Over 40, Still Learning, and Still in School

Preparing Our Students For Their (uncertain) Future

2012-02-02T18:17:00.001-07:00

As responsible 21st Century educators, and lifelong learners committed to staying current with educational theory, I do not believe I've met anyone who does not take our responsibility to prepare our students for the their adult life seriously.

In speaking with parents and community members over the years, I do not believe I've met anyone who does not recognize that the world has changed from when most of us were young adults and that we need to build a solid foundation of basic skills in our students as well as preparing them for the collaborative and fluid future they will face.

But, when all the rhetoric is said and done, what does all that mean? What does it mean to say the world is different? The Shift Happens video series started by Scott McLeod and Karl Fisch do a great job of quantifying how our society has changed over time. If you've not seen those videos, I think you should take 15 minutes and watch them. You're likely to be amazed by some of the statistics.

Drilling down even deeper however, and thinking about our current environment, I read an interesting statistic this morning that I believe does a great job of driving this point home as well. According to an article in Business Week by David. J. Lynch, the United States currently manufactures 25% more goods than just 12 years ago, yet (and here is the important point), the number of workers used to create those goods remains the exact same.

As production increases, and labor rates stay the same, it is not a result of workers increasing output or hours by 25%. Rather, automation and an increase in the use of machines and technology is the culprit.

Increased manufacturing, if this statistic is true, is not likely enough then to break an economy free from a recession, depression, or even just a major slowdown. I expect automation is only likely to increase in the future, not decrease, bringing even fewer jobs to the market.

Instead, as author Daniel Pink suggests in his book A Whole New Mind, we need to increase the number of knowledge jobs, and prepare our students to assume those positions. To prepare students to create and apply new knowledge, on a broad scale, will require some changes to how the education system and schools work.

To help parents and the community understand the reasoning behind these changes, it HAS TO BE our job to help sell the change. We have to help create the vision by engaging in the conversations about education reform in our communities! We need to create a shift in understanding so that parents value these skills and recognize the need for educational change and then we need to accept that we ourselves have to change first before we get our students to change.

That is going to be hard, I think.

As education reform progresses, I see the comments by parents in the newspaper reflecting their belief in traditional system. It is our responsibility to engage our communities in the discussions that will help them build the understanding of what the future holds, and what being prepared for the future represents.

Project-based learning is in our future. Problem solving, both individually and as a member of a team, at all levels must be a core skill. Creativity is something to be valued, and therefore we must foster it in our schools. Our future depends on it.

As the Cheshire Cat said to Alice, "If you don't know where you are going, then any road will take you there." We need to know where we are going so we can help everyone in our communities get on the right road.

I believe in where I see us/our system heading. Do youagree that we are on the right road??

Cheers

What is Our Role? What is Your Role?

2011-10-23T23:40:00.008-06:00

As part of the design process for a new high school (opening September 2014) our district has recently been seeking input from students, staff, parents, and community members. I've enjoyed hearing what different people want to see in a modern high school, and also hearing from our architect and representatives from Alberta Infrastructure and Alberta Education re: the design and function of other new schools.

At this stage in the process, the focus of the design efforts has been to ensure we have a facility that will meet our needs in September of 2014, as well as many years from now. Flexible is among the most common words I’ve heard used to describe the facility design. Beyond facility design though, I'm looking forward to when the new principal and staff will begin to focus on programming and instruction!

As we begin discuss our vision of what the high school experience for students will look like in 2014, it is evident lots of changes are on the horizon.

Historically, teacher preparation programs describe the system of public schooling originating for the purpose of helping students acquire the knowledge and skills required to be productive members of society upon their maturation into adulthood.

It is common today for educational reformers and educational critics to claim that our current model of schooling is outdated. Our system is no longer current, some reformers claim, because public education was originally created to produce graduates able to focus on tasks, perform in structured environments, and meet time-constraints that exist as students graduate to work in a factory environment. Those critics feel today's society, however, needs students to graduate with different knowledge and skills than in the past.

Historically then, our public education system has deep connections with our communities. Schools exist because of communities and I believe communities thrive because of schools. In Grande Prairie, our district celebrated our 100th anniversary in 2011, which means the school district began before the city did, as GP was incorporated as a village in 1914. After all this time, I think we need to dig deep and look to see if our current relationship with our community is still meeting those needs.

If school exists to meet certain needs of society, it is a certainty then that parents of our students and their peers within our society have a role to fill in education. Who better to provide us feedback on our roles than those who expect us to fulfill a role? Just as students, teachers, administrators, district-level staff, and School Board members have a role in our system, so must our communities.

We’ve opened a door with our recent consultations on high school design. I hope we keep that door open and look for more opportunities to engage in these discussions with ALL OF our stakeholders. There is a lot to be learned, and gained, from conversations such as these.

Hi. Remember me?

2011-10-01T17:20:00.002-06:00

WOW.

With October beginning, the busiest period of my professional life, that I can remember, concludes. Busiest. Ever. This year I had no summer holidays to speak of, and I have spent the last 8 weeks wondering a fair bit if I may have may bitten off more than I could chew. Glad it all turned out OK. SO, with the experience of: helping to convert our district to a new Student Information System, plus continuing with coursework for my doctorate, while also trying to focus on my dissertation, at the same time as ensuring quality family time (whoops - should have put them first here), all under my belt, I think it is time to start talking about education, education reform, instructional leadership, and technology integration again.

Soon.

Before that, I thought I'd share a little bit about me for anyone new who stumbles upon this blog and is wondering what my context is:

I am the Director of Educational Technology in the Grande Prairie Public School District, and I like to think out loud. I've been blogging for a few years now, and I originally started blogging when I was principal of Derek Taylor Public School as a way to share items of interest I'd found with my coworkers. I wanted to avoid overwhelming everyone's inboxes with all the interesting content I find. Since that time, however, over the last four years or so, this spot on the web has morphed into a significant source of my professional learning. I still share what I find interesting and relevant, but I also use this space to reflect on ways to improve education to benefit our students. It is sort of like thinking out loud, and I enjoy the conversations that leads to, so feel free to subscribe and to share your thoughts by commenting on anything you find interesting.

It's a pretty fun learning journey.....I'm pretty lucky to be doing it here! Alberta, Canada is the land of opportunity in Education right now and we are on the verge of some exciting changes. The Action agendas promoted by our provincial ministry (Action on Curriculum, on Inclusion, etc.) are very exciting. The changes that are coming are good for kids, and I'm glad to be part of them...

Let's have a conversation, shall we?

Cheers

Educational Innovation

2011-06-14T00:25:00.001-06:00

Not that I'm ever really uninspired or not optimistic, but I've been working quite a bit at work and also quite a bit on my coursework, and as such the working on different kinds of work has worn me down a bit.

Until now, however.

Tonight a young teacher in one of our schools shared a recent product of his and he totally inspired my thinking. His message is spot on, and 100% appropriate as we end one year and focus on our planning for next year. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Innovation in Education:

Cool huh?

Are you inspired? What are you going to do to contribute to the change we know needs to take place re: how students engage in their own learning? Summer is a time for reflection. If you come back in the fall with a plan, please let me know how I can help you make that plan a reality!

Cheers

December Babies Never Really Catch Up: Study

2011-06-12T18:34:00.000-06:00

There is an interesting concept shared in a recent article from the Montreal Gazette, and it serves as a great reminder to me re: why (and how) we need to question our existing educational practices.

December babies never really catch up: study

In talking to kindergarten teachers over the years, concerns over the progress of early entrance students (in our district, you need to be 5 by December 31st) has been a common theme. The research in question identified the difference in graduation rates if December students achieved at the same rate as January students, claiming an additional 1700 BC students would graduate each year.

That is significant, as is the amount of money potentially saved if more students were to graduate on time. I wonder how many other practices common to our systems might be seen in a different light if we simply asked the question "What is the ultimate impact on graduation rates?".

Practicing critical inquiry is not just for teaching social studies, :), it has to be an essential leadership practice as well.

It is obvious we need to ensure we are making the most efficient and effective use of our limited resources. As I've shared earlier, Hattie's book Visible Learning is an excellent resource in this area, providing an easy to understand summary of research into student achievement. If we don't ask the critical questions about our practice, how can we intentionally make the changes that will allow us to maximize the use of our resources on impacting student learning?

My takeaway from reading this article in the Gazette: I am going to try reflect more on the assumptions I (and others) hold about our existing practice. I need to ask more questions, and find ways to spur others to reflect on a systemic scale as well. I think my copy of Hattie's meta-analysis might be in for some sticky notes....

Cheers

What Does Society Expect From Schools?

2011-06-09T16:14:00.003-06:00

Accountability is a funny word.

It seems like a simple concept, to be answerable for something, but in a complex open system (like education) it is not such a black and white issue.

It is reasonable to expect people working for you to be accountable for their results. The practice of paying employees, or of hiring contractors, is that you pay them to do a specific job for you. If they don't do the work, the accountability process kicks in and there are consequences. Makes sense to me. In fact, in education we are not opposed to the idea. Accountability, in one form or another, is a discussion between teachers and students in most classrooms at some point in the average school year.

