June 2009 Archives

Now that I'm a 'seasoned' administrator (I have two years in already!! :)), I've decided that instead of trying to fix everything, I'll pick a few goals to really focus on this next year (see how much smarter I'm getting?!?). I want to focus on literacy in our school, especially reading. We are an alternative school, K-12. Our students have come to us, for the most part, because their behaviors got in the way of their learning in their home school and so they were sent here. Many of our teachers are young and inexperienced. The new principal I hired a year ago, just completed his first year in administration. We are trying to build positive relationships with our students and change the negative behaviors that occur. That has been our main focus and we now have many positive classroom and school-wide incentives in place. I now want to focus on reading.

I want us to know the reading level of every student. I want us to know it when they come to us throughout the year, and I want us to know it when they leave. I want us to do more formative assessments so we can do interventions and help students with their reading skills. I want us to look at the data and make informed decisions based on that data. I want us to start a library. I want us to have software for our computers to help with reading skills. I want us to have audio books and podcasts for kids to listen to while they read along. I want to build time in the schedule where everyone reads.

So, what's the problem you ask? Well, I'm not EXACTLY sure where to start. I don't have a reading specialist to rely on and I don't have a curriculum director to plan with and because we are a small school, we have classrooms with multi-grades and abilities. I want to make sure that I'm not burning out the new teachers as we try to meet the state reading standards for each grade and prepare for the statewide reading tests (let alone the other subjects with state standards and don't forget working on those inappropriate behaviors that got them here in the first place}.

What would you do? If you could give me one piece of advice on how to set up a quality reading program, what would it be? You are starting with no K-12 reading program, curriculum or series in place. There are no classroom libraries of books. There is not a building-wide library. You do have enough computers for students, but little, if any, software programs for reading. You have state reading test scores and you now have a more formative assessment that you will adminster three times a year for benchmarks and monthly, as needed, for progress data. What would you suggest next? What has worked for your school? I appreciate any thoughts, ideas or strategies that you are willing to share. Thank you!

Reggie Engebritson

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I caught Secretary Duncan on NPR this week talking about teacher evaluations and other key issues surrounding education reform. Secretary Duncan talked about several studies that were recently featured in Education Week. The studies major findings that teacher evaluations reflect a Lake Wobegon effect. Almost 99% of teacher evaluations studied reflect teachers were at or above average. In other words, all of the teachers being evaluated are meeting or exceeding standards. Sec. Duncan's question rings true - if all of our teachers are meeting or exceeding standards then there is little to no variation in teacher distribution. Another more distrubing question is this - if all of our teachers are meeting or exceeding standards, then why are many students failing or dropping out of school.

About the same time Sec. Duncan was talking about teacher evaluations and the need to improve evaluations, I was having end of year reviews with principals in our system. Our school system deployed new teacher and principal evaluation instruments this year. During the end of year reviews, the conversation focused on performance of the school in the areas of student learning and how professional development impacted student learning. Also, I asked a great deal about how the principals used the teacher evaluation instrument to analyze the variability in student learning among and between teachers at the same grade level and subject. What I discovered was our principals needed more coaching and support to have these conversations with teachers.

Also, last week I was working with leaders from several different states and discovered that some states do not allow the connection of student learning data with teacher evaluation data. While NC does not prohibit this use, it is certainly only one part of a comprehensive teacher evaluation instrument.

While Sec. Duncan seemed to focus on the need to evaluate teachers and find out those who are low performing, I would prefer we focus on an improvement instrument for teachers and principals, By connecting the key instructional strategies that impact student learning and then providing focused professional development, coaching and support, I believe that 95% or more of our teachers can be successful. Why 95%? That is the core philosophy of a systems based approach. In most cases, it is not the people that are the problem. It is not the people that are creating the variation in a process. It is the system and the process itself. For our system, we will focus on the process of teacher evaluation and provide principals with the coaching and support needed to continue to improve student learning outcomes. NC has focused standards for school boards, superintendents, principals and teachers that are systems based and focus on continuous improvement.

Terry Holliday
Superintendent - Iredell Statesville Schools
2008 Baldrige National Quality Award Recipient

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As the largest educational technology conference, National Educational Computing Conference-NECC, is going on, I started to think about the different vendors I work with, the relationships I have with them, and the characteristics that help me choose some venders over others.

As a former athlete and coach, I decided to use the analogy of a team. When it comes to this part of the profession, I have two teams: an internal and an external. To be successful, I must have a strong internal and external team and I am fortunate to have both.

My internal team is made up of the instructional technology facilitators that work in each building. They are an impressive group of professionals. All of them, without exception, contribute significantly to the success of technology infusion into the curriculum. They are a great resource to all their teachers and they are all intrinsically motivated to learn and grow as professionals. When Jim Collins talks about having the right people in the right seats on the bus in his book, Good to Great, I am extremely appreciative with who is sitting on my bus and the seats that they occupy. This would not be possible without the "owner" (my superintendent), who is the kind of "owner" of which most professionals can only dream. Not only is his understanding about the role of technology in education profound, but he is a reputable leader, a confidant, and allows me to grow as an administrator.

However, to be truly successful in educational technology there must be a strong external team as well. The vendors that I have partnered with are people that I trust implicitly; they are people who are willing to listen and allow for constructive feedback about their product. To be a good leader in this field, which is still relatively new, it is imperative that leaders treat the relationship as as a partner-vendor relationship and not as a client-vendor relationship. Administrators should view the relationship with vendors as one that is critical to the learning environment of their students. After all, they are putting the tools of learning into the hands of students and teachers.

