybraryman's Flip Class resources.

And here's a video of a couple of science guys (Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams) who pioneered the Flipped class model. Here's their Flipped Class Blog.

When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. If students have online access (and, no, that's not a given), then this method can help students who need to see the lecture again, those who have got the picture and don't need to see all of the lesson, and students who are absent and need to catch up.

There are plenty of ways to do this, from using the thousands of lessons already created out there on the web, to setting up a video camera in your room and hitting "record." Even better, you can use the record feature of a SMART Board. Here's a demo of how to do it:

Digital Evolution Prezi : 8/15/2011

2011-08-15T09:03:00.001-07:00

Here is the Prezi from the opening of school institute, 8/15/2011.

The Leyden Information Hub can be found by clicking here.

District Presentation 8/15/2011 on Prezi

Curriculum Mapping Institute 2011, part deux

2011-07-13T18:21:00.000-07:00

Great stuff today. Lots of information and food for thought.

Some thoughts that stuck out to me and are currently swimming around in my stream of consciousness:

We need to get away from a culture of compliance and develop a culture of collaborative inquiry.

Mapping is the “What”, Danielson/Marzano framework is the “how.”

The conversation IS the map! The map is the artifact of the conversation. Don't let the technology get in the way.

The Core (Consensus) map is the itinerary- the projected trip. The ACTUAL trip is the diary map.

Your organization functions and grows through conversations....The quality of those conversations determines how smart your organization. - David Perkins.

On the 16 Habits of Mind identified by Kallick and Costa:

Habits of Mind: Good thinkers have these habits...Attitudes and dispositions. “What do I do when I don’t know what to do.”

How can our curriculum be the framework to allow them to become who we want them to be? How can we make certain that our curriculum is allowing students to be effective thinkers and citizens?

The nature of the work we ask the students to do leads to the students we want them to be. For example, if we make everything "count" and worth a grade, why would students take a risk?

Could we map the Habits of Mind? Could they be connected to units? (Of course!) They can also be used for norms guiding our professional leaning communities.

Considering that we want to look for important themes across the curriculum, across grade levels, across disciplines, could the Habits of Mind fit this bill?

On meeting differently:

We need to get away from "meeting by habit." The wrong people are meeting, simply out of habit. We can use other methods to collaborate- in physical spaces and electronic spaces.

For example:

ASCD Edge: Facebook for educatorsw/PD groups (PLCs, Curriculum Mapping groups amongst others)

Google Video chat, Google docs, Google + (Apparently with group video chat....? Hmmmmm)

Instant Presenter (webinars)

Today’s Meet, Titanpad, Wallwisher, Corkboard.me, Typewith.me, Linoit,

LIVE BINDERS! (Use as a search tool before Google)

And again, Curriculum 21 has some GREAT stuff! Bill Sheskey and Ann Johnson demonstrated the brand new c21 professional services page. Just great.

More tomorrow: Mapping 21st Century Literacies with Michael Fisher and Jeanne Tribuzzi, Leaders and Leadership Teams with Debbie Sullivan, and Using Social Media Tools to Lead the Mapping Process with Bill Sheskey.

Sounds like a slice of fried gold.

Curriculum Mapping Institute, Day 1

2011-07-12T17:23:00.000-07:00

So, it was a fruitful, enlightening day at the Curriculum Mapping Institute 2011. Tuesday and Wednesday, I'm in a workshop with Bena Kallick (whose name I misspelled in a tweet today. Sorry!) There are some heavy-hitters here, to be sure. Among others: Heidi Hayes Jacobs, Mike Fisher (who I've followed on Twitter for some time), Janet Hale, Ann Johnson, Jeanne Tribuzzi, Bill Sheskey, Marie Alcock (who is hilarious), and the aforementioned Dr. Kallick (who graciously lent me a copy of her "Habits of Mind" for the night. I promise I'll bring it back tomorrow!).

On the first day, we got some great leadership ideas and resources for mapping. What I really like about the folks here (that I've worked with so far, anyway) is that they get the realities of being in a real live school. We all agree that mapping is a hugely important process, but every school takes a different path. While I think we're in a really good position at Leyden, sometimes I start to hyperventilate, thinking that I'm going to be sent to curriculum purgatory because our path has been a little different than what's suggested in the books and blogs. Long story short, after a couple key conversations, I feel as though I have been absolved of my sins. I'm really excited about the system we're going to build- we're going to get there.

And seriously, I need to spend more time on the Curriculum 21 site. Every time I look, there's more amazing stuff there. Mike Fisher pointed us toward the Livebinders tag on Curriculum 21 Clearinghouse. I mean, honestly. I've recently been working on putting together resources a lot like some of that for our staff, and there it is already.....and done better. And more thoroughly. I will proudly steal all of these resources for the betterment of our kids. Can't wait for tomorrow.

My Summer To-Do List

2011-05-29T06:34:00.000-07:00

Did this school year go fast for anyone else, or was it just me? My first year in this position has been incredibly exciting and challenging, and I've seen lots of great stuff happening. For example, this year we have seen the advent of a uniform curriculum mapping process, the increased use of data to inform instruction, further implementation of disciplinary literacy strategies across the curriculum, and the increased use of electronic tools to increase student engagement in relevant, meaningful tasks.

The work done this year by faculty and administration has convinced me that the district is at a tipping point. That is, conditions are right for some big-time paradigm shifts in teaching and learning; things are going to get really cool, really fast.

So, I've worked out a to-do list for this summer, not that anyone really cares what I've got going on once school lets out. However, I hope that if I choose to occupy my time wisely, you'll all be able to do your jobs more effectively next year.