In the context of complex open systems however, accountability is not that easy of a concept to understand. Who is accountable, to whom, and for what? Dictionary.com actually has the following as the secondary definition of the word:

Education . a policy of holding schools and teachers accountable for students' academic progress by linking such progress with funding for salaries, maintenance, etc.

See? Education and accountability are perceived to fit together. As a taxpayer myself I’m concerned about how effectively our system is making progress. But what is progress? If we use student achievement, what is achievement, and what scale do we use? Absolute achievement? Relative achievement? I think in general it is assumed to be, and is generally measured as, results on system-wide participation in standardized testing, but does that tell us what we really want to know? What do we really care about in terms of results?

On the surface, it makes sense to measure accountability by using student achievement results, but the many internal and external variables involved in student performance on single-sitting standardized assessments raises lots of questions re: the validity of that measure of accountability. Consequently, some proponents of educational reform make a very compelling case for not using standardized assessments as a major indicator of progress. But as we argue back and forth about standardized tests, are we really arguing about what is truly important?

Instead of arguing about current measures of accountability, I wonder if our time might be better spent on discussing what society really wants for students as a result of their participation in school? With all of the talk about 21st Century Skills, as seen in Tony Wagner's book The Global Achievement Gap, in blogs such as Seth Godin's (below), and in provincial educational circles (i.e. initiatives in BC, AB, NS, ON, etc.) I think there may be value in engaging society in conversations about what they really want for students upon graduation.

What is truly important? Have we specifically asked that question of parents? Of the rest of society?

Might student marks on PATs and DIPLOMAs be the most important results society wants? Or might the development of competencies, graduation rates, emotional intelligence, and the ability to think critically in any setting be more important? I wonder.

When we opened a new school a few years back, I asked parents what they wanted for their children. The result of that process was their sharing they wanted their kids to be safe, to graduate as good citizens, and to be academically ready for any challenge and prepared for success as adults. My hypothesis is that most parents, and most members of society, would provide similar answers if asked.

Not once did anyone say they wanted to see our students at the top of the Fraser report.

As a result of that work we did with teachers, students, and parents, to define what was important, our school set about identifying ways to report student progress in other areas (besides marks) to parents. We focused on developing good character and emotional intelligence in our students, and we focused on REPORTING on that to our parents. Funny thing is, after 3 years of work, their academic results are pretty good too. (note: might be that I’m not there anymore too. There. I said it. No need to leave that comment now! J)

I think there is more and more opportunity for parents and the community to provide input into educational planning. When do they get asked that question? What would happen if school boards (or individual schools?) held a series of town-hall meetings or used social media or other electronic means, to ask the community what they really want to see as an output of our system? If we had the answer to the question of "What Does Society Deem Important?", I bet it might give us some focus. I know enough to not ask the question if I’m not prepared for the answer. In this case, I think we need to ask explicit questions like that in our local communities. Different communities have different values. How do we capture those in our provincial system with standardized measures of accountability?

Just some thoughts. Work in progress. Love to hear what you think about the role of community standards in accountability.

Cheers

Possessions of GREAT Value and Our Guiding Principles

2011-05-26T23:52:00.001-06:00

In my last year of university, I lived with a friend who was working full time already. One afternoon I was studying intently on the sofa in our living room, and he came home and woke me up to tell me had a new car.

A Porsche 911.

The context here is that a Porsche 911 has been my dream car for some reason since I was a little gaffer. Thinking he was pulling my leg, I replied with a laugh "Sure you did. Let me take it for a drive then, I've always wanted to drive one."

When I grabbed the keys that were flipped to me, I saw the Porsche key ring. The Porsche key. And when I went to our parking spot, I saw a red 911 Targa. Before he changed his mind, I hopped in and took it for a drive.

After getting over my initial surprise that I fit in it, as legroom is often an issue, the drive was everything I thought it would be, and then some. I brought it home, gave him his keys back, and vowed to myself I'd never drive one again until I owned my own. As I came home from work today, 20 years later, driving my mini van and not having driven a Porsche since, I was reminded of that story by a new 911 passing me. And I thought of how that story applies to my current context in education...

Someone I can't remember once made a comment about the chances of people asking strangers to hold items of great value. I wish I could remember who raised that point, I'd love to give them credit, as I think it is brilliant. I really don't think I know any strangers who would walk up to me and ask me to take care of their $100 000 car for the day. Or to hold their 5 carat diamond ring while they go to work. Yet that is exactly what countless people do on the first day of school every year. They drop their most valuable possessions, their children, off with mostly complete strangers, the staff at the school.

Why? It speaks to trust, doesn't it? Thinking of that trust they have in us, it makes one think next of responsibility, doesn't it? We have a responsibility to ensure we live up to our responsibilities! I was doing some writing tonight about ethical decision making, and thought of the 5 Universal Guiding Principles we have adopted in our school district. When we are making decisions, we need to consider our Guiding Principles, which are:

Is it good for students?
Will it help build trust and good relationships?
Will it help us improve?
Is it the responsible thing to do?
Is it open, honest, and ethical?

As I reflect tonight on our guiding principles, I've reaffirmed my belief in their value. Those are the kinds of principles that support people entrusting their children to our care. Reflecting on our Guiding Principles consistently, regardless of where the decision is being made, and building practices that will support their use is evidence of our commitment to the responsibility we owe our parents.

There is a lot involved in answering these questions. We need to use good research to identify what practices are goo for students, for example. We also need to balance costs and benefits to determine if an improvement is worth it. Etc. These are not easy questions to answer. But that does not mean they are not worth the effort. Haven't you ever noticed the most satisfying things in life are usually those you have to work the hardest to attain?

That is likely why I still drive a mini van. But one day. And in the meantime, I have the honor of working to support our staff, students, and parents. More valuable than a Porsche, for sure, but not quite as filled with the same potential!

Cheers

An Evening With Sir Ken Robinson and a Message of Hope

2011-05-18T22:50:00.003-06:00

I had the great pleasure of taking a bus with 35 district teachers and administrators from Grande Prairie to Dawson Creek last night to attend a talk given by Sir Ken Robinson on personalized learning, creativity, innovation, passion, and the need for education reform. Thanks to Lance and the senior leadership in our district for sponsoring the lot of us to attend!

Look how happy everyone is in the picture, as we stand beside what is apparently the second largest semi-aquatic rodent in the world. Next time we stop at the BMI!

If you've not seen Sir Ken speak in one of his talks on TED, or read any of his books, you really should. He's funny, engaging, has an inspiring message, and I think you'll like what he has to say. You might also take the hint: @jenclevette gave me and listen to his latest book The Element in audiobook format. SKR reads it himself and is equally engaging on iTunes as he is in person.

Sir Ken didn't say anything especially new or unique yesterday. He didn't rock us back on our heels with challenging or controversial claims. He simply shared what I consider a message of hope for the future of our education system!

At the 40,000 foot level, you can't argue with anyone who says kids need the opportunity to explore their passions. Who says kids need caring people in an education system to personalize their learning. Who says kids need to develop the skills that will prepare them for a future that we are not entirely sure what it will look like. Sir Ken's message was quite clear at the 40,000 foot level.

But we live at ground level. And things are not that clear close to the ground. The talk today was about what we do with his message. Logical sequential people may have felt a gap today, while random abstract people will likely last a few more days basking in the message before moving on to something else. Regardless of one's position, I think the next step, however, is not evident.

I'm optimistic that enough people heard, and value, the message though and that it will gain traction over time. The same message is coming from Alberta Education as the Action on Curriculum builds momentum. It is inherent in the new Education Act. It is a common message from a number of different directions. It is also a common perspective in all of these messages that I think the specifics of changing our practice have to be left up to us. As a district, we need to construct our own meaning of what this message of hope means for us.

Who will lead our transformation? How will our Board engage our community on a deep and meangingful level to get involved so that we can help all our students embrace their passions? How will our Ministry give us the authority to truly personalize individual curricula? How will our district and our administrators create the conditions for teachers to succeed and then get out of the way to let them do what they need to do? And, finally, how will our students handle the responsibility we need to give them?

Of all the questions in the preceding paragraph, the one I'm most sure of is that our students will amaze us. They always do. And I can't wait to see that. Sir Ken's message of hope resonates with me today. Let's get to work. Together. We need to work on those first few questions from the paragraph above...

Cheers

A Simple Question. A Complex Set of Answers.

2011-05-17T00:45:00.000-06:00

I came across what I consider to be an excellent question on the topic of teaching today. I think there likely to be as many answers suggested as there would be people who might answer it. I'd love to give the question (see below) out at the start of a staff meeting and spend a good hour discussing the qualities of effective teachers.

Lack of consensus on an answer would be a problem for instructional leaders however. Our goal as instructional leaders has to be always to increase the effectiveness of the instruction in our schools. It is clear (and is backed up by substantial research) that classroom instruction is the single most important school factor that influences student achievement, which leads me to the question I came across today:

What are the most common differences between good teachers and expert teachers?

If we want to increase the skill level of our teachers, where should we focus the majority of our resources? What will give us the biggest bang for our buck, so to speak? What should our instructional priority be?