This summer, while previewing products, look at the people that are selling the product and ask the tough, yet essential question, "How can I partner with this company to increase the learning and ultimate success of my students?"
James Yap

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During the last several months, our school district has worked to identify areas of strategic importance to dramatically improving life opportunities for our students. Our focus is squarely on student achievement, and we are approaching this focus through four key areas: Leadership, Engagement, Data, and Collaboration. While we are moving forward in each of these areas, I want to highlight the work we are doing in Leadership.

As we assessed our leadership needs in the district, we determined that, like many other K-12 districts, we had a critical need for leadership development. As we planned to meet this need, we committed to expanding the traditional view of school leadership to include classroom, school, and district levels. Too often we've seen phenomenal plans from school or district leaders, but the real classroom impact was missing. We knew we wanted to lift up the experience of classroom leaders and provide models for others in our district. We really wanted to incentivize the role of classroom leader. In considering school and district leaders more specifically, we wanted to prepare real change agents for current and future leadership opportunities.

Our efforts to address this leadership need have resulted in a partnership with Brown University in the form of the Learning Leadership Cadre. The Cadre is composed of teachers, academic coaches, counselors, and current administrators who will begin intensive study around the areas of Leadership, Engagement, Data, and Collaboration. Each participant was selected after a rigorous application and interview process. One of my colleagues called the process "heartening." He was referring to the powerfully positive impression many of our applicants left on him. Each Cadre member will identify, develop, and deliver on an action research or change project for a school or the district.

Much of the power of this model comes from non-traditional thinking about K-12 education needs and how best to meet them. The spirit of collaboration evident in this work is also key to the effective design and delivery of such an option. While our sense is that the Cadre is an effective design for meeting our leadership development goals, the work of an outside evaluator will really help quantify the results we see through this fairly unique partnership. I invite you to visit the Learning Leadership Cadre website and look more closely at the model as we work through this first year. I believe this is another example of how K-12 educators across the country are thinking more about "how we can" rather than "why we can't."

Dave Dimmett

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Confessions of a Paper Chewer

In 1988 I was a 5th grader in a typical Ohio elementary school. It was a day like any other and my cousin and I were bored. The teacher had decided to teach social studies that day by reading to us out of the 8th grade textbook since there was more detail than our 5th grade text. Now, you may ask how I remember this… He used the 8th grade book a lot. Without any words exchanged I can remember he and I engaging in the super bowl of paper eating contests. The goal of course was to see who could get the most sheets in our mouth. He quickly took a two sheet lead, not due to his athleticism, simply because I started laughing. And that’s when it happened. My laughing induced a chain reaction causing him to get the uncontrollable giggles, which forced the paper out of his mouth and onto the poor female student in front of him. Thus, quickly ending our training to become world-class paper chewing champions. We ended up in for recess.

Twenty years have passed since that 5th grade year and now I find myself trying to solve the same problem that forced me to chew paper. Student engagement has become a passion for me as an educator and administrator. In my experiences I have become certain of one thing. Students who do not feel entertained or challenged to learn, will entertain and challenge themselves in any way they can. Kids don’t naturally look to adults for wisdom and knowledge. There must be something about the adult, the environment, or the challenge that entices the learner to be engaged in the experience. If that “it” factor is not available it is near impossible to sustain the attention of the student.

A great example of this is grand kids heading over to grandpa and grandma’s house. The moment they walk in they know exactly where to head for entertainment. My son knows exactly where every model tractor and toy farm implement is located and that is immediately where he heads after entering the house. That is until grandpa says the magic words, “I’ve got a job in the woods that I could use help with.” Like a lightening bolt my son is up and getting his shoes on. I know what you are thinking, what 5 year old doesn’t like being in the woods with grandpa. Exactly, and grandpa knows that the woods serves as the engaging environment, the job the challenge, and the relationship the entertainment. Because of these 3 necessary factors my son is able to learn from the experience. At 5 he can identify more plant and tree species than his father.

Improved student engagement is a goal for any educator at any level. Although I can’t always take students to the woods to learn about plants, I can still be cognizant of the learning environment, the challenge, and the relationship. Keeping these three pieces of the puzzle at the forefront of planning will greatly improve the experience for both the teacher and the learner.
Gary Kandel

Posted by LeaderTalk Contributor at 11:47 AM | Permalink | 1 Comment | Recommend

What a compelling confluence of events this week:

• California in near collapse as they face a $25 BBB-illion deficit!

• A Stanford University concludes that students in charter schools are not faring as well as students in traditional public schools.

• California Charter Schools Association invents a new scheme to hold charters more accountable.

• California's highest performing school, a charter school, emerges as a beacon of light in an otherwise dark and tempestuous storm. Or not.

So how do these seemingly separate events connect?

A change is gonna come.

I am inspired by Tehran and the passion of the people there. I have been reading "iranelection" tweets from Twitter's Trending Topics. The courage is there. The hope for a better future. The vision of a better way. The leadership. The synergy.

So I wondered how we capture the energy of this historic moment and bring it home from Persia. My state, California, is reeling. The proposals coming from our Terminator on how to bridge the mind-boggling deficit are absolutely disastrous as they apply to our children:

• Cut $4.5 billion from K-12 public education
• Cut Healthy Families (health insurance!)
• Cut CalWorks (aide to families)

Simultaneously, Stanford University determines that charter schools aren't the answer... or more accurately, they are not consistently the answer. According to the report issued on June 15: 17% reported academic gains that were better than traditional public schools and 37% showed "gains" that were worse. Perhaps that inspired the California Charter Schools Association to come out a few days later with their own scheme to "hold charter schools more accountable for their academic achievement."

As if we could be more accountable. My students families are being moved around the community like they are on roller skates. Their homes are being foreclosed. Their parents hang on to their jobs with that white-knuckled fear that the worst of the economic damage has not run full course. 1/3 never had health insurance to start with and now the potential cut to the programs that link children to pediatricians and optometrists and dentists are on the chopping block. Collateral damage.