1. Data Site Update

The data site unveiled in January is meant to be a living document, constantly updated and utilized to make programmatic decisions. This summer, I will revisit that site and update it to include 2010/2011 data.

2. Plan the Implementation of Performance Plus: Curriculum Mapping, Data Analysis, and Online Assessment.
Performance Plus is the system that we will implement next year during our institute days in October and January. In September, we will train department leaders (chairs and resource teachers) in the use of Performance Tracker, an assessment data analysis tool to replace Mastery Manager. A significant portion of the October institute day will be devoted to teaching the entire faculty how to use this system. We also have a product to create and score assessments online, and I will learn more about this system over the summer.

In November, we will train department leaders in the use of Curriculum Connector, the oft-mentioned curriculum mapping tool. Faculty will learn how to use this system at the January institute day. Mapping will continue during first semester, but we will begin to transfer that information into Curriculum Connector in January.

This suite of tools was selected because of their power and ease of use, but also because they are connected to eSchool. I know there will be a learning curve and we will encounter unexpected challenges along the way, but having one system connecting curriculum maps, data analysis, and assessment will be a great asset.

3. Determine the Protocols for Inservice Time

Department chairs and administration have been discussing the use of Wednesday Inservice time, and I think there is a sense that this time can be utilized better. I will be working on general expectations and guidelines for how inservice time should be structured, and how curriculum mapping and data analysis using Performance Plus (see above) will fit into the equation.

In order for us to grow as a Professional Learning Community, that time needs to devoted to curriculum teams analyzing student work and collaborating on ways to improve instruction and (most importantly) student achievement. In contrast, less time should be devoted to transmission of information. We have other ways to make departmental announcements.

4. Help Develop the Special Education Website
We will develop an electronic area for all things Special Education at Leyden. This site will include items like the purpose and structure of IEP meetings, roles of participants, and the method by which we schedule and offer accommodations to students. Furthermore, we will post an FAQ document based on the comments submitted during the "Special Education at Leyden" webinar in April.

5. Streamline District Communication Processes

We have experimented with different electronic systems such as Blackboard, Google Documents, Google Sites, and various wikis and nings. Individual departments and committees have experimented with some of these tools, and all of them have different strengths and limitations. As a result, we have more information available to us electronically at all times. However, it's all over the place. This summer, I would like to streamline how meeting minutes and department activities are collected and accessed by all of us.

6. Finish the "Plan on a Page"
The School Improvement Team has been working on a document that concisely articulates our student achievement goals, and our priorities for achieving them in the following areas: curriculum, instruction, assessment, communication, parent involvement, student behavior, and supports for struggling students. I had hoped to make this "Plan on a Page" public by the end of this year, but I need some more time over the summer to get it right. I will have it ready at the start of the 2011/2012 school year.

7. And last, but not least, I plan to do plenty of this:

There's more on my list (school-related, anyway), but that's enough. Again, I hope that gives you an idea of what you can expect for next year. Have a great summer!

Leyden Lunch and Learn: Blogs, wikis, nings, Google sites

2011-05-06T13:09:00.000-07:00

Last week, our media center staff (Carolyn Browne, Judy Condren, Denise Monegato, and Susan Peterson, led by Department Chair Janine Asmus) planned a weeklong learning experience for teachers called "Lunch and Learn." For the week of May 2 through 6, teachers could come into the media center, eat lunch and learn about blogs, wikis, nings, or Google sites, among other things.

East Leyden's Lunch and Learn 2.0 blog.
West Leyden's Wild West Wikis and Blogs.

We had over 70 teachers sign up, eat some pretty good food, and learn. Most importantly, they got to learn from their colleagues who may have already tried these things with students, and they got they opportunity to get their hands dirty in the wonderful world of Web 2.0.

Whether they were brand new to these tools or are old pros, it was great to see so many people from all different departments learning from one another.

I can see that this format may just work for other tech-related topics, such as iGoogle, Google Docs, Blogs and RSS feeds, SMART Boards, podcasting, building a Professional Learning Network using Twitter and Blogs, or advanced eSchool use. I'm not kidding here: there are easily-overlooked features in eSchool that can really make your life and the lives of your students easier.

There are plenty of Leyden created blogs, wikis, and nings out there. After this week, there will be plenty more. I'll be working to put them together in one spot so we can all see what our colleagues are doing with kids right now. I didn't even realize what all you have been working on. Did you watch the video above? That could just as easily be us.

Of course, the creators of these items are their own harshest critics; they will tell you right away what's wrong with these projects. My opinion is, even if it doesn't work perfectly right off the bat, giving it a try is worth a lot. Besides the value of your own learning as a professional, your students are writing, interacting, and creating. You can't complain too much about that.

A Common Language?

2011-04-08T05:56:00.000-07:00

This past year, we have started to lay the groundwork for a common curricular language through the mapping process: Content, skills, assessments.

Next year, we will "go live" with the implementation of our curriculum mapping tool, Curriculum Connector. As we map our courses, we will broaden our curricular vocabulary and we will improve our ability to talk about curriculum in a common way. We'll be better able to discuss what we want students to learn, and identify if those topics are actually being taught. Better yet, we will implement a system to constantly refine our curriculum across the district.

But what about a common language of instruction? Below I've posted a video of Robert Marzano, who has spent his career investigating what research says about good instruction. In this short video, he discusses his framework for instruction, The Art and Science of Teaching. In that book, he suggests that teachers should use 10 questions when designing instruction.