The ability to differentiate?
The ability to develop effective and caring relationships with students?
Skill with small group instruction?
Effective planning?
Effective technology integration?
Skill with classroom management?
The ability to provide descriptive feedback to students?
Something else?

WWMS? (What would Marzano say?)
WWHS? (What would Hattie say?)
WWLS? (What would Leithwood say?)

What if they all said the same thing? Would that be enough evidence to demonstrate an urgent need for specific action?

I'd love to have this discussion with a room full of teachers or administrators....I think it would be fascinating and passionate! And if we could turn that into action, wouldn't we have a clearly established vision of what instructional leadership is all about and a common understanding of where we need to go?

Cheers

After School Sports or After School Learning? Is Anything Non-Negotiable?

2011-05-15T17:20:00.003-06:00

Further to my last post, re: Hattie's book Visible Learning, I've been trying to reflect on the value of different aspects of our educational system on student learning and assess whether or not we are maximizing the value of our investments.

There are lots of places in our system where emotions can come into play and a decision focused solely on the impact on achievement should be weighed against the impact on some of the other goals of the system. Extra-curricular athletics is an example of a part of our system that I think might generate some interesting conversations if a change to those programs was suggested. Thinking about the idea of radical changes to our system makes me wonder about what might be considered a non-negotiable part of our current system.

Reflecting on the impact on achievement is tough one considering the resources we put into extracurricular athletics, for example. School sports are the one place where some students experience success, and can be of considerable worth in regards to school culture, relationships, etc. The problem is though, Hattie says that extra-curriculars, and in particular sports, do not have much impact on student achievement:

Outdoor education programs however, do have a significant positive impact on student learning:

In my community we have EXCELLENT minor athletic programs including hockey, baseball, volleyball, basketball, gymnastics, soccer, swimming, dance, tae kwon do, and skiing, among many others. We also offer many of those opportunities in our schools, with volleyball, basketball, soccer, etc. offered throughout the school year. What is the impact of that duplication on our access to resources? Are we missing other opportunities by sticking with our standard school sports?

I've been thinking about this idea in general terms for the past several days, since I first saw the images above in Visible Learning, and we had a discussion at work about how we might use the book. What if we left the sport development and instruction to the communities, and instead focused our extra curricular efforts on providing our students with outdoor adventure programs? If we changed how sports were accessed and delivered in our communities, what would the impact be on our schools if we then changed how they are delivered in our schools?

Community groups could take over all sports, and schools could focus their resources on other learning opportunities. Instead of running after-school athletics, perhaps we could provide students with other outdoor education opportunities? We could combine Science, Social Studies, and Outdoor Education into practical and relevant community projects and provide our students with additional sporting opportunities in the community outside of school hours.

Considering one of the reasons behind my decision to enter education many years ago was related to a desire to coach, this thought does cause me some not unsubstantial internal conflict. :) Participation in organized sports is something I consider essential for kids, but perhaps a change in focus in how that opportunity is provided could be a way for our schools to meaningfully involve our communities? We might also avoid duplication of efforts, provide kids with outdoor learning opportunities so many of them do not get AND positively influence student learning as well!

I don't believe I'm advocating this....I'm just thinking out loud....and maybe this will generate some conversation about what constitutes reform....penny for your thoughts?

Making Data Easy To Understand With Visible Learning

2011-05-15T16:37:00.002-06:00

It is hard to argue with the role that data can play in informing educational decision making. That we need to make decisions to increase student learning is a given. In an era of increased competition for educational funding it is important we maximize the value of our choices.

The challenge for educators is to know how to find and use data when making decisions in schools and districts. There is no shortage of data in educational systems, when you consider financial reports, student achievement data, community data, etc. Factoring in the data we collect locally with that generated by the significant world of educational research can be overwhelming. There is so much data available, it can lead to paralysis before it leads to analysis.

Recently while attending a session on systemic improvement presented by Kenneth Leithwood I was introduced to a resource focused on educational research that I believe is quite valuable in this regard.

John Hattie is an educational researcher and professor of education at the University of Melbourne. His book, Visible Learning, is an easy to read synthesis of other meta-analyses of educational research and presentation of the impact of different strategies on student achievement. Hattie's summary and the effect of different factors on student learning has the potential to be very useful when trying to decide how we might make the best use of our available funds. If we start by asking the right questions about our existing practice, Hattie's book can provide valuable data for making our decisions.

One of the unique features of Visible Learning is the way Hattie presents the summary of the research. The visual gauge Hattie uses, below, is an excellent visual representation of the summary. The use of formative feedback is something we often talk about as a necessary part of effective instruction. As Hattie shows below, it is a very powerful factor influencing student achievement. If you want to take a look at it the book before purchasing, you can check it out here on Google Books. Much of the book is available for preview online. If you are wondering if class size or teacher training will have a more powerful impact on student learning in your district, for example, search in the book and see what discussion ensues...

The Potential of Online Mentoring

2011-05-01T23:06:00.002-06:00

I have been reflecting quite a bit recently on the potential for change in Alberta's education system. With a move from a very prescriptive system to a more collaborative system with more local input/control a possibility, I see even more need for focusing on the relationships we create personally and professionally.

In terms of building the capacity of district and provincial teachers and administrators, I see a place for an increased focus on formal and informal mentorship as a way to facilitate those relationships. More than a simple focus on team building, mentoring is truly a powerful way of supporting personal and professional growth through tapping into the potential of relationship building. The impact on the culture of the organization is potentially quite powerful as well! I wanted to share two examples that I believe illustrate the power of virtual mentorships on individuals and the organization.

I was talking with one of my sources of inspiration a while ago who is doing some work with the Apollo Group as they refine their practices in the Canadian higher education market. He mentioned that the Apollo Group has an employee mentoring program, and shared the example of a very high-ranking Apollo executive (I believe the CEO) mentoring or coaching one of the young IT employees in Nova Scotia, Canada. They email, talk on the phone, and occasionally meet when the executive's schedule takes him to Canada.

This commitment to individual employee growth, at the highest level of the organization, is an example of the potential of mentoring programs at the organizational level. What does it say about the value of people in that organization, that the CEO works to mentor someone in the IT department? Does that kind of relationship across departments build trust and organizational loyalty? I think a little bit, don't you?

At the school level, in the past I have encouraged young female students from our remote northern location participate in the Cyber (SCIber Mentor) program offered by the three universities in Alberta (http://www.cybermentor.ca/Home.aspx). This program puts talented and interested female science and math students in mentoring relationships with females in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) professions. It is simply an amazing program. It has been in place for many years, and I think/hope it will continue to grow in popularity!

Of course, with children and mentoring programs, the safety issue is something that is of extreme importance. I have trust in the SCIber Mentor program, but I believe extreme caution is warranted if directing a student to join a mentoring program offered by an outside organization, such as icouldbe.org, as opposed to an institution I am familiar with.

As we plan opportunities for ourselves and others, we need to remember that structure is an important part of a successful program. Online mentorship programs, as with face to face programs, will benefit from a core structure, whether curricular or attending to other needs, that shapes the interactions between the mentor and the protegee. Additionally, providing a framework to guide interactions and offer direction for the future can help begin a relationship and guide participants until they are comfortable with each other. Until safe and trusting relationships are formed, having a structure in place can help guide the interactions between mentorship participants.

For individuals and organizations in small geographic areas, I think the potential of building an online pool of mentors is something to consider! As individuals are more and more connected outside of traditional work hours, there is benefit to this sort of relationship as well.

I think it is something worth considering! Our people are the most important resource we have in a school district, and more than any supplies we could possibly buy, they are essential to the achievement of our students! If differentiating the support our adults get helps the students, it makes sense, doesn't it?

Cheers

The Ethics of Globalization

2011-03-24T00:40:00.002-06:00

A lot of consideration is being given to globalization, and to corresponding changes that may be necessary to prepare our students for an increasingly global society. Personally, I think that is a good thing!

I've had some very interesting talks with junior high students over the past few years discussing what the phrase "China and India have more honors students than we have students" (as shared in the Shift Happens video prepared by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod) means to them.

The most recent version of Shift Happens can be viewed here. If you haven't seen it yet, take a few minutes and watch it. It is great for stimulating reflection!

Most recently, tonight, I was engaged in a discussion online about the ethical implications of globalization and the outsourcing of production. I have to confess that despite my more liberal tendencies, I think quite highly of profit!

In my conversation tonight he impact of moving production from our society to areas where labor costs are substantially cheaper definitely raises ethical issues worthy of attention. It is a very complex issue though, with some interesting twists possible in the conversation.

I think the primary reason why organizations move their production is to attain a lower cost of production and correspondingly higher profits. Other ways to do achieve higher profits would be to leave production where it is, and to either lower wages or to increase revenue. Both are viable means to achieve the same end result, yet for two reasons only one option is realistic. Organizations are not likely to seek to increase profits by lowering wages because western workers are not likely to accept lower wages. Also, organizations are not likely to increase profits by raising revenue because the public is not very likely to pay higher prices.

I believe it takes strength of character, of an organization's Board and of those in formal leadership positions, to strive for a balance between profits and what is right for all concerned. The vision of the organization, to be responsible and ethical profit seekers, is an especially crucial element to achieving this balance.