Then, for a fleeting moment, it is not all doom and gloom: I discover an LA Times article about a charter school that is "spitting in the eye of mainstream education." Hope? One of California's very highest performing schools is actually a charter school! It sits in a low income community in Oakland and has managed to defy all Stanford odds and achieve an Academic Performance Index of 967!

But wait. Not so fast. This school... the one that every school in America should emulate... the one to whom we should run to analyze and replicate; the one Governor Terminator called "a miracle" and the Koret Foundation determined was the "model for public education in California"... may have soared to its amazing heights on the wings of Icarus.

So now I am processing this whirlwind of events that have played out on multiple levels. I scale in and out of them as easily as manipulating Google Earth. First the 20,000 foot satellite view and a crisis a world away. Then the street view. I can see the economic realities come home to roost; I can see them parked in the driveway. But there are no easy answers, no quick fix solutions. Anywhere.

It is Saturday and the first full week of summer vacation for our students.

I am watching, out of the corner of my eye, as motorcycles burn on Tehran streets. The video is shaky but what do you expect from amateurs running through chaos with cell phones and downloading history on CNN IReports? Freedom finds its throat in the fury there.

Next week promises to be at least as interesting. There is only one outcome we can predict with any confidence or accuracy-- somehow, some way...

A change is gonna come.

Kevin W. Riley
El Milagro Weblog

Posted by LeaderTalk Contributor at 1:10 PM | Permalink | 1 Comment | Recommend

It’s cute, it’s hip, it’s a cartoon, and it’s Internet safety but, do they get the message? During the last week of school we had an educational writer from NetSmartz® Workshop come to conduct focus groups with 30 of our third through sixth graders to get their opinions on their new Internet Safety videos for their NSTeens site. NetSmartz® Workshop is a company specializing in safety education for youth, parents, and educators. Created by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC), NetSmartz set forth to spearhead a movement towards safer and more responsible use of the Internet by kids and teens.

The writer showed each group of students, grouped by age (8-9 year olds, 10-11 year olds, and 11-12 year olds), the same three videos, each with a specific message on Internet safety. The videos for NSTeens are targeted to the tweens, between the ages of 8 and 12. After viewing each clip, she asked the students to summarize the message, what they liked, what they disliked, and what was confusing about the video. The younger students spoke up far more than the older ones, which, I found out, was typical of focus groups across the United States.

After watching the videos and listening to the discussion, it was evident that most of the students got the gist of the message of each video, even though all of the students felt that the characters in the videos were much older than they were. They missed many of the nuances regarding what led up to the message, but they were able to broadly identify the “lesson” each video was attempting to get across to kids. We did not look at NetSmartzKids, which may have been more appropriate for the younger group.

To summarize the educational value of NetSmartz from the source itself:
NetSmartz offers a wide variety of multimedia educational resources for children of all ages and their trusted adults to help foster positive choices on- and offline. Parents and guardians, educators, and law enforcement can utilize innovative tools such as animated videos, community PowerPoint presentations, safety pledges, object lessons, and classroom activities at no cost from NetSmartz.org. Many of our materials are also available in Spanish to help meet the needs of Latino communities.

NetSmartz educational resources are specifically designed not to function as a traditional curriculum, but rather as adaptable tools which recognize the demanding curricula in today’s schools. Feedback from educators using NetSmartz in the classroom confirms that many prefer the flexibility of our program over other Internet safety curricula which require integration plans. Furthermore, our program resources adhere to nationally-mandated educational standards and utilize a variety of activities such as writing, role-playing, and drawing which appeal to visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning styles all at once. NetSmartz is also aware of the evolving risks and issues to children on the Internet; therefore, our materials are constantly updated to reflect current trends and generational learning styles.

While television used to be the entertainment of choice for kids, particularly in the summer, it is now the Internet. As more and more kids access the Internet at school, and some with very little adult supervision, and we as educators take on more of the responsibility for disseminating information to students, this is one site that I would recommend to help promote Internet safety.

By Nancy Flynn 6/19/09

Resources:

Michelle Menillo, Educational Writer for Netsmartz Workshop.

You can view this website at www.netsmartz.org.

Posted by LeaderTalk Contributor at 6:45 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

This post is simply an open thank you to all of the teachers and those who work with children in public schools. This past week, we watched our youngest walk across the stage for high school graduation. Hers was a large class (over 500 graduates). As is the case with almost all graduations, we had to get to the site early and I got the chance to sit and watch the different parts of graduation unfold; from the band director leading the school orchestra, the JROTC color guard, and the exciting bustle of pregraduation activities.

I thought about how fortunate we are to be in a country where, even in this very difficult economic time, where we still have public schools, available to all children. Public schools where no matter what one's background, one is welcome to come learn, and prepare for one's life's work. This struck me when I read the names of the graduates, who, thankfully, come from many different backgrounds and areas of the world. I contrast that with discussions I have with friends who are in the military who are busy helping build schools and public places in some very difficult environs; where school is closed to many.

As I stood for the Pledge of Allegiance, I thought of all the teachers, school secretaries, school nurses, teacher assistants, custodians, bus drivers, and "food ladies", who work tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure that each of our children get the very best they can offer. I'm blessed by the fact that I have had the pleasure of watching both of our children grow up and flourish in public schools. Thank you to all who have directly and indirectly touched our children.

I watched our child walk quickly across the stage (after all, there were 500 plus graduates and they had to move quickly), and my mind raced through all of the people who have worked with her, pushed her, encouraged her to find her interests, nurture those interests, and supported her as she thought of the different options she had as a result of her hard work and studies. I smiled. She's decided to be a teacher.