What will I do to establish and communicate learning goals, track student progress, and celebrate success?
What will I do to help students effectively interact with new knowledge?
What will I do to help students practice and deepen their understanding of new knowledge?
What will I do to help students generate and test hypotheses about new knowledge?
What will I do to engage students?
What will I do to establish or maintain classroom rules and procedures?
What will I do to recognize and acknowledge adherence and lack of adherence to classroom rules and procedures?
What will I do to establish and maintain effective relationships with students?
What will I do to communicate high expectations for all students?
What will I do to develop effective lessons organized into a cohesive unit?

Within these questions, there are specific research-based strategies to help teachers design effective instruction.

There are other frameworks of instruction, such as Charlotte Danielson's, so I'm not necessarily pushing Marzano's product. However, I think he brings up a good point about building a common language of instruction.

My question is: do we have a common language of instruction at Leyden? Are we able to discuss what good teaching is across departments? Across buildings? Within departments?

Sarah Kay: A teacher that probably isn't motivated by a bonus

2011-03-19T03:23:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I wrote a little about Daniel Pink and his TED talk about motivation. He discusses about what motivates people- what REALLY motivates them. Long story short, the extensive history of research shows that incentives like bonuses don't really motivate human beings like we think.

Pink suggests that autonomy, mastery and purpose motivate people to do good and interesting work, not money. When a task gets complicated, and requires conceptual, creative thinking, bonuses don't work. I would argue that sounds a lot like teaching (and educational administration, thank you very much!).

Since I posted that, the state of Florida passed a merit pay law for teachers. According to the Orlando Sentinel, the legislation "bases 50 percent of a teacher's evaluation on student test data. Teachers with the highest evaluations are then supposed to be paid the most as dictated through negotiations between the unions and school boards. It also eliminates tenure-like provisions, putting all new hires on one-year contracts."

Note that they clearly have no idea how it's going to work, just that education simply MUST improve if you offer more money to "good teachers" based on student test data. No other work is required of the legislators, and neither guidance nor details need to be provided to the schools that now have to live with a blatantly political decision. A decision that imposes a simplistic, ham-fisted, ideologically-driven approach to a complex issue: what will improve schools and what are teachers worth?

Instead, the Florida legislation shoved the details back on the school districts. In this case, because it serves their situational needs, they fall back on "local control of schools." (Note the "as dictated through negotiations between the unions and school boards" line). The fact that the legislation itself imposes heavy-handed and unfunded mandates on schools from above doesn't seem to be about "local control," but never mind that.

In other words, when it falls flat on its face because they didn't think about what they were doing, didn't fund the system, and didn't set up a system that could possibly work, the legislators can later blame schools, teachers, unions, and administrators. Again.

I don't mean to get off on a rant here, but watch Sarah Kay, a poet and a teacher. In her TED Talk, she reads some of her poetry, discusses why she got into poetry in the first place, and why she teaches now.

Thinking about Daniel Pink's principles of motivation, watch Sarah and ask yourself: Do you see merit pay motivating her?

On the other hand, I wonder what the student test data would show about her teaching. I wonder if she would get that bonus, or maybe she wouldn't be teaching for very long in Florida....unless they've developed a test that measures how much you've changed kids' lives.

Daniel Pink and Motivation: Replace "Business" with "School"

2011-03-15T14:48:00.001-07:00

I spent the last two days at a workshop on Marzano's "Art and Science of Teaching." I highly recommend the book and Marzano's work on this instructional framework.

I also recommend the workshop offered through Solution Tree and run by Deb Pickering. Deb did this one anyway.

At one point, she played a TED video by Daniel Pink, author of "A Whole New Mind." He discusses new models of what motivates people in business, but it's interesting to apply it to students and teachers. Watch the video, and mentally replace the word "business" with "school" whenever he says it.

Think about what might ACTUALLY motivate students and/or teachers, and how we actually reward them- valedictorian status, "A"s, or...merit pay?

And here's a similar talk, but redone RSA Animate style. Thanks Mike Manderino @mmanderino

Why teachers should use Twitter

2011-03-13T10:34:00.001-07:00

Justin Tarte (@justintarte is his Twitter alias) posted this great video on why teachers should use Twitter. He goes through some of the heavy hitters out there, those who are posting great stuff all the time. Here's his original post.

It's pretty interesting because I follow many of these folks and have learned an amazing amount about education and tech from them. They're all listed under the video, so you can just click on the link on see what they're up to. I've starred the ones I follow, although I need to check out all the others he's got on there. However, the video gives a little bio about who they are outside of the Twitterverse. It's just cool to put a face with the Twitter alter-ego.

Anyway, if you're at all interested in checking out Twitter, these are a few can't-miss people to follow. You'll see pretty quickly that Twitter is not all about what breakfast cereal people like and what Lady Gaga's up to.

Click on the links to see some of the posts by these guys:

** Jerry Blumengarten @cybraryman1
Daniel Pink @danielpink
Tom Altepeter @tomaltepeter
John Maxwell @johncmaxwell
Aviva Dunsiger @Grade1
Mark Sanborn @mark_sanborn
Pernille Ripp @4thGrdTeach
Jon Gordon @jongordon11
Chris Wejr @mrwejr
David Truss @datruss
** Steve Anderson @web20classroom
Dwight Carter @dwight_carter
** Kyle Pace @kylepace
Josh Stumpenhorst @stumpteacher
** Eric Sheninger @NMHS_Principal
Shannon Smith @shannoninottawa
Alec Couros @courosa
Gwyneth Jones @gwynethjones
** George Couros @gcouros
Patrick Larkin @bhsprincipal
Michael Zimmer @MZimmer557
Katie Hellerman @theteachinggame
Dave Martin @d_martin05
** Brian Berry @nunavut_teacher
Jeff Delp @azjd
Lyn Hilt @L_Hilt
Akevy Greenblatt @akevy613
Cale Birk @birklearns
Krissy Venosdale @KTVee
Chris McGee @cmcgee200
Stephanie Madlinger @cyberteacher
Bob Dillon @ideaguy42
Don Grimshaw @mrgrimshaw
Tonya Thompson @thompson_shs
JP Prezzavento @JPPrezz
** Justin Tarte @justintarte
Mikkel Storaasli @LeydenASCI (okay, I just threw myself in there)

Salman Khan: If this doesn't blow your mind, then you have no emotion.