Focusing solely on the wages paid the workers is, I believe, another concern that can at times be a red herring of sorts. Without question, if workers are physically at risk or are taken unfair advantage of, or if vulnerable populations are taken advantage of, the organization should be taken to task. In other cases, the low, by our standards, wages are quite welcomed by the workers receiving them. Relatively speaking, the wages paid in some developing countries are having a very positive effect on their societies.

One of the pleasant end results of the movement to outsource production to developing nations is the rapidly expanding global middle class (Das, 2009). Das shared the increased prosperity in developing nations is significant, and while the typical wages are generally substantially lower than those paid in developed countries, the standard of living, as measured by per capita consumption levels, has grown dramatically. With more money available, middle class comforts such as options for health care are more likely to be made available for people to choose.

In a book that I thoroughly enjoyed, New York Times Reporter Thomas Friedman shared compelling statistics about the implication of a greatly rising middle class composed of people from Brazil, Russia, India, and China as well (Friedman, 2005). Ethically speaking then, outsourcing can be seen as having a positive benefit to some geographical regions while having a negative influence in others. How relevant is it to look at the balance on the whole? I think this thought shows the importance of our challenge to convert Alberta's economy to a knowledge-based economy from a resource-based economy. I see that as significant urgency to act!

From this perspective, I believe it will be interesting to see the implications of the increasing costs of production in societies where the middle class outgrows the low wages offered, as I believe happened in our society.

In summary, I believe the ethical impact of choosing to outsource production is something companies must consider carefully. The choice, if made correctly, is something I believe can be mutually beneficial.

Statistician Hans Rosling excels at graphically representing data and has several interesting talks posted on the Internet. In a short video, approximately 5 minutes long, he creatively and graphically illustrates how the health and wealth of countries has changed, illustrating how the gap between the west and the rest has decreased. I find it fascinating, and hope you might find it interesting too!

Cheers

References

Das, D. K. (2009). Globalisation and an emerging global middle class. Economic Affairs, 29(3), 89-92.

Friedman, T. L. (2005). The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

Black and White and Educational Reform

2011-03-13T01:18:00.001-07:00

Someone famous said something about those who are certain. I'd say who it was, but I don't like to appear too certain about anything.

Well, actually, I can't remember who said that. I'm hoping someone will comment on it.

But still, forgetfulness aside, I don't think there are too many things that are 100% black or white. Context is pretty important. Aristotle's concepts of virtues were based on his assumption that the right virtues are in between two extreme instincts. It makes sense to avoid taking a position at either of the extremes, because the power of context makes what is right live on a sliding scale.

Now, what the heck does that have to do with anything? Well earlier tonight I was reading more about Salman Khan and his Khan Academy. I believe in Khan's vision to provide resources to students online, but I disagree those who see his approach (including Bill Gates) as a way of completely transforming education.

I've read today many reactions to Salman Khan's recent talk at the TED conference, on both sides of the fence. It seems to me people are taking very strong sides on the issue of Khan's thoughts about education. Depending on some who have written about it, Khan's ideas about education are the next best thing to sliced bread. To others, his approach is completely off-base. Read more about his ideas for developing individual mastery, including watching a video about his exercise software, here. Exercise software? I'm not sure how that makes education relevant and engaging for kids. That approach to learning might be kind of distasteful for some students, wouldn't it? But likely it might also be a good approach for others, depending on the subject and/or their interests?

There are no extremes.

Khan's resources, and other similar tools, have a significant role to play in transforming how we structure the learning our students have access to. Kids need access to content any time and anywhere, and content like this could be HUGE when planning reverse instruction for our classes.

Resources like that won't replace teachers, however. Or rather, facilitators as their roles change. Differentiation instruction is the ultimate support for avoiding the extremes. Learners (of any age) are so different, we need to use a variety of strategies to support them all.

Why can't we be grey on this issue? I see huge value for some students who can make use of Khan's resources as a primary source. I see other students using it for review. I see other students who will learn best getting dirty and messy and hands-on in class with a teacher near by for support. There is no one size fits all approach to learning (and therefore to teaching) and I don't think we can budge on that.

Check out the Khan Academy. It is interesting...give it some thought. Let me know what role you see for resources like this in education...

Cheers

Something OLD, Something NEW, Something Borrowed, Something True

2011-03-11T01:06:00.001-07:00

Over the last little while I have been trying to give some focus to assistive technology. This is a big challenge for us, and it is something I think we need to build a systematic approach to in our district. The potential for assistive technology is great for our neediest students, obviously, but potential exists for technology to enhance the learning of ANY student!

With respect to meeting the needs of students, it is convention week, and there is an awful lot of talk this week about ensuring we meet the 21st century needs of our students. I made the point in a presentation to GPRC students this week that an effective teacher could meet prepare their students for the 21st century without using ANY electronic technology! Effective OLD ways of teaching are still valuable in our classrooms. With respect to engaging students, and making education relevant however, ed tech can certainly be used in NEW ways to make a difference for kids.

I had some fun this week spending an afternoon helping facilitate a session for Zone 1 school administrators to help them build their personal learning networks using Twitter, blogs, and shared Google documents. It was an excellent session, and compared to the recent sessions in Edmonton and Calgary, it looks to me like our adminstrators took to things very very well! We BORROWED the NRLC lab at PWA to deliver this workshop, and the learning that was shared in those 3 short hours was pretty impressive.

In one of his presentations at convention today, Rick Wormeli mentioned that we need to focus our teaching and be more mindful of what we know works and what we know about kids. How TRUE that is. We know kids need to move to help them learn. Let's let them. We know they need timely and specific descriptive feedback to learn. Let's give it to them. We know they need to make mistakes and learn how to recover from them. Let's let them learn by doing and redoing.

It was great to see the enthusiasm and energy spilling out of those doors following his standing room only sessions today. My parting question though, is: How do we move that enthusiasm and energy into our classrooms next Monday? What one thing can, scratch that, WILL each teacher do to enact change in their practice that is best for kids?

I look forward to (and am hopeful for) meaningful curriculum change that will facilitate the big changes we need to make. Read about the curriculum redesign project in Alberta HERE.

Welcome Beginning Teachers!

2011-03-08T08:34:00.000-07:00

It is that time of year again where my sidekick in the Department of Educational Technology, Ross, and I get to visit with first year college students from The Grande Prairie Regional College who are considering a career in Education.

Our presentation, without the context of course, is embedded below:

Students: If you have any questions after watching the presentation above, reading content on this blog, or just in general, please do not hesitate to ask! You can ask me by using an online form that I've put together just for this purpose: http://bit.ly/gprcmarch2011

Good luck with your program, and with your careers!

Cheers

Research Based this....Data Driven that...

2011-02-25T22:29:00.001-07:00

I hear phrases such as 'research based', 'data driven', and 'data informed' used quite a bit in discussions about how we need to change our educational practice to improve student achievement.

Those are pretty powerful statements, and it is hard to argue with them. I mean, who would argue against using data to be more effective at what we do? Ditto the research-based statement. Everyone knows that it is sound reasoning to base our actions on what previous research has taught us, correct?

The problem is, as I see it, is that things are not quite as simple as they might seem on the surface. If someone is talking about using data to improve instruction, what data are they referring to? How was it collected, what is the purpose of using it? What does it really tell us about student behavior and/or teacher behavior? When it comes to research, what is research? Research is not using Google to find articles, it is more than that. Pure research involves the scientific method, focused purpose and problem, and critical analysis of the results.

I stand by my original position, presented above, that it is hard to argue with statements such as I shared, but with a caveat. We need to truly understand what those statements mean before we agree to use them to make changes in our practice. We need to have common agreement on definitions, and about assumptions, before we start making changes. We need to focus our actions, and be precise and intentional based on shared understandings and shared vision. As instructional leaders, we need to ensure staff understand the urgency behind what we are doing as educators! The relationships we build with each other and the culture we build in our schools is essential to supporting that clarity of vision and the development of shared understandings.

There, I said it again. Relationships, vision, and focus are keys to student success! Bet you never saw that coming....

Now, having said all that, where do our teachers collect their research and what do we do with it? Google doesn't necessarily cut it. Google Scholar is better though. And how many teachers in my district are working on graduate degrees? Are we sharing articles with each other? Are we engaging in conversations about research on practice, how students learn, etc.?

I think we need to take advantage of the things we already have going on, tap into our networks, and focus our conversations on those topics. It is not about doing more....it is about changing what we are already doing. Focused and precise. Those are my buzzwords of the weekend.

Before we do anything...let's understand why we want to do it, and identify what we want it to achieve. We MUST develop deep common understanding about what we want to do, what it means, and why we want to do it....

Cheers

Of Mistakes and Kids These Days (Or...They're Going to Have to Know it When They Graduate)

2011-02-23T23:11:00.001-07:00

I'm surprised CONVERGENCE is not a more popular buzzword in education reform circles. Or perhaps it is and I am standing outside the circle?