Thanks to all,
Chris

Posted by LeaderTalk Contributor at 7:05 AM | Permalink | 1 Comment | Recommend

I had a whole post ready for my "official" LeaderTalk day last Friday but in the end I just couldn't bring myself to click "Publish." I was a little frustrated when I wrote it and I think it needs to simmer for a bit before it's ready for prime time.

Fast-forward to this morning and a great keynote from Karl Fisch about literacy in the 21st century. Karl said a lot of great things and challenged the thinking of a lot of people in the room. This led to some great conversations throughout the morning and throughout the day.

But Karl's talk got me thinking about my "unpublished" post. I've been spinning a lot of half-formed thoughts around in my head all morning and this is my attempt at putting them together in some quasi-cohesive form.

Most of us reading LeaderTalk and publishing our blogs are basically in agreement that school, in its current iteration, leaves something to be desired in terms of its ability to meet the individual needs of students in a way that doesn't look like an assembly line. Though the methods proposed to address this deficiency vary from blog to blog and person to person, there isn't a lot of disagreement that something needs to change.

The question I'm left with, then, is that with all of this ideology around how things should look, and all these great conversations "out there," how do we carry these conversations back to our schools? If we (the schools) are supposed to "be the change [we] want to see in the world," then how do we start talking about this change at the micro level in one school?

More pointedly, how do we have a real discussion about these real ideas that doesn't somehow degenerate into (a) "If the school/district would buy me a projector/computer/document camera, then I could do this stuff," or (b) "Let's talk about tardy policies and consequences for cell phone use..."?

Is this the majority of teachers? Probably not. Are these equipment and policy issues important? Sure. Are they the most important? Not to me.

Nonetheless, I would love to get beyond them in a way that doesn't sound like I'm minimizing the concerns of the teachers for whom these are the Big Issues Of The School.

My struggle right now is trying to frame these big ideas in a simple, straightforward way that is accessible to everyone and doesn't alienate any particular group of teachers. On the other hand, part of me feels like waiting around for buy-in from everyone means we're wasting a lot of time when we could be moving ahead.

I guess don't have a lot of answers, but I sure have a lot of questions.

--

Scott Elias
http://scottjelias.net

Posted by LeaderTalk Contributor at 1:58 PM | Permalink | 3 Comments | Recommend

It was recently reported that California Governor Arnold Swarzenegger has created a plan to phase out school textbooks and adopt digital textbooks. This notion is getting some traction in the United Kingdom.

Here is 17 year old high school student talking about just that. In the video, the student talks about creating ischools based on the iTouch. This kid's idea includes adopting digital textbooks among other things.

Ray Schroeder has a great information blog called Recession Realities in Higher Education. This is a great one-stop shop to stay updated on how the "global recession is changing realities for students, institutions, and faculty members."

Maybe the current financial crisis will force our pk-20 schools to become more creative in how we deliver content, how students interact with the content, and the teacher's role in the education process. Will there come a day when we look back at pictures and videos of students sitting in brick and mortar classrooms with textbooks in hand, listening to the teacher, taking notes (OK, maybe even some students throwing paper airplanes) and wonder 'what were we thinking?' Or will another 20-50 years pass and the experience Mr. Winkle will continue to be relevant.

Bill Moseley, the 2008 NECC button design winner had it right....who is here for this learning revolution?

Jayson Richardson

Posted by LeaderTalk Contributor at 6:18 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

This post also appears on AngelaMaiers.com

Poor are the readers who do not know of this love. Poor are the students who sit before us starved for meaning. Poor are the students fed a bland diet of narrow reading experiences. Poor are the readers given sparse access to new texts, forms and literacies. Poor are the readers who come into our classrooms hungry for knowledge, and leave unfulfilled and empty. Poor are the readers who chose to give up on the power literacy affords them by never picking up a book again.

Reading without meaning provides no nutrition for the mind, body or soul. We have a responsibility to bring meaning back, providing students with the rich literacy experiences they will need in order to leave our classrooms powerful readers, writers, and communicators.

Bringing Meaning back requires the following:

1. Close Examination of Our Reading Goals: Our vision statements promise lifelong reading, our bulletin boards say "reading is fundamental", and we claim reading excellence. But, how do we define excellence? Is it speed? accuracy? questions answered on the test? We lose our way when we fail to describe and recognize the true signs of reading excellence - passion, endurance, curiosity, adaptability, stamina, strategy, and imagination.
2. Do As Real Readers Do: If schools are serious about their promise of creating life long readers who can handle themselves in the real world, we must be equally serious about aligning classroom practices with the work and behaviors of real readers in that world; asking ourselves: Would this be something that REAL readers would do? If the answer is no, then we should not ask our readers to engage either. This sideshow is a glimpse of REAL READERS in action, and can provide a head start to the conversations!
3. Share OUR Reading Lives with Students. Let students know why you read, what you read,and how you read. Reveal your habits, your passions, your joys and challenges. Be the first to answer and the proudest to model how reading has changed your life. Here is a GREAT example from my friend, Vicki Davis: Reading to Improve Your Life. I love using this video from Barnes and Noble to get me thinking about WHY I READ?
4. Demonstrate "Their Brain on Reading"- Reading makes your brain smarter, stronger, and more able to handle the world. Chris Hale's brilliant video explains how neuroscience confirms this.
5. Let Them Read! Remember what Dr. Seuss taught us? The more you read, the more you know, the more you know, the more places you will go! Students do not need more worksheets, more skills,or more silly "activities". They need MORE BOOKS, (ones they like and can read), and MORE TIME to read those books, and more opportunities TO SHARE WHAT THEY READ with other readers. So, please, please, please...listen to the doctors, and let them read!
6. WRITE! - Reading and writing are inseparable acts of literacy. Readers and writers need one another. When we teach students to read with the writer in mind, and write with the reader in mind, they see the connection and want to get better at both!
7. Pass the Test that Matters Most: Every school year I ask my students two questions about reading: What is reading? Who is the best reader you know and why? Their poignant, honest answers tell me what I need to teach, and ultimately let me know if my instruction made a difference. When they leave my classroom understanding that reading is power, then, and only then, will I have done my job.