2011-03-09T17:16:00.000-08:00

This is really cool. Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education from TED Talks

Here's the description from TED talks:

"Salman Khan talks about how and why he created the remarkable Khan Academy, a carefully structured series of educational videos offering complete curricula in math and, now, other subjects. He shows the power of interactive exercises, and calls for teachers to consider flipping the traditional classroom script -- give students video lectures to watch at home, and do "homework" in the classroom with the teacher available to help."

The talk is pretty math-centric, but the idea can be transferred to many subjects. He's got math, science, social studies, and all sorts of other stuff. Whether you're using his videos or not, it's interesting spin on the classroom lecture and homework.

And again, check out Khan Academy's videos.

Heidi Hayes Jacobs in Niles

2011-03-05T11:52:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been a while since I posted. It sure has been busy, but I really need to get better with that.

I recently saw Heidi Hayes Jacobs speak to a group of teachers in Niles Township, Il. Again, Dr. Jacobs is sort of the "go to" person for Curriculum Mapping. She literally wrote the book on it. Several, really.

She is pretty amazing: funny, challenging, and brilliant. Although she considers curriculum mapping her life's work, she has shifted her focus to helping upgrading outdated curriculum to prepare students for the 21st Century. Although the 21st Century is 10% over, she points out that most curriculum prepares students nicely for 1982.

Students in the 21st century need to be able to produce work socially, build social networks, use multiple media to produce digital portfolios, think globally, and work across disciplines.

And technology needs to be everywhere, infused in everything that we do and our students do.

So, what century are we preparing our students for?

Her new website http://www.curriculum21.com is a wealth of digital resources. Check out the clearinghouse, which features free resources categorized by discipline and vetted by her staff.

For example, take a look at Gapminder World, categorized under Social Studies and Interdisciplinary Studies. If you hit "play", you will see the development of the world's countries from 1800 to present, watching as the countries bounce around according to income per capita versus life expectancy. Even if you're not a math person or a social studies person, it's cool. Question, class: What the heck happened to China around 1959-1960?

Imagine the great conversations, projects, or assessments that could come out of that tool in any number of classes across disciplines.

As we begin to put together our curriculum mapping plan for the coming years, (and we are doing that: much more to come soon) think about how we might gradually start to upgrade our curriculum. Many areas are well on the way to doing this, but we have a long way to go.

In her opinion, students and teachers should be blogging, creating documentaries, Skyping with kids in other countries, podcasting, and creating digital portfolios. For example, imagine if kids created an online profile for Julius Caesar, Holden Caulfield, Atticus Finch, or John Wilkes Booth? What interests would they put down for those figures? How would they present themselves online? Who would their friends be? What events would be on their calendar? What would their status updates be like? Imagine the depth a student could go into developing such a project for a literary character or historical figure. Do you think a student might be a little engaged in that course material?

Or, as Dr. Jacobs says, don't do that. Have them do a poster or oral report instead. That'll hook 'em. And go ahead and laminate that poster, or in her words, mummify it. (I told you: she will challenge an audience)

Those are just a few examples, and that's tough to handle all at once. If nothing else, take a look though the Curriculum 21 clearinghouse. It's a great start for lesson ideas. If you want to learn more about some of those tools, let me or your Department Chair know. Or, you might wander into the creative commons, join the Curriculum 21 Ning, and start to network and learn from other forward-thinking professionals.

Dr. Jacobs challenged her audience to start by changing one assessment or assignment. Just one. Go beyond the standard fill-in-the-blank activity and ask students to create, analyze, or explore using the many tools available to them. More importantly, let's try get them thinking and working in the ways they will need to function in the remaining 90% of the 21st Century: across disciplines, socially, digitally, and globally.

Who says there aren't any good factory jobs anymore?

2011-01-20T05:21:00.000-08:00

If you're still unsure why we need to explore different learning options for students, including e-learning and opportunities for technology literacy, take a look at this. It's a blatant steal from another blog, Edreformer. In it Tom Vander Ark dares you to guess what school district this position overview comes from:

Position Overview:

The XYZ is focused on developing innovative and interactive learning solutions that engage the learner and support our culture of sharing and fun. Our blended learning approach enables the ongoing development of our staff’s proficiency levels and directly impacts targeted business objectives.

The Lead Instructional Designer will assess, design, develop, implement, evaluate, maintain and project manage relevant and targeted, competency-based learning programs (integrating communications, documentation, education, training and gaming), including: job aids, leader led materials, job shadowing experiences, coaching tools, web-based e-learning, interactive games, simulations, collaborative learning structures, community development, interactive video, webinars, leader led materials, learning apps, mobile learning, testing and certifications, as well as other integrated staff and culture development initiatives.