Just about everything I have been reading lately, or that others are sharing with me online or within my district, has to do with one of 3 strategies for improving education: (i) focused and specific instructional skills and leadership behavior, (ii) developing deep and sincere relationships with our students and parents, and (iii) preparing our students with the skills needed for success in our modern society. You can't, it seems, reflect on one without having the others creep into the picture.

I like that. It makes sense. Approaching all three provides focus on basic skills, and support for taking a less rigid and more fluid approach to educational programming all at once. Just enough mixture of loose and tight, built on a very solid foundation!

Two TED talks one these topics have inspired me. Neither Diane Laufenberg's message, nor Chris Lehmann's message, are earth shatteringly new. For me, they are effective reminders, however. They have the potential to be transformational for us, too, if we can elicit the instruction they promote in all of our secondary schools.

HIGHLY relevant learning opportunities will create HIGHLY engaged students. Period. Expecting the kids to change to meet our inadequate schedules and structures doesn't work. That's pretty clear to me. When they graduate, they won't be asked to reduce fractions to lowest terms. Sure, they are likely to have some performance expectations, but assuming we do a good job delivering our basic curriculum, they will be OK.

We need to step back, let the kids step up, and be willing to let learning be messy. Kids these days don't have poor work ethics, as I hear frequently. Rather, they are different. Their makeup is different, their experiences are different, their worldviews are different, their expectations are different. Find a way to align with their needs, I believe, and we will see as much work out of them as any generation has ever given. AND....what inspires me about the work they will give? I believe this current generation of students has the potential to be the most socially conscious group yet...

I've embedded Laufenberg's talk below. It is 10 minutes. If you are interested in hearing what engaged students do, watch it:

CHEERS!

The Importance of Balance

2011-02-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

I recently had the extremely good fortune to attend a mentorship day in our school district. For several years now we have operated a mentorship program for first and second year teachers in partnership with the local branch of the Alberta Teachers Association. It is an amazing thing, and likely is a key factor in our district having a 63% teacher retention rate, which is second in the province!

:)

Our recent mentorship day was a 'take a break and re-assess' day, where approximately 32 first and second year teachers and their mentor teachers spent the day working with several of our Central Office administration. Half the day was spent reviewing topics such as work-life balance, and stress management, assessment, and communicating with parents. The afternoon was collaborative planning time for the mentorship partnerships.

During the work-life balance portion of the day, the beginning teachers were asked what types of events have caused them stress this year. The lists were lengthy, as you might expect, with many of the usual suspects. Conflict, time management, students, parents, etc. are all sources of stress for beginning teachers, just as they can be for veteran teachers as well. It was mildly cathartic for me to look at that long list, and to think about stress triggers.

The ensuing discussion about how to attend to these sources of stress was interesting, and I hope helpful! Many strategies for dealing with stress were shared. Some important messages that needed to be affirmed, such as "Make sure you strive for balance" and "Don't feel pressured - it is OK to say no!", were restated. A lot of talk about priorities took place, and looking back I wish I would have had someone talk to me about priorities when I was starting out..

The discussion about the importance of balance in life reminded me of a TEDx talk I viewed online recently. Author Nigel Marsh spoke on ways to achieve balance in life, and stressed the importance of the small things. Fitness is good, but being fitter and working 14 hours a day is still being out of balance! It is the little things, like going to the park with your children, that are the things that count. While it may be easier said than done, I think it very important to look for opportunities like that! I learned that lesson from my wife and children, and continually seek to find ways to make their day. Who knew the simple act of going into work a bit later once in a while, and driving them to school, could mean so much to them? I'm developing a HUGE fondness for those little things...I've realized they mean a great deal to me too!

If you have 10 minutes, watch the video below. I hope you enjoy it, and find value in it, as much as I did:

Cheers!

How Do We Define Achievement?

2011-02-16T20:10:00.001-07:00

I've been doing a great deal of reading lately on the topic of achievement gaps. It is fascinating reading, and what I've come to realize is that there really is LITTLE consensus on what achievement is. Little wonder there are gaps all over the place, is it?

Some people talk about achievement gaps between genders. Those little boys struggle with reading compared to little girls, don't they, in the early grades.

Others talk about achievement gaps between culturally diverse groups in society. Is achievement influenced by race? Or is the achievement gap really a reflection of poverty, as suggested by others. Which might be influenced by race. Or is it?

Still others talk about achievment disparities that exist between nations, as evidenced by the recent publication of the latest PISA test results.

Are there really that many gaps in our systems?

The more I reflect, with help from Tony Wagner, who's book The Global Achievement Gap I just read, I think the issue of achievement is most likely an issue with respect to how we define achievment. I completely agree that different students may be at different stages of development academically. As firmly as I believe that, I also believe there is absolutely ZERO gap with respect to their academic potential.

So when we discuss, and try to attend to, acheivement gaps, what do we look at? Is it Reading level that is how we define achievement? If that is achievement, then we should clearly state that is our goal and pour our resources in that direction. Or is it Math? Reading and Math? What about Writing? Hard to argue with any of those, isn't it? What about computers?

Tony Wagner identifies how graduates in today's society require critical and analytical thinking skills, as well as the ability to problem solve and to work in teams. It is hard to argue with those being essential skills too, isn't it.

So what do we do next? I think our system will be best served if we get some guidance (i.e. consensus) from society re: what high levels of achievement they most want to see our student attain. Imagine how powerful our educational systems would be if we ALL understood what we were trying to achieve, and if we ALL worked to the same end? Wagner's seven essential skills, plus language and number knowledge would be second nature for every graduate!

I look forward to working with our communities to help identify that collective understanding, and to seeing our students reap the benefits! If you have the opportunity, please read the Global Achievement Gap. It has the potential to be transformational towards your thinking!

Cheers

Online Digital Citizenship Symposium

2011-01-20T10:07:00.001-07:00

I have the GREAT pleasure and honor of spending today with 20 junior high students and 4 school administrators attending an Online Digital Citizenship Symposium.

There are interesting discussions taking place...for example, I asked the group what they would prefer to receive as a gift, iPhone or iPad....overwhelming majority would prefer an iPhone. They had some very interesting reasons why...

It definitely looks like the future is MOBILE!

The changes that are occurring around us in education are obvious. The changes that are coming ahead are not so obvious.

In my role in educational technology, I talk with a lot of people about these changes. I am not sure the sense of urgency that I see that exists for helping our students develop a strong foundational knowledge is shared by everyone else.

As I reflect this morning on what I am hearing from the students participating, I think I am going to need to help develop that sense of urgency! Mission now = urgency!

Cheers!

Hello Prospective Teachers

2010-10-11T23:44:00.002-06:00

Hello Teacher Education North students from GPRC (and others who may have found their way to this post).

The brief presentation I used to start conversation during my recent visit to your T.E.N. classroom follows. The purpose of this presentation was to introduce you to the idea that technology integration 'fits' in modern classrooms and to introduce some of the tools/concepts you will be working with during your student teaching and upon graduation. It can be challenging to talk about the integration of technology into teaching and learning with veteran teachers, but trying to put together a 90 minute session for education students is a different challenge entirely. I hope you found it interesting and relevant.

Ideally, some of what you saw and/or we discussed will be useful as you continue to prepare for the day you have your own classrooms! Feel free to come back and review this presentation over time and check to see if your perceptions or beliefs change in the future. For those of you who may be interested in the links shared in the presentation, they are listed after the presentation that follows.

Integrating Technology, Teaching, and Learning (10.12.2010)

Technology Integration for Beginning Teachers on Prezi

The following links are embedded in the above presentation:
www.csoonline.com/article/print/619221 (re: facebook and twitter behavior)
http://www.smarttech.com/ (to access SMART Notebook Express online)
http://exchange.smarttech.com/search.html?m=01 (to share SMART Notebook activities/lessons)
http://education.alberta.ca/admin/technology/standards/internetsafety.aspx (Alberta Education's Internet Safety page with great information and resources)
http://search.creativecommons.org/# (searching for resources licensed for sharing)
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/ (home of an amazing blogger who shares FANTASTIC resources)
http://sharpsav.com/tag/fresh-look-fridays.html (ditto, produced by an Alberta SMART trainer)
www.google.com/reader (Google Reader home)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSPZ2Uu_X3Y (Google Reader in Plain English video)

Questions? Comments? Drop me a line or leave a comment below.

Cheers!

Is More More, Or Is More Less? Or Maybe Less Is More?

2010-10-05T22:35:00.001-06:00

There has been LOTS of press lately about the new U.S. documentary Waiting for Superman, by Davis Guggenheim (the same director as An Inconvenient Truth), and about the status of education reform in the United States.

I loved an Inconvenient Truth. Author John Kotter was likely impressed by how that movie helped build a sense of URGENCY re: the need for action to address global warming. It was a very compelling presentation on the perils that faced us if we remained inactive! I suspect the director may have approached the issue of education reform from the same perspective with his most recent movie from the early reviews I've read online. I'm conflicted though, likely given my position immersed in the education system, that while I haven't yet seen Waiting for Superman, I think I can already tell I don't like it!