Rich reading instruction and experience does not come from buying a program, or following a script. The lessons that matter most come from a teachers heart. Teachers can eradicate reading poverty by bringing meaning back into the process and creating experiences that will stay with students for the rest of their lives. The riches of their future lie in our hands. What kind of reader will leave your classroom?

Photo on Flickr by Tariq Fantasy World

• Reading WITHOUT MEANING - Part 1 of 4
• Reading WITHOUT MEANING - Part 2 of 4
• Reading WITHOUT MEANING - Part 3 of 4

Posted by LeaderTalk Contributor at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

As the year winds down the work speeds up...at least at my school. One of the projects we are undertaking is the transitioning to 1:1 with netbooks for our 6th, 7th and 8th grades in the Fall of 2009. It is both an exciting and daunting task. Our school has worked for three years to build a vision for the importance of technology integration, connectedness, global awareness and the skills the students will need for their futures. We are a tuition based school and with 63% of the students living at or below the poverty level and therefore it is not easy for the parents or school to make this a reality but we believe it is a critical component in assuring the students an excellent and relevant education.

In brief we are committed to the idea that students:

Must understand how to function professionally in a digitally connected learning environment and workspace
Must be able to communicate clearly in the global arena
Must be able to find and use information not just memorize a textbook
Must be creative, collaborative, problem solver who use critical thinking to come up with innovative solutions

Among the many tasks this project demands of us over the summer months one is spending time refining our understanding of the paradigm shift in pedagogy that 1:1 requires, and building a set of curriculum resources which take advantage of this change. (We certainly do not want to use new technology simply as an expensive pencil or worksheet). . With the news of California moving toward online textbooks the discussion on the web have increased about textbooks , their relative worth and what the ideal scenario might be for such an online resource..In a live discussion on Friday with a number of people on this topic there were a few principals that resonated with me. In part, what I want for our students is access to primary sources, to multimedia, resources, interactivity, real time discoveries, connectedness with other learners and with experts ( locally and globally), and an opportunity to contribute. I realize that this is a tall order but in my opinion it is also supports authentic learning that will produce life long learners,

Building our set of resources is one of the fun parts of this project and so I freely admit, it is what I work on when everything else is overwhelming. It has lead me down some interesting paths and into a few very promising discoveries. Two of which I want to share with you. The first is Flexbooks which from CK-12. Their mission statement says it all.....
“CK-12 Foundation is a non-profit organization with a mission to reduce the cost of textbook materials for the K-12 market both in the U.S. and worldwide. Using an open-content, web-based collaborative model termed the “FlexBook,” CK-12 intends to pioneer the generation and distribution of high quality educational content that will serve both as core text as well as provide an adaptive environment for learning.”

The second resource is entirely different but very interesting because it harness the power of being connectedness. It is the Open Source Teaching Project. This site provides a platform for connections between business professionals and students from Middle School through College. It provides for dynamic interactions, real world connections and the assignments posted so far are al about critical thinking and application of knowledge.

Both sites are worth exploring , both have tremendous potential and both need our involvement to help them grow into the rich and flexible resources our teachers and students need. Exploring what it means to go 1:1 pushes us to consider more fully exactly what it means to be a learner in a connected world and it challenges us as educators to envision, locate and develop the best possible resources for our students.

Barbara Barreda
Cross posted to Dare2Dream

Posted by LeaderTalk Contributor at 2:51 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Well, another school year has come to an end. Although the fatigue I face at the end of a school year is still palpable, I must say I ended the year with a positive feeling - one of satisfaction and optimism.

Though certainly a practice that is questionable with regard to effectiveness and sense, we hold 2 professional in-service days at the end of the school year. These days are for any teachers who have not acquired 12 hours of professional development throughout the school year. The sessions are limited in scope due to the small number of people who are able to 'teach' and the uncertainty of how many teachers will have to participate. As an administrator, I volunteered to conduct two sessions on the first day - each 3 hours in length.

The first session was with a small group (10) of teachers from my own building. The purpose of the session was to help in developing a stronger working knowledge of backward design and unit development. Although I had some angst in preparing materials for the session - ever mindful of the dubious value of 'professional development' as it is generally done - we ended up going a bit past the 3 hour mark and realizing time to discuss, dialog, and make sense and meaning out of some of the work we are doing in the district was valuable to all of us and exactly what we need more of in order to design units that are of high quality and well-connected from one grade to the next and across various subject areas. Perhaps even more importantly, the time to have open, honest discussions about educational issues allowed us time to share and listen to each others' perspectives and thoughts - and would ultimately allow us to develop the types of relationships needed to be a real community of learners.

The afternoon session - which I was fearing even more - was with a group of 14 high school teachers. The topic - formative assessment. Once again - the time went quickly and the opportunity arose to have some genuine, honest discussion about the real challenges facing the high school teachers. You would think in a district where 95% of the students continue their education beyond high school - most in a 4 year college or university; and where resources and interest in education are plentiful - the challenges would be minimal. And although the challenges are clearly not what one would see in urban or rural areas - the challenges still do exist - and still do prevent the dedicated, conscientious teacher who truly wants to provide the very best education they can to each and every student from doing many of the things they know and understand to be beneficial. So, this group of teachers - who self-admittedly knew very little about what was meant by the process of formative assessment and how using formative assessment in planned and purposeful ways - remained engaged in the presentation and the discussion. And once again, the opportunity arose for dialog and discussion about how to overcome the lack of motivation, the obsession with "THE GRADE," rather than the LEARNING; how to change the culture; how to manage when you had 150 - 175 students on your rosters; and how to find time to work together to face these issues.