Key Responsibilities:

Consult with internal clients and peers to determine optimal and fun learning and development strategies for our staff and/or managers.
Perform and/or lead the needs analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation, maintenance, project management and vendor management of blended learning programs
Leverage the latest in interactive and learning technologies to engage and enhance learning, including: e-learning tools (MS Office, Articulate, Authoring tools, webinar tools), interactive development tools (Adobe CS – Photoshop, Director, Premiere, Flash Catalyst) and collaboration platforms (portals, LMS, blogs, wikis, etc.).
Move the bar in innovative learning and culture development for the managers and staff at XYZ

Qualifications:

7 years Instructional Design lead or higher job experience, with 5 years focused on e-learning or interactive media.
Project Management experience
Client Management experience
Expert in Instructional Design and Project Management methodology and execution
Strong e-learning content/storyboarding development experience, including: web-based training, simulation development, interactive video, gaming, and collaborative/social learning design/development expertise
Journalism/technical writing experience preferred
Expert in MS Office applications, primarily: Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Publisher.
Strong experience with standard e-learning development tools: Articulate, Lectora, etc.
Proficient with Adobe Suite, such as: Acrobat, Connect, Photoshop, etc.
Proficient in establishing training metrics and measurements (benchmarking, ROI)
Proficient with test and survey development tools, such as Perception, QuizMaker, etc.
Proficient with Adobe products such as Director, Premiere, Flash Catalyst, Dreamweaver, InDesign preferred
Experience developing for webinar tools, such as Connect, Webex, Centra, GoToMtg preferred
Proficient with screen capture / simulation tools, such as Camtasia and/or Captivate preferred
Proficient with content management and database tools, such as Access or SharePoint Experience with a Learning Management System (LMS) and Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS)
Expert level certifications in Instructional Design, with an emphasis on e-learning and collaboration/social learning tools preferred
Experience enabling SCORM/AICC content deployment via LMS and content management systems preferred
College degree, or equivalent education and job experience in Instructional Systems Design required; Masters degree in instructional design preferred

Ok, what’s you’re guess? Bet you didn’t guess The Cheesecake Factory. edReformer has run stories about the sophisticated learning scientist at Boeing; you might guess that given all the government funding for advanced technology. But who would have guessed that a restaurant chain would be more sophisticated about multiple learning modalities than most local school districts? When outcomes matter, organizations find rapid pathways to mastery.

Interesting, huh?

Institute Presentation Resources

2011-01-05T08:36:00.000-08:00

At the Institute day presentation on 1/5, I mentioned that many of the links and websites would be would be available to you. Once we get a little more familiar with Google Apps, you'll be able to find many of these things yourself.

For now, it's easiest if I just post the links here.

"Mikkel's Institute Presentation 1/5/2011" You will need to be logged into your Google account for access. For those of you who are familiar with Google Docs, you can search on any part of that title in your Documents area and access the presentation.

"Leyden Data": Again, you will need to be logged into your Google account for access. You can also click on "Sites" from your Google account. Then click on "Browse Sites within Leyden212.org". You will see several categories, one of which is "data". Click there and you'll find this site.

1 to 1 links via Diigo: No login required.

http://www.ted.com: Awesome stuff.

Chris Lehmann's Talk via YouTube. I have also embedded it below.

Bloom's Digital Taxonomy and "High School Stinks"!

2010-12-03T08:40:00.000-08:00

I recently came across a few interesting presentations- one on Prezi and one on Slideshare.

The first gives a review of Bloom's Taxonomy, and offers some 21st century tech options for engaging students at each level. There is a little animation with a song close to the beginning. It's very cute, but not totally necessary to connecting with the content toward the end.

Bloom's on Prezi

The second is a slideshare of a presentation called "High School Stinks" given by Chris Lehman at the Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference.

Although there is no narration, I think it certainly connects to the Bloom's digital taxonomy and 21st Century Fluencies, and what direction education should be heading at Leyden - and what direction we should not be heading!

TEDxPhilly - High School Stinks

View more presentations from Chris Lehmann.

Virtual School Symposium 2010

2010-11-20T10:33:00.000-08:00

This week I attended the Virtual School Symposium in Phoenix, Arizona (VSS 2010). Over 1800 attendees were on hand to learn about and discuss the ways in which online and blended learning (a mix of online and traditional teaching) is changing education. To steal a phrase EdReformer, blended learning actually has potential to be a “killer app” for the current education system. And yes, I get the irony of flying to a conference on online learning.

Two themes emerged for me: Variety and Flexibility.

Schools are employing online learning in a variety of ways, depending on the needs of their students, and the capacity of each district to support them. There are strictly online experiences for kids, or often what is called "Blended Learning", usually a mix of online and face to face ("F2F" if you want to be hip to the lingo). Here are some quick definitions:

Strictly online: Programs designed as totally online experiences, and students never set foot in a brick and mortar school. A teacher is often interacting with the student and grading assignments on the other end.
Blended by program: Students can choose to take some courses totally online and some courses in a traditional setting.
Blended by course: Some courses meet partially with a teachers during the week, and partially online. At Leyden, students in our online credit recovery program meet 5 days per week with Leyden instructors facilitating, but the content is delivered online.

The variations on these programs are limitless. Some schools develop their own programs, some buy programs from outside vendors, some mix both. The Jefferson County, Colorado school district offers a Virtual Academy: students have the option of taking an online version of every in-seat course they offer. Students can mix and match the options that works best for them. What is important is that each of these types of programs is designed to meet the needs of the students in that district.