(note: I'll probably go see it. Or rent it. I get curious. I had to see the Blair Witch Project too. I still regret that, actually)

I don't disagree that education needs reform. That belief is affirmed every day when I read, see, or hear about kids not getting what they need to maximize their success. I feel it in my stomach when I am unable to provide the best solution to an issue and have to 'settle' for the best we can do at that time. I know we need to change. I disagree with anyone who suggests it is primarily only teachers who need to change. The changes that have occured in society are huge, and I think corresponding huge changes are needed in education to help address our needs.

I am completely impressed by the direction our system is heading here in Alberta to look at building teacher capacity and enlisting the cooperation of the community to enact the reform we need. I hope we move away from the incredibly prescriptive curriculum (are there really over 1200 specific learning outcomes in grade 7?) to a more descriptive system that allows us to focus on the core skills AND ALSO those deemed critical and relevant by the community and the students! A committment to helping develop emotional intelligence anyone? That can work! We've got great teachers and eager students and families ready to go, let's get pointed in the right direction and get going!

I see education reform as promoted by politicians and business leaders in the U.S. as short sighted. The focus I see advocated for in Waiting for Superman, and being promoted by Charter School advocates in the U.S., to add more hours, more resources, etc. is something I think is misguided. How can that be sustainable? How can systems and families sustain that kind of effort over time? Superman, as an individual, does not exist. The strength of superheroes does exist however, and it is the power of the collective. Of community. Of collaboration.

It makes me wonder how what are reformers like Bill Gates seeking to accomplish? What is the function of their desire to see more rigidity? Why is the fourth way presented in the book The Fourth Way: The Inspiring Future for Educational Change (by Hargreaves and Shirley) that incorporates partnerships and capacity building as a comprehensive solution to education reform not being embraced by those who might be Waiting for Superman?

Is it Replicability? Are those in private industry, used to the scientific method of building consistent and replicable means of production, seeking to apply the skills they know to the more human-focused system of education? Frederick Taylor's scientific management methods (and the standardization they imply) can't really be effective in education, can they?

Would they work for you in your current job? What if you were a student? Would mass standardization work for your 13 year old son or daughter?

Is it all a labor ploy? Are the Waiting for Superman advocates focused on teacher unions as the scapegoats for the results of the education system in the U.S. so they fail to recognize other factors (such as societal expectations and behaviors) as being influential to the output of the education system (i.e. student acheivement)?

The bottom line for me is that society has changed, and continues to change faster than most of us realize! Ultimately, if we want creative and innovative thinkers, perhaps we need less rigidity, and more focus on meeting local needs. Less is more. Lets get more parents involved and focus on less objectives. Let's spend the most time on what is most important. Let's put our limited resources where they will make the most difference. Any successful reform must involve parents and the community. As supporters and partners, not as the experts those Waiting for Superman seem to think they may be.

Cheers

What Is In Store For Education In The Future?

2010-09-29T21:59:00.004-06:00

I attended a meeting of the Alberta School Boards Association Zone 2/3 Trustees recently where much conversation took place re: the future of education in our province.

I shared my feelings that this is an amazing time to be involved with education in Alberta, as it appears we have much opportunity to contribute to significant education reform, given the provincial leadership with Setting the Direction and Inspiring Education/Inspiring Action. Lots of work remains, but if the foundation remains change for the sake of improving the learning experience for kids and adults alike, then I am confident the work will get done!

I also used a favorite comment of mine to describe the state of education. I'm not sure who the original source is, but it has been said that if Rip Van Winkle were to awaken today, he'd find a great deal different in society. Cell phones, vehicles, computers, etc. If he were to walk into many (but not all) schols however, he'd likely feel very much at home, with the neat rows of students and the teachers up at the front doing lots of talking.

We know an awful lot about how people learn, and about how we need to create an environment for kids that allows us to use that knowledge, but in the end we struggle to use that knowledge and change our environment within our existing structure.

If you want to take a quick look at the future and see what is likely in store for education, researcher Phil McRae has posted a 'Forecasting the Future' article on the Alberta Teachers Association website. I think his short-term, mid-length, and long-term predictions are pretty spot on!

Deep, rich digital connections, distributed learning, different definitions of time, etc. are all predictions that I believe are coming true NOW. As the pace of change quickens, I don't doubt we're going to have to react QUICKLY in the future.

I think we might need to start looking at our change management skills in the field of education to make sure we are prepared to adapt and change when the time comes!

For 5 bonus points***, who said: "In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."? I think that statement describes the challenge that lay before us beautifully....

Cheers

***the quotation is attributed to American author, sociologist, and philosopher Eric Hoffer.

The First Days of School

2010-09-02T07:25:00.002-06:00

When times are busy, and chaotic, my natural reaction is to make a list, get down to business, and start striking things off the list.

Busy and chaotic sounds like the first day of school, doesn't it? On the first day of school however, I think that focus on tasks and efficiency is the absolute LAST approach to take to making it through the day. There is an old saying that suggests you only get one chance to make a first impression. The first day of school is when the relationships that teachers will have with their students for the year begin to be formed. It is important to take the time to get to know them, to begin making deposits into the relationship bank account, and to focus for the day on the social and emotional needs of the people in the building, and not the curriculum, and the rules, and the needs of the system.

To that end, here is a GREAT list of tips for attending to social emotional needs on the first days of school by engaging kids as important stakeholders in the learning process. I love the first one, about making the atmosphere one of festivity:

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/social-emotional-learning-tips-school-starts

Have a great year everyone!

Cheers!

Summer's Over - Back to Work!

2010-08-25T13:54:00.001-06:00

It is fitting, in a way, that this post is my first since I took my summer hiatus. My last post was on the topic of what reading means to me, and thanks to my good fortune in winning a signed copy of Seth Godin's LINCHPIN, and as I write this I am just about to embark on a new book to start a new season of personal professional reading.

I usually read during the summer, but for some reason (likely the reading I've been doing for my Ed.D.) I spent a little less time reading for personal professional reasons this summer. I'm looking forward to getting back in the swing of things next week after the kids get up and running at school.

I also have borrowed what looks like an excellent book on change, The Fourth Way, by Andy Hargreaves, and will be starting that next week too. I'm itching to get going!

In general, it is good to be back and putting my reflections into print again. I know (next to) no one (thanks mom - AND Malkie!) likely reads this, but blogging helps me refine my thoughts and progress my thinking. It helps me make sense of things when they often seem to be coming our way in education at 100 mph. My next post? Likely on how the AISI project structure supports educational change in our province and what I think the connection is to the systemic change that is looming on our provincial horizon.

Cheers!

What Does Reading Mean to Me?

2010-05-25T22:15:00.003-06:00

I've always been a reader, and for most of my life I strayed very little from popular fiction and the occasional eccentricity that caught my curiosity. For the last 5 or 6 years however, I've found myself reading more and more about topics that are relevant to my work in schools and with students of all ages.

In addition to the many many books I've read over the last few years (perhaps a thread on my favorites is in order), there are a great many excellent resources freely available online. Whether it is an incredibly interesting blog, or an informative educational website, I have a list of over 100 sites marked for updates in Google Reader. Google Reader is a GREAT way to capture and collect updates to your favorite sites. I try to set aside some time every Friday to visit my Google Reader feed and see what new posts/updates have been made to my favorite sites. It is staggering what I've learned in this manner. If you would like to learn more about Google Reader, click HERE and visit one of the many tutorials on the service that will explain or illustrate how to use it.

Today, I want to share a promising new link that I found recently for reading about leadership, business trends, higher education trends, etc.: If you are a young professional looking to add to your knowledge base and engage with some interesting content at the same time, you might want to add Online MBA to your Google Reader feed, and watch for new content being added regularly! Being a visual learner, I especially like the infographics!

To me, reading means continuous growth. Reading to me is as water and sun are to plants. Reading gets to my core and provides the nourishment I need to grow personally and professionally. I get as much enjoyment and learning from reading a book I disagree with as I do from reading a book that affirms my beliefs. What does reading mean to you?

Cheers

My PERSONAL VISION for INTEGRATING Technology Into Teaching and Learning

2010-05-20T23:18:00.001-06:00

A Personal VISION For Educational Technology in the GPPSD on Prezi

Testing New Video Resource

2010-05-07T12:29:00.001-06:00

The Regional Resource Center in our Zone is exploring the use of a new digital content streaming service provided by discovery.ca. I have access via a trial account, and I am exploring how smoothly the content can be used off-site.

It doesn't look like it embeds, but I can link to specific videos, such as THIS one illustrating how to substitute and solve square roots for different valued.

If anyone has any experience with this service provided by discovery.ca, please let me know. It looks very promising at this point but I would love to hear how it functions across an entire district in the long term.

EDIT: Whoops. It appears the content may not be shared with others via forums like class blogs, and perhaps Moodle. The link above will not open the media player unless the user is logged in to the site. The next question is, how does this affect our use of the content? Will this be a significant problem? Or perhaps our students will be given the ability to create their own accounts as well (which I doubt)? Some more investigating is in order.