At the end of both sessions, I thanked the participants because I had truly enjoyed the chance to be with them. I was tired and a bit hoarse (it has been a few years since I had " taught" for 6 hours in one day!), yet I was more relaxed than I have been in quite awhile. The openness and the willingness of those teachers who were there on the last day before the summer vacation to be part of a shared learning experience was wonderful. But even more importantly, I realized that structuring 'professional development' time as opportunities for dialog, discussions, and exchanging ideas, beliefs, and challenges creates the kind of positive atmosphere that is needed and wanted by the vast majority of teachers - professional educators who work unbelievably hard throughout the school year to do the very best every day for every child. Anyone who believes that teachers are less than "professional" because they only work 9 months a year should spend an sunny day in a 3 hour session at then end of 185 days of work with 100 - 175 kids from age 11 to 18 with a group of them- and listen to the passion, care, and desire to learn more in order to do more. I am so grateful I had the chance to bring the school year to a close in that fashion!

Sue King

Posted by LeaderTalk Contributor at 6:18 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

On June 2, 2009 I visited the Massachusetts legislature's Joint Education Committee to give the following testimony in support of legislation that would institute a commission to create a Creativity Index.

Very few educators call or write their legislators. Do you? Fewer give testimony on legislation that will affect their professional lives and the lives of their students. Usually, you can submit it in writing. Won't you? We all need to be educator advocates for what we believe is best for children's learning. Legislators will appreciate receiving your point of view.

June 2, 2009
Massachusetts Joint Education Committee

To begin, let me define creativity as Sir Ken Robinson does, “Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value. (TED Talk)” Everything flows from that premise. Think of all the original ideas that have had value in our lifetime: in communications, medicine, science, business, industry, entertainment, the arts. Without original ideas society would be very different.

So, I’m in favor of creativity, but I don’t think our schools are. In fact, I asked my grandson, who is in high school, what he does that is creative and he couldn’t think of anything.

It doesn’t surprise me because in school original ideas don’t have value. The right answer, the correct answer is what we value. Uniqueness, and going your own way, doing your own thing, pursuing what interests you, what you may be good at, is not encouraged; in most cases it is not tolerated, and sometimes it is even punished.

I think we have to have a national Creativity Conversation about the value of creativity and the role we expect schools, and the rest of society, to play in nurturing and cultivating creativity in young people. The conversation must begin here because I’m not aware of any other place that’s considering legislation like the Creativity Index.

If you pass the Creativity Index legislation, the critical conversation can begin. If you don’t, nothing will change and the business of schooling will continue to dampen the imagination and frown on innovation.

Our future hangs on your decision because our future depends on how creative, imaginative, how innovative adults will be in the future. And that depends on what we expect, value and support in schools.

Picasso is quoted by Robinson as saying that “All children are born artists, the problem is to remain an artist as we grow up.” Picasso’s right. We need to listen to what he’s saying.

In one study quoted by Ken Robinson from George Land and Beth Jarman’s book called, Breakpoint and Beyond: Mastering the Future Today, 98% of kindergarteners were classified as geniuses when it came to divergent thinking, which is what you do when you are not forced to conform. It’s a critical ingredient in creativity. 98% of our young people naturally ready to be creative. All education has to do is nourish and cultivate these divergent thinkers. Imagine a company, a hospital, a scientific team, a farm, a high school or university where 98% of the people are creative.

That same study found that as children age the percentage of divergent thinkers shrinks. By age ten the 98% has shrunk to 32% and by age fifteen it is only 10%. It’s no wonder when they tested 200,000 adults, only 2% were considered divergent thinkers.

In this case “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids!” is not a Disney fantasy but a brutal fact of an education system that is currently educating students out of their creative capacities.”

I don’t think the status quo is acceptable or wise for a state that depends on, and quite frankly, desperately needs creative thinkers. Massachusetts’ innovation economy requires creative thinkers, problem solvers, entrepreneurs, writers, scientists, politicians, educators, artists. We need to nurture and cultivate creativity and diversity in all young people so they can grow up engaged in life, continually challenging themselves and each other to have original ideas that have value.

Please vote for Creativity Index legislation so we can begin the Creativity Conversation now.

√ For more information (articles, Boston Globe Editorial, and the legislation's language) about this Creativity Index legislation, go here.

√ Robinson, Sir Ken. (February 2006) Schools Kill Creativity. TED.com talk.

√ Robinson, Sir Ken. (2009) The Element. New York: Viking.

√ Robinson, Sir Ken. (2001) Out of Our Minds. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Capstone.

√ Robinson, Sir Ken. (July 14, 2005). Presentation. Education Commission of the States, 2005 National Forum of Education Policy, Chairman’s Breakfast, Denver, Colorado.