At VSS2010, we listened to a panel of students learning in online programs, they all mentioned how much they value the flexibility offered by their online programs. They can learn at their own pace, access their learning materials and teachers when they need them, and pursue other interests. One young lady shows horses across the country and misses weeks of school at a time. By taking courses online, she can stay on track with school while pursuing her passion. It was also interesting to hear many of these these students say that they can learn in an online environment without other students bothering them. One young man brought down the house when he said that he likes online courses because, "Well, I'm a guy and we're not that organized. This helps me keep track of everything."

When the moderator asked these students whether online classes are easier or harder than traditional classes, they all agreed: it's not easier or harder. It's just school. They still have social interactions with other students (and they mentioned that this was important to them), but they are able to manage their time better and study when it fits their schedule. In one session I attended, the presenter mentioned that he could track when students logged on to work on their studies. Not surprisingly, most students were logged on late in the evening, not at 7:30 am for a virtual "1st period". Many Leyden students are able to finish their online courses before the end of the semester and can work on other subjects. During the summer, students in the credit recovery sections had tremendous motivation to finish their courses: once they were done, they were free to enjoy the rest of their summer.

Online learning is certainly not for every student and every situation. Furthermore, the emergence of online learning does not mean teachers will be replaced by platoons of laptop carts. In these models, the teacher's role may look different, but there is always a teacher involved. The adult may be a facilitator, or they may grade and submit feedback electronically, or they may talk to students via Skype. Regardless, real humans will always be necessary for the learning process.

What do know is that technology is changing the game. We now have opportunities for communication, collaboration, and delivering content that we have never had before. Once you realize that there are different options for breaking out of traditional time constraints, that learning does not necessarily have to happen from 7:30 to 2:30 from August to June, a world of opportunities emerge. At Leyden we are exploring these options for our students and have already had some great successes. We will continue to adjust our program to meet the needs of our students and give them the flexibility to learn in ways that work best for them.

Here are a couple very informative blog posts from "The Innovative Educator", another great blog to follow.

"Introduction to Online Learning". This post includes a list of common terms common to online learning, and links to resources from The International Association of K12 Online Learning (iNacol).
In addition, The Innovative Educator also posted a list of 10 reasons students say they prefer online learning.

A really long post about Curriculum Mapping, Instruction and Assessment

2010-11-11T06:19:00.000-08:00

If you're reading this blog, you can head to another page that I've titled "Curriculum Mapping: What We've Learned and Where We're Going." The link is along the top, next to "Institute and Inservice Calendar."

If you're subscribing to this blog and reading via Google Reader or some mobile app, you can get to the page here:

http://leydenasci.blogspot.com/p/curriculum-mapping-resources.html

I needed to make it a separate page, because I want to leave it up for a while and give people a chance to read it when they need it. This way, it won't get buried by other (much shorter) blog posts.

We've started our curriculum mapping journey, and I have tried to answer questions and address issues that will no doubt come up from time to time. So, take a look if you can.

Changing Education Paradigms- the Animated Version by Sir Ken Robinson

2010-10-23T13:08:00.000-07:00

The following is an animated adaptation of a much longer presentation by Sir Ken Robinson. The whole presentation can be found here.

This is a great presentation and he has some important things to say. Entertaining and highly recommended.

Mapping Feedback

2010-10-19T05:06:00.000-07:00

Curriculum Mapping Kick-Off

2010-09-30T18:04:00.000-07:00

So, we've officially started down the path of curriculum mapping. Here is the presentation I gave on 9/29, along with links to some live maps. Again, the map links are here for the format, not necessarily the content. I'm eagerly looking forward to our institute with Mike Rush on the 8th!

Nanuet Union School District
http://nufsd.rubiconatlas.org/c/etc/options.php?UserID=0

Jakarta International School
http://jisedu.rubiconatlas.org/c/etc/options.php?UserID=0

Graded School in Sao Paulo, Brazil
http://graded.rubiconatlas.org/c/etc/options.php?UserID=0

This is a little different format, but check out Pennsylvania's Curriculum Framework.

Curriculum Mapping Presentation 9/29 on Prezi

Superman and Education Nation Update

2010-09-28T18:19:00.000-07:00

So, another whirl around the blogosphere has turned up some good resources.

First and foremost: you need to check out Anthony Cody's blog "Living in Dialogue." This guy is the real deal: articulate, passionate, and immersed in the issues at play surrounding the Education Nation/Opraganda circus. If he can't get you fired up, you may need to have your pulse checked. In addition, Facebook's Letters to Obama page has some interesting posts.

And finally, the New Yorker has a good, sensible article about the insinuations and implications about charter schools and tenure made in "Waiting for Superman".

Anyone seen "Network" yet?

"Waiting for Superman" and "Education Nation" on NBC

2010-09-26T18:55:00.000-07:00

In case you missed it, we had a bit of an explosion of education-related talk in the media this weekend. On Friday, Oprah showcased a new documentary called "Waiting for Superman." I haven't seen the film, so I can't really comment on it. However, it has caused a certain amount of controversy.

Essentially, it is an attempt to investigate and indict the United States education system. I'm sure many of the filmmakers' points have merit. However, at one point, it follows the story of a group of elementary school students who have to enter a lottery to get into a selective charter school, and the heartbreak some experience when they "lose" the lottery and are forced to attend their local public school. Can you see where this is going?

AFT President Randi Weingarten wrote a review which you can read here.

Oprah, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Arne Duncan have fully entered the discussion using the words "charter schools" and "choice" with increasing regularity. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg dramatically appeared on Friday's show to offer $100 million to Newark, N.J.'s school system. The mayor of Newark strongly supports charter schools and vouchers. Coincidentally, a reportedly unflattering film about Zuckerberg and the founding of Facebook called "The Social Network" opens October 1.