Cheers

Paying Students to Improve Performanc

2010-04-12T11:32:00.001-06:00

This morning a colleague sent me a link to a recent article published on the Time magazine website titled Should Kids Be Bribed to Do Well in School? The article is written by Amanda Ripley, and summarizes an extensive research study on the topic of offering financial incentives to students as a means of improving their performance. This research was conducted by Dr. Roland Fryer, Jr., who is an economist at Harvard University.

Ripley references the work of Dr. Edward Deci in the article in TIME. Daniel Pink, in his latest book DRIVE, also reference Deci's research on Self-Determination Theory to suggest external rewards and punishments do not work in the long run. Pink describes the need to move away from Motivation 2.0 (carrot and stick type stuff) and to use Motivation 3.0 to inspire people in modern organizations (build autonomy, mastery, and purpose). Having recently read DRIVE, I formed some pretty immediate opinions of what I was about to read.

On the whole, I think this research illustrates the line that separates many educational reform ideas: reforms that rely on some sort of accountability measures (test scores, rewards, etc.) vs. reforms that are based more on developmental theory and building internal skills/needs. Finland is often used as an example of a model system where trust and empowerment foster intrinsic motivation in contrast to systems that use actual test results, such as with the NCLB Act and Annual Yearly Progress.

Ripley's article turend out to be very interesting reading though, despite the bias I held as I began reading it. Many of the concerns I had about an incentives program were identified in the article, and it is interesting to see the questions for future research that still remain with Fryer.

The most successful of the four incentive programs used in Fryer's research comes not from paying for performance, but rather in paying students for behaviors and offering specific and meaningful feedback on their performance in a very timely (bi-weekly) fashion. Students seemed to do the best on standardized tests at the end of the research when they received their rewards for engaging in behaviors that support learning, not necessarily for how well they could demonstrate their learning.

I initially said "Uh-Oh" to myself when I read that some of the more vocal proponents of merit pay for teachers were enthused by this approach. The more I thought about it though, the more I questioned the benefits of a behavior-based approach for motivating teachers too? Perhaps we could tie teacher remuneration to specific best practices teacher behaviors (such as collaborating, planning, integrating technology, differentiating learning, giving students immediate feedback, etc.) instead of tying teacher pay to results?

Would that work? Would you all be motivated as teachers if similar rewards were applied to your behavior? If you were given an extra $100 for sending descriptive feedback home with students ever week (for example) would that be enough to motivate you to do that? I'm not sure how sustainable that would be, but perhaps Fryer might be motivated to extend his research in that direction.

As I read this, I thought of how connected this research might be to locally relevant projects at the single school level. If a school were to identify the essential behaviors stakeholders felt were important, and then provided instruction (and feedback) to kids at home and at school (with the parents' help) they may be able to achieve similar goals. The key would have to be focusing on the behaviors kids needed to have at the END and then putting a plan in place to develop those skills. Local goals with local control of the plan and including lots of parental and community involvement is a good way to increase the chance of a reform strategy being successful.

Just like the grade 2 students who read more in Fryer's study, and were paid for it, the kids who get more feedback for managing their own emotions should be more effective in the long term at managing their emotions. Over time the rewards will continue to come (although in different forms) and the kids should continue to display those same behaviors....

I'm looking forward to hearing any comments people may have on this topic!! It is controversial, for sure, which is why I think the discussion has so much potential value!

Cheers

Balancing Accountability and Learning

2010-03-07T14:43:00.000-07:00

In one of my classes lately we have been having a very interesting discussion about how our traditional education systems measure success. We have been discussing the two purposes for testing, for internal accountability (learning) and external accountability (systemic performance) and it is important to remember both are valid.

Applying theory to practice however, the reality is that problems occur when the focus on external accountability is confused with internal accountability (Campbell & Levin, 2007).

As a school administrator, my number one focus has to be on how well our students learn. As a taxpayer, I am concerned that my tax dollars, significant as they are, are used wisely in my province. It is legitimate to expect a focus on both, but we need to accept this fact and work with it in our schools.

Some teachers feel pressured by teaching test grades/subjects while others do not. I think this is in part due to the leadership in the school. The attitude and leadership re: tests that is modelled by school administrators creates the culture that influences how test results are accepted.

Unfortunately, it is a reality that some administrators apply intense focus on test results resulting in teachers feeling pressured to produce scores that may come at the expense of other issues. In some cases, this pressure comes from Central Office, and in others it is not necessarily intentional, as actions often speak louder than words. Regardless of the reason, the tension between accountability and learning is something school leaders need to understand well.

A frequent comment is that test results are influenced by the work of all teachers leading up to that grade. For the kids that have been in the school the whole time, that is true, but it does not apply to students new to the grade/school that year. It is another reality that when the results of one or two teachers are analyzed by the entire school, some teachers may feel a sense of personal pressure that their work is under the microscope. As leaders, it is important for us to attend to their concerns and help create the culture of shared internal accountability and focus on learning.

Campbell and Levin (2007) describe this as a need to balance pressure and support, where we accept the internal/external accountability focus and also focus on capacity building within our own schools. Our schools need to take the testing programs we have in place and use that data as part of a school's comprehensive assessment plan. Using test results as assessment for learning is what is needed to improve the performance of our own students. It is up to us as educational leaders to wrestle with these many issues and put them together to be able to make a difference for our students! We need to have a vision for how accountability and learning can peacefully coexist, and we have to have deep knowledge of systemic and local needs to help support this vision.

Now, having said all that, I wonder about tweaks to our provincial testing program that might help us meet both needs. I have written previously about the possibility of using sampling as a way to achieve external accountability. That would take our ability to use test results to inform our own practices in schools however. Instead, what about rewriting our tests and administering them closer to the start of the year? We could have results in time to influence the teaching of those specific students, and by taking a longitudinal approach to the results we could track how schools are progressing over time.

Just an idea....

Reference

Campbell, C., & Levin, B. (2009). Using data to support educational improvement. Educational Assessment, Evaluation & Accountability, 21(1), 47-65.

Cheers

What is the Purpose of Education?

2010-03-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

I was asked in class (where I was the student, not the teacher) recently what my thoughts were on the purpose of education. Specifically, I was asked what I thought the role of education was with respect to any class divisions that may or may not exist in society.

I approached this answer with what I thought was a crystal clear understanding of what my beliefs were, but as I reflected on this topic I found myself questioning my beliefs. Internal conflict being what it is, and given that it is also the subject of many a Hollywood blockbuster, I thought I'd share my reflections on this question here. I hope my reflections don't offend you....please remember....I'm a work in progress!

I believe that I am mostly a structural fundamentalist, but that I can tend to display Marxist elements in my thinking on my more cynical days. At least I hope I am. I hope I'm not a closet conflict theorist masquerading as a consensus theorist. Maybe I am a post modernist at heart? Wouldn't that be something if I had completely deceived myself? Perhaps I already have, given the theoretical babble I just threw out in those last couple of sentences?

To explain, my personal belief is that a fundamental role of education is to prepare our students for success in our society. This is the structural fundamentalist, or consensus theory, belief. I see education as playing a significant role in reinforcing the basic fundamentals of society, which are basically well-intentioned. I think our society is set up to allow for people to succeed in spite of where they begin.

Where I believe we struggle as a system is in identifying the social and political goals of society that we are supposed to prepare our students for. I think we have too broad of a definition re: what our funademental goals of society are. Based on that, when I see needed change within society stalling, and class divisions being reinforced, it frustrates me. In that situation, I can question the fundamental purpose of our system.

Essentially though, I consider myself an optimist. I think the majority of our societal goals are basically good and I have seen many examples in our modern, western, society of people who have used the knowledge, tools, and opportunities provided by education. A good success story helps me avoid remaining cynical for too long! I will admit though that we need to do more to identify our priorities as a society so that we can then support that with our education system, but at the heart of it all I do not see conflict theory as the prevailing theory.

As I read description of the different theories, and examples of how some nations structure their education systems to tacitly support class divisions that exist, I did question my beliefs. I wondered about our testing system, and our hidden curricula, and I wondered if I did not know about these 2 theories if my beliefs might reveal a more Marxist predisposition. Perhaps I don't know enough about all of this to fully comprehend all of the information at my disposal?

Ultimately however, for now, I returned to my belief in the power of our system to prepare and support people to transcend class divisions. You have to start somewhere, right? If I am going to facilitate continued improvement of our system, perhaps I should start from a positive position instead of a deficit position.

If you have feelings on this topic, by all means please share them! If you disagree with me, I'd love to hear why. I'm only of this mind until you convince me otherwise...and constructive discussion is how I learn!

Cheers

Daniel Pink DRIVE: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

2010-02-23T01:37:00.002-07:00

I've just finished reading a very interesting book by an author I enjoy reading a great deal: Daniel Pink (author of A Whole New Mind). Just as I was finishing the book, I had the good fortune to attend a webinar interview of Dan Pink. I thought I'd try something new tonight, and share the executive summary of my notes from the webinar for anyone who might be interested.

Dan Pink-DRIVE

Elluminate Webinar, February 18, 2010

A Whole New Mind - Describes what people do at work

DRIVE - Explains why people do what they do at work

The DRIVE Cocktail Party Summary (from danpink.com)

When it comes to motivation, there's a gap between what science knows and what business does. Our current business operating system–which is built around external, carrot-and-stick motivators–doesn't work and often does harm. We need an upgrade. And the science shows the way. This new approach has three essential elements: 1. Autonomy – the desire to direct our own lives. 2. Mastery — the urge to get better and better at something that matters. 3. Purpose — the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.