Dennis Richards
Superintendent
Retired, but still Learning & Teaching
twitter: dennisar
skype: drichards1
dennisar at gmail dot com
innovation3.edublogs.org

Posted by LeaderTalk Contributor at 3:08 PM | Permalink | 2 Comments | Recommend

I just finished reading The Way We'll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream by John Zogby of Zobgy International, a public opinion polling company. In addition to compiling lots of interesting findings about how the American dream has / is shifting, Zogby creates a picture of generational differences. From many national surveys, the picture of the typical American is drawn based on generational attributes. Zogy describes the generations as:

The Private Generation (1926-1945)
• Defer gratification
• Oppose equal rights for gays and women
• Vote to cut school budgets
• Favor go-it-alone foreign policy
• Expect to live into their 80s and 90s
• Loyal and faithful

The Woodstock Generation (1946-1964)
• New set of values about gender, equality, sexual orientation, premarital sex, and the environment
• Want to remain youthful
• Endured high disappointments
• Most likely to demand products purchased be environmentally friendly
• Penchant for complaint

The Nike Generation (1965-1978)
• Learned no institution is permanent
• Reached sexual maturity with AIDS and STDs
• Raised by television
• Include Generation Xers
• Most libertarian generation in America
• Do not believe the government is the problem solver
• No institutional attachment
• Live for the moment

First Globals (1979-1990)
• Highly materialistic and self-absorbed
• Caring and tolerant
• Change-oriented
• OK with high educational debt
• Most cosmopolitan age group in America
• Does not expect job security

Granted, these generational traits are generalizations. But nonetheless, what does this mean for educational leaders? After just completing a book review of Learning Cultures in Online Education by Robin Goodfellow and Marie-Noëlle Lamy, I started thinking about the role of online education in meeting diverse generational needs and learning styles. The crux of the the second book is that a one size fits all online learning model simply does not work. Culture adds layers upon layers of complexity leading to the inevitable failure of online learning that takes this approach. Thus these generational students bring in unique sets of cultural qualities. For those of us in higher education, we need to create online courses that meet the needs of our diverse stakeholders. How I approach preparing an online course for my freshman (i.e., First Globals) should not take the same approach as I would in creating an online class for my doctoral students (i.e., The Nike Generation & The Woodstock Generation).

This leads me to the big question: "How well are online courses differentiating based on the needs/experiences/cultures of the students?"

Jayson Richardson

Posted by LeaderTalk Contributor at 6:00 AM | Permalink | 1 Comment | Recommend

I continue to wonder where the instructional leaders have gone. It seems to me that too many leaders are being pulled away from their core mission just when education, teachers, and students need leaders to inspire a new, more powerful direction.

So, I challenge you, instructional leaders, to return to being innovators, risk-takers, facilitators, and change agents. I challenge you to begin the process of shifting your organization towards a multi-dimensional learning space.

Where Do I Start?

What does it mean to be well-educated in the 21st Century? How does this shift the notion of teaching and learning? What are the core values, beliefs, and methodologies that all classrooms are rooted? These are the core questions schools need to collectively discuss and act upon if they are to fundamentally shift the educational landscape.

While each school will create a unique profile, the realization that schools need a richer, deeper context for teaching, learning, and leading will surely create the need for multi-dimensional learning spaces that are permeable, transparent, and independent of time, space, place, and size.

This starts with the physical. The key! Not because it is what has always been there, but it is the reality of most schools and without fundamentally shifting the values, beliefs, and methodologies there, everything else is just show.

The Physical Space

In the physical space, classrooms need to include formal and informal learning opportunities rooted in core values and beliefs: quality of thought, participatory learning, inquiry, and the Cs: collaboration, cooperation, communication, connections, and content.

However, today's digital culture requires more than just the physical space if we are to create well-educated 21st Century citizens. In other words, our learning ecosystem must expand into the digital: course learning space, student learning space, and knowledge commons.

Course Learning Space

The course learning space ties is tied to the specific class and provides access to all classroom elements: content, documents, discussions, assignments, and embeds. This space is not a storage center but an opportunity to rethink the delivery of content in order to redistribute and reallocate time in the physical space for the aforementioned core values and beliefs.

However, a course space is simply not enough. The very nature is teacher centered, an idea that meets the industrial model of education not one where the student owns, grows, and leads their learning and content. For example, look at the common practice of having student generated work such as blogs, podcasts, and media creations completely tied to the course NOT the student - a practice that fosters student generated content to live and die with the course in a bubble instead of remaining with the student where it lives and breathes through reflection, growth, and extension of ideas across the span of the academic career and beyond.

Student Learning Space

By creating a student learning space, the power of content creation returns to the
student, creating learning that is fluid and organic. It is here students become
prosumers as they connect and learn glocally through wikis, social bookmarking, and social networking. It is here that students connect, engage, and contribute to distributed knowledge by way of their blogs and public content. It is here that students create and broadcast their voice in the professional conversations using various media, web 2.0, and an ever evolving repository of tools.

Even more important, the potential to scaffold skills and educate students about content distribution exists within this space: what is published, broadcasted, created, distributed, and mashed-up. From this, students learn to be multidisciplinary scholars, networked thinkers, and life long learners as their experiences exist beyond the classroom. These are creations controlled by the student as part of the greater knowledge network of their peers, global and local, that extends vertically and horizontally both in breadth and depth.

Knowledge Commons

With the new skills and information flood that grow out of this structure, it is imperative that a digital knowledge commons exists. This space is an open, flexible area rooted in intellectual and networking activities shared across the entire community. In many ways, the knowledge commons collapses the notion of isolated classrooms (multiple one-room schoolhouses) into a learning network where sharing, connecting, and remixing defines a community of innovators, learners, and sharers.

The library is a key piece to this equation. Here, librarians help navigate and build information via networks, folksonomy, and distributed knowledge access.

It is Time

In this day and age when content is available anytime, anywhere, and to anyone,
classrooms can no longer be tethered to the content-driven, physical spaces defined by 20th Century methodologies. For most of us, we surfed the web - today's students are creating and surfing it. Isn't it time we leverage this with meaningful, authentic multi-dimensional learning spaces that define 21st Century teaching and learning in a customized classroom better suited to meet our students' needs?

It is really easy to get caught up in all the programs, organizations, and hype tied to the 21st Century and educational technology. The key is not to look for the model but create one! This starts with the engagement of all stakeholders in the three core questions leading to the creation of a multi-dimensional learning space that is grounded and rooted in those answers.