Furthermore, NBC devoted the majority of the Sunday "Today Show", and large chunks of MSNBC programming to what they have called "Education Nation". The official website is here. From the website (Sponsored in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, btw), you can read the following:

"Education Nation is a nationally broadcast, in-depth conversation about improving education in America. During an interactive summit on Rockefeller Plaza, parents, teachers**, and students will come together with leaders in politics, business, and technology to discuss the challenges and opportunities in education today. In addition, NBC News will turn Rockefeller Plaza into a “Learning Plaza," a series of five galleries, open to the public, which will allow visitors to explore America's educational "ecosystem." During the entire week of September 26th, NBC News will highlight education stories as well as broadcast live from the Plaza"

** Editor's note: the amount to which they invited educators to participate in this discussion is ....debatable.

All in all, there's plenty of money and ego flying around from a lot of celebrities, billionaires, and politicians who purport to want to "fix" education.

Are you feeling icky yet?

Better yet: Ever seen "The Fly"? Remember Geena Davis's line? "Be afraid. Be very afraid."

Well, one interesting product of all of this politician and celebrity-heavy "conversation" has been that educators have taken notice and are doing what they can to make their voices heard however they can. In my opinion, it has a refreshing "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore!" feeling. (Young people, that line is from a movie called "Network". Go see it.)

I strongly suggest that you do what you can to get up to speed on these "Waiting for Superman/Oprah/Education Nation" events, if you haven't already, and make your voice heard however you can. Call a congressman, add a comment to a blog, watch the events as they unfold this week on MSNBC, whatever. Due to the overwhelming response to Friday's show (and corresponding ratings, no doubt), Oprah has announced that Monday's show will continue the "Waiting for Superman" topic.

As educators, we tend to try to follow the rules as best we can. We're rule followers at heart: that's one reason we succeeded in school and became educators in the first place, right? We play the traditional school game well: do what you're told. But there comes a point at which we have to let the public know what sort of nonsense we've had to deal with since the passage of NCLB. More importantly, we need to let the public know what we really do for kids, no matter what a Kafka-esque accountability system leads them to believe. (Maybe it's more of a Joseph Heller "Catch-22"-esque system. Or a "What if Michael Scott from 'The Office' ran the Department of Education"-esque system?) English teachers: help me out here.

Anyway, I hope some of this leads to a more honest national discussion on education, and helps educators to find a way to "go wide" with their stories. If the public only really know what we do for kids........

Here are some links to get you up on the discussion:

Tom Whitby's reflection on the town hall meeting.
Some of the untold truths behind "Waiting for Superman" from The Nation.
Appropriately angry, this guy nails it in a blog post: "Education Nation", "Oprah", and "Waiting for Superman".
NEA's points to consider regarding "Waiting for Superman".
http://www.notwaitingforsuperman.org from Rethinking Schools.
You want to read comments from someone who REALLY hates what's going on? Read Diane Ravitch's Twitter feed here. Furthermore, read why you should care who Diane Ravitch is here. Evidently, Amazon.com's CEO facilitated a meeting between Facebook's CEO and Newark, NJ's mayor. Strangely, Amazon mysteriously suspended sales of Ravitch's book on this week. Coincidence? Yeah, I know I sound like a conspiracy theorist here, but that's just weird.
A live blog from edweek.org of the "Teacher Town Hall" that occurred on MSNBC Sunday as it occurred.
A collection of blog responses to Education Nation from educators based on what's actually working in schools.
A twitter search of the posts around the world commenting on Education Nation. You will find exponentially more resources via Twitter than what I've posted above. In fact, most of what I posted I found through Twitter (See explanation below).

A brief explanation of Twitter searches:
If you're not a Twitter person, you should be. The "discussion" that NBC seemed to believe it initiated about education is happening literally all the time on Twitter. People who use Twitter a lot often "tag" their posts to make them easier to search and focus on a particular topic by using a hashtag "#", followed by a keyword like "educationnation". So, people commenting on Education Nation, and posting links to blogs and articles have been adding "#educationnation" to their posts.

You can use something like Tweetgrid to easily search those comments. As they're posted, they pop up in real time. By doing this, you can see how a Twitter conversation develops (it's a little messy), and find all sorts of great resources in the process. The link I posted above is a search of the #educationnation posts.

Another search that will send an incredible amount of resources your way is #edchat. Here's a Tweetgrid search of that.

Statistics instead of calculus?

2010-09-24T14:37:00.000-07:00

Alright, posting a TEDTalks is totally unoriginal, but it's Friday at 4:35 pm and I like this one. Arthur Benjamin argues that all math education should lead to statistics, instead of calculus as it does today. I think he has a point, especially considering how "data" is meant to drive our instruction nowadays, and teachers are typically not trained to deal with data. Most teachers probably had to slog through a calculus course at one time or another, though.....

Lessons from the Hole in the Wall: TED Talks

2010-09-10T17:44:00.000-07:00

TED talks are absolutely fascinating. (http://www.ted.com/) It's all about really smart people talking about really cool things, pushing the envelope in every field imaginable. You will not feel dumber for having watched any of these talks, so do yourself a favor and start watching them. Listen to Sugata Mitra talk about the amazing amount of learning that happened when when he leaves the internet in the street (literally) for impoverished kids to find, and he leaves them to their own devices. It makes me think about the amount of hand-holding we feel we have to do for our students. Maybe (just maybe) kids don't always need the carefully structured environments we cultivate in our schools. In the words of Arthur C. Clarke, "when children have interest, education happens".