Watch this Summary of Drive: Two Questions That Can Change Your Life (excellent!): http://www.danpink.com/archives/2010/01/2questionsvideo

Science suggests that Creative/Conceptual/Knowledge work (i.e. teaching) does not typically experience success with "IF-THEN" motivators

Similar work completed/published by Alfie Kohn in "Published by Rewards"

There is a dichotomy between what business does and what science knows! Premise of DRIVE: Carrot/stick approach (standards, etc.) does not work. We need to build our systems to foster Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose in our employees!

Part of the problem for us in education....very few legislators with an education background...they don't understand the nature of the work!

Is rigor a bad term? If you don't hate it, then is it not rigorous? NO! Rigor is about chasing your passion!!!

Rigor, relevance, relationships are crucial in education....always....

MY TAKEAWAY of the DAY #1: The world changes ONE conversation at a time, therefore administrators have to commit the time to engage with staff in those conversations!

Comfort with ambiguity means you will struggle in a world of tight standards....if you are not comfortable with ambiguity, you'll struggle in modern world....

AUTONOMY - desire for self-direction. Old systems that seek compliance are outdated. Mgmt is an old technology for getting people to comply, and is NOT good at getting people to engage.

MASTERY - The HIGHEST satisfaction at work comes on days when people feel they are making progress. Not solving problems, nec., just making progress!

PURPOSE - We want to be part of something bigger than ourselves. We want to know what it is all about.

Are we too focused on data?

BRUNER: "students should experience their success and failure not as reward and punishment but as information"

Teaching kids to self-assess changes the role of the teacher to one of coach....see Wooden's assessment of coaching philosophy: http://www.joebower.org/2010/01/information-vs-reward-and-punishment.html -- Red Deer teacher sharing reflections on using grades as motivation, etc.

John Wooden's Coaching Style Studied: He gave 7% praise, 7% disapproval, and 86% STATEMENTS of information. Offered 0bservations, asked questions, etc. Gave very very few speeches. Used Assessment FOR learning, all the time!!!

Grades are NOT EQUAL to feedback. They are summative. When your child gets a grade, look at it, ask the kid what they feel about their performance. Did you do your best? Why is your mark what it is? etc.

Have the discussion and establish the difference between grades and MASTERY with your children

In Summary, Pink wants the Two Questions (see video linked at start of presentation) to help drive us:

1 - What is my sentence?

2 - Am I better today than I was yesterday?

TAKEAWAY #2: As an administrator, what can I do to build 20% time into my school's master schedule to foster teacher autonomy, creativity, and passion? What would be the rules of it, and how can we do it for TEACHERS and STUDENTS?

Cheers

REFLECTIONS ON THE TEACHER and ADMINISTRATION EVALUATION PROCESS

2010-02-22T12:07:00.000-07:00

Within my district there has been a great deal of work done over the past 2 years on reviewing and revising the process used to evaluate school-based administrators. Significant input has been given to the administrators and a committee has worked through many drafts to put together both a rubric to be used to help guide our actions as well as to help assess our growth and behavior as administrators.

I'm mostly pleased with the final product, as I feel the use of a professional growth portfolio will give us the opportunity to provide an authentic representation of our performance. There will always be an external voice involved with any evaluations, but offering us the opportunity to help create the process and to demonstrate our own growth is a huge opportunity.

I recently read a report originating from Denver Colorado re: perceptions of the Denver Public Schools teacher evaluation process. Recent research in Denver suggests a high level of dissatisfaction among teachers and administrators with their teacher evaluation process. Reading this started me thinking about our own process....

I wonder what the satisfaction level is in my district, among teachers and administrators, of the quality of teaching? This level speaks to our potential to improve instruction, I think.

I also wonder what the result might be if we invited teachers to participate in the process of reviewing our current model? Hmmmm....I bet that would be a very powerful experience!

Cheers

GREAT PD FOR FREE? Sign me up!

2010-02-22T10:03:00.004-07:00

Being on sabbatical and working from home this year has been amazing for the Professional Development opportunities I have had access to. My PD budget has been dramatically impacted (read: eliminated) by not working in a school this year, but it has also been the fullest year of PD experiences to date for me!

The Ed.D. courses I am enrolled in have been excellent learning opportunities, of course. I am very pleased on the whole with the program offered by the University of Phoenix and find it very relevant to my current position. Additionally, the classes I've taught/facilitated in the UOP master's program have provided me with significant learning opportunities too! It is nice to be able to put Knowles' theory of adult learning, andragogy, to practice and get real-time feedback from the students as I do.

Those formal opportunities however make up only the tip of the iceberg that is my professional learning and personal growth this year. Just like an iceberg however, the BULK of my opportunities have been under the surface. The amount of FREE QUALITY learning available on the internet is amazing, if you know where to look. It is a completely unexpected bonus to have the time to learn my way around the online learning opportunities and to access as many of them as I want this year.

I'll start with GOOGLE READER. If you don't use Google Reader to keep track of blogs and websites you visit regularly, YOU MUST START! Simply put, there is no better way that I know of to keep on top of a number of sites. I am currently following over two hundred blogs and other websites and it is completely manageable, for lots of reasons. If you want to know more, please ask.

Next on my list would be the communities I've joined such Classroom2.0 and The Educator's PLN. Great conversations take place in these networks, and I'm sure there is a topic of interest for anyone in education. I'm currently in a discussion on the Educator's PLN regarding the issue of who is to blame for school failure, following the announcement last week an entire HS staff in Rhode Island is being let go due to recurring poor results.

In the past several months I have also attended several webinars using Elluminate where I've had the opportunity to interact and speak directly with authors such as Yong Zhao, Daniel Pink, Seth Godin, Alfie Kohn, and Ian Jukes and to engage in discussions on all sorts of topics related to education. I've got March 30th circled, as Sir Ken Robinson (Do Schools Kill Creativity - if you haven't seen this yet, commit 20 minutes to watch it. It is inspiring!) will be doing an Elluminate session that day! See you there, I hope. That one I do not want to miss!

In fact, if you want to look at the list of presenters lined up by Steve Hargadon over the next little while, check out The Future of Education ning network where he has the list of speakers posted to the end of March. The best thing about these opportunities? They are archived, for review later or in case you miss the original presentation. And, they are free!

I am also currently attending a free online conference right now, the CRSTE Cyber Conference 2010. Sessions run from February 21st to March 5th and they are all in the afternoon/evening and on weekends, as well as 6 sessions running asynchronously throughout the entire conference. The list of presenters is astounding, and you can check it out HERE. Thanks to my ass't sup't LT for hooking me up with this opportunity.

Twitter, as I've written about earlier, has been an amazing discovery for me this year as well too. I won't go into it in detail again, other than to say the learning potential of this networking tool is staggering. if you want to learn more about this opportunity, just ask. I'd love to help anyone get started using it!

Finally, this morning I stumbled across another opportunity, the more substantial free online course. This is a very interesting PD model. It looks like the courses are relatively substantial, spanning 2-3 weeks in time. As an example, here is a link to a free course on copyright for teachers (which I consider a relatively large topic):

http://p2pu.org/copyright-educators-cycle-2-mar-2010 Here is the list of all of the current course offerings at this site: http://p2pu.org/course/list

Now, I don't know about the quality of the learning in these courses, but I would bet they are interesting and engaging. So much of what is available online is valuable simply because it is so relevant and interactive! I find online courses are typically far more interactive than most one-day workshops where we sit back and absorb without meaningfully interacting and engaging in coversations with other participants.

I keep thinking that we might be able to offer our own virtual PD in our district using techniques like this when we get our moodle up and running. There would be some huge challenges, of course, but it has me thinking, what kind of custom district training might we want to offer our staff? New staff orientations could be done asynchronously, with district-specific content conveniently delivered when the staff have the time, minimizing the need for as many scheduled face to face sessions. This would not replace the face to face meetings, but it would certainly give them a different focus if the learning was done outside the sessions and the f2f time was more active participation and/or working sessions.

I can think of lots of great uses of this sort of learning, but I'm wondering how we can effectively harness this opportunity for our district staff? How do we change the culture of PD and/or move away from the workshop mentality? Any ideas? I'd love to hear what other districts have done to embrace new learning opportunityes on a larger scale.

One strategy I have thought of is using sub time to allow teachers to attend online workshops. Perhaps staff can be given a half-day sub (or I can cover their classes for them) to attend the workshop. Then they could write up a summary of the opportunity and share it on our staff PD Ning (an interesting concept, no?) with a link to the archived session. I'd love to actually see a year-long archive of the professional learning out teachers engage in, and this would be an easy way to do it. Take a workshop or attend a conference? Write up a summary and share it with the rest of the staff on the ning! What a powerful testament to the power of the school's vision this would be at the end of a year! We rarely see the totality of our collective efforts as a staff to learn...

Any other ideas?

Cheers

Are We Driving