Ryan Bretag
Coordinator of Instructional Technology
Glenbrook North High School
Blog: Metanoia

Posted by LeaderTalk Contributor at 11:04 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

When the nation's largest union agrees to join the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in their recommendations for school reform, you know things are getting hard to sort out.

I find the following news release and the report from The New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce to be curious.

On March 10th, two of the nation’s leading business groups joined with the nation’s largest education employees union to announce they “urge states and the federal government to give a fair trial” to the Tough Choices or Tough Times education reform framework. Likewise, three additional states, Arizona, Delaware and New Mexico, announced that they will join Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Utah in implementing Tough Choices or Tough Times in their states.

Here is the Governor of Delaware's press release about it and here is what theU.S. Chamber of Commerce says about it.

From the Executive summary - pages 16-17.

“Schools would no longer be owned by local school districts. Instead, schools would be operated by independent contractors, many of them limited-liability corporations owned and run by teachers. The primary role of school district central offices would be to write performance contracts with the operators of these schools, monitor their
operations, cancel or decide not to renew the contracts of those providers that did not perform well, and find others that could do better. The local boards would also be responsible for collecting a wide range of data from the operators specified by the state, verifying these data, forwarding them to the state, and sharing them with the public and with parents of children in the schools. They would also be responsible for connecting the schools to a wide range of social services in the community, a function made easier in those cases in which the mayor is responsible for both those services and the schools.
The contract schools would be public schools, subject to all of the safety, curriculum, testing, and other accountability requirements of public schools. The teachers in these schools would be employees of the state, as previously noted. The schools would be funded directly by the state, according to a pupil-weighting formula as described below. The schools would have complete discretion over the way their funds are spent, the staffing schedule, their organization and management, their schedule, and their program, as long as they provided the curriculum and met the testing and other accountability requirements imposed by the state.
Both the state and the district could create a wide range of performance incentives for the schools to improve the performance of their students. Schools would be encouraged to reach out to the community and parents and would have strong incentives to do so. Districts could provide support services to the schools, but the schools would be free to obtain the services they needed wherever they wished. No organization could operate a school that was not affiliated with a helping organization approved by the state, unless the school was itself such an organization.
These helping organizations — which could range from schools of education to teachers’ collaboratives to for-profit and nonprofit organizations — would have to have the capacity to provide technical assistance and training to the schools in their network on a wide range of matters ranging from management and accounting to curriculum and pedagogy. Parents and students could choose among all the available contract schools, taking advantage of the performance data these schools would be obligated to produce. Oversubscribed schools would not be permitted to discriminate in admissions.
Districts would be obligated to make sure that there were sufficient places for all the students who needed places. The competitive, data-based market, combined with the performance contracts themselves, would create schools that were constantly seeking to improve their performance year in and year out.”

Read the report for all the recommendations. The summary report is a quick read at 28 pages.

Evidently in this case, the NEA is now agreeing with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business organizations that competition among schools will make everyone better as long as teachers own and run the school. These proposals are a curious mix of free market competition and state control. Hmmmmm. Evidently 6 states so far have agreed and rumor has it Indiana is looking at it too.

Mark Stock
Cross posted at "What's Working in Schools"

Posted by LeaderTalk Contributor at 6:00 AM | Permalink | 1 Comment | Recommend

With all of the different roles and responsibilities we have as administrators, I have to say that one of the meetings I had today is a great example of my absolute favorite part of my job. It wasn't the kind of meeting where everyone sits there and listens to one person pontificate or the kind where you feel like you're just meeting to meet. Neither was it the kind of meeting where everyone shows up physically but few are engaged mentally. Nope. Not that kind of meeting.

So what was so great about it? It was cooking--the energy was flowing and everyone was actively engaged. Two principals, a guidance counselor and me, the superintendent, talking about one of our programs. Evaluating what we do now. Examining how we make decisions. Identifying areas of strength and those of weakness. Solving problems and making improvements. Answering every question I threw at them without hesitation.

How did it happen? Everyone knew ahead of time what the topic was and what I needed from him. Everyone came ready to work, we were in and out in 60 minutes, no wasted time. I asked questions that got to the heart of our practices and questioned why we do things the way that we do. And every time we realized that we did it that way because "it's the way we've always done it", we reevaluated and planned a better approach. We reviewed everyone's role moving forward before we left and clarified what we'd decided.

Sounds good, right? But what really made it work? I've finally been here long enough to establish trust on this particular team. The three men in the room with me all know that I'm just asking to ask; I want solid answers based on data; I don't want everyone to agree with me just because I'm the "boss"; I love a good argument; and it's okay to uncover mistakes. It's how we learn and grow. I love that I've reached this with this team in six months. I don't take it lightly because I know it takes time for us to understand one another and for them to trust me enough to share openly.

Too often people are afraid to have that open exchange of ideas about where we are because they don't want to be blamed for it. If we can just take an approach that says "it is what it is" now "how can it be better?" we'll be able to brainstorm and IMPROVE. Fear of reproach is how we end up closing the doors to our classrooms and offices and doing the same things year after year--fear of reproach for doing it the only way we knew how in the first place.

The best part of this job is taking the time to watch people work through all of the analysis and come out on the other side with a better plan than the one we walked in with--and then empowering them to make it happen. Asking the right questions. Once we leave our egos outside and trust one another, now that's when we can really get cooking and make real change in our schools. Change that's so slow so often because so many people are afraid of exposing the problems. Unless we get messy and really look at the parts that aren't working--bring them out into the light and evaluate them--how does anything ever get better?

That's the part that makes being an administrator such a blast in the first place--the chance to make something better than it was when we got there. Otherwise, what the heck are we here for?

Loving this job--Kimberly Moritz

Posted by LeaderTalk Contributor at 6:36 PM | Permalink | 2 Comments | Recommend