21st Century Education in New Brunswick, Canada

2010-08-29T09:33:00.000-07:00

So, this is a pretty slick video produced by the New Brunswick, Canada school district. I'm not even sure who their target audience is. (Community, I'm guessing...?) Regardless, I think their message is presented powerfully.

"EDUCATION IS ABOUT ADAPTING TO A CHANGING WORLD."

Merit Pay, Teacher Pay, and Value Added Measures

2010-08-18T19:51:00.000-07:00

So, we're hearing a lot about using a growth model to measure teacher effectiveness: a comparison of "before" scores to "after" scores to measure student growth. Make sense, right? Here's a quick video explaining why it might not be so simple.

Wordle of my Opening of School Comments 2010

2010-08-14T05:04:00.001-07:00

The 7 Things New Teachers Want To Know on the First Day of School

2010-07-25T12:17:00.000-07:00

In past years, we have spent a good deal of time in new teacher orientation discussing Harry and Rosemary Wong's "The First Days of School". It's a great book for new teachers (and veterans as well!), particularly stressing the importance of the procedures and routines teachers should communicate and rehearse with students on the first days of school. There is a lot more to the book, but it's very user-friendly, and provides excellent strategies to start off the year, and a career.

For a variety of reasons, we have less time to discuss "The First Days of School", and I've been asked to summarize the book for our new hirees in 30 minutes. Not a particularly easy task.

So, as I was trying to figure out how to cram this massive amount of material into our new teachers' brains in a half hour, I quickly realized how ridiculous a prospect this was. Furthermore, I was in danger of inflicting the pedagogical sin of "coverage" on our new teachers, one that I would never want them to emulate in their own classes. "Because I have covered it (meaning I have said it once and put the words on a powerpoint) you have learned it". Ugh. What horrible modeling!

However, in "The First Days of School", the Wongs discuss the 7 things students want to know on the first day of school. These are:

1. Am I in the right room?

2. Where am I supposed to sit?

3. What are the rules in this classroom?

4. What will I be doing this year?

5. How will I be graded?

6. Who is this teacher as a person?

7. Will you treat me as a human being?

It occurred to me that new teachers, like new students, want to know -need to know--these things from their school leadership. They might take on a slightly different form, but for all our pontificating and info-overloading, these are the things that they really want to know.

I mean, honestly, before we can get to any of the Mission and Vision stuff, the Marzano teaching strategies, the educational philosophy, the RtI stuff, the cool educational technology stuff, or ANYTHING else, teachers need to know the answers to these questions.

Below I have translated the "7 Things Students Want to Know" into "The 7 Things New Teachers Want To Know". While giving our new teachers some resources on "The First Days of School" (including the book itself), I've decided this is what I should concentrate on.

Students want to know: 1. Am I in the right room? and 2. Where am I supposed to sit?

New teachers want to know: 1. Where is my classroom? and 2. Where can I put my stuff?

Students want to know.....What are the rules in this classroom?

New Teachers want to know..... What are the rules that I am supposed to follow? What are the procedures for tardies, attendance, and grading? When am I supposed to be here? What’s the dress code?

Even though these might seem to be "trivial" questions, they are absolutely crucial to a new teacher. Before we get upset that some procedure isn't being followed, why not make sure they know the "simple" rules, and have a place to obtain that info in case they forget (like all of us do).

Students want to know.....What will I be doing this year?

New Teachers want to know..... What will I be teaching this year? This includes: who are my colleagues? What am I expected to contribute to the curriculum team? When do we have time to collaborate? What resources do I have? What are the assessments I will be giving? What are the "gotta haves" in the curriculum? What's "nice to know" versus "need to know" in the courses I'm teaching?

Students want to know.....How will I be graded?

New Teachers want to know....How will I be evaluated? What's the evaluation policy? What is important to administrators and department chairs? Is it OK to take an instructional risk now and then? What are the limits of those risks?

Students want to know.....Who is this teacher as a person?

New Teachers want to know....Who are these administrators and Department Chairpersons as people?

While we have a supervisory role over our teachers, we had better spend some time getting to know each other. It's a long, long school year (and hopefully a lot of them). We all need to know who we're in the trenches with.

Students want to know.....Will you treat me as a human being?

New Teachers want to know....Will you treat me as a human being?

Nothing different here. Both students and teachers need to know that they are going to be valued and supported. As the old saying goes, "They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."

Learning to Change, Changing to Learn

2010-07-13T15:59:00.001-07:00

I'm posting this again, because it kills me every time.

"So, the coin of the realm is not memorizing the facts that they'll need to know for the rest of their lives. The coin of the realm will be:
Do you know how to find information?
Do you know how to validate it?
Do you know how to synthesize it?
Do you know how to leverage it?
Do you know how to communicate it?
Do you know how to collaborate with it?
Do you know how to problem solve with it?
That's the new 21st Century set of Literacies, and it looks a lot different than the model that most of us were raised under."

Math Class needs a makeover- and not just math class!

2010-07-09T05:01:00.000-07:00

This is a very thoughtful talk about why we need to overhaul how we teach math, and problem solving in general.

Illinois State Board of Education adopts Common Core Standards

2010-06-29T05:58:00.000-07:00

In his weekly message, State Superintendent Chris Koch announced the Illinois State Board of Education officially adopted the Common Core State Standards as Illinois' newly revised learning standards for K‑12 education.

You can read his message here.

More information about the Core Standards and Illinois is available here, or go right to www.corestandards.org.

Myths and Opportunities: Technology in the Classroom by Alan November

2009-10-27T17:03:00.000-07:00

Myths and Opportunities: Technology in the Classroom by Alan November from Brian Mull on Vimeo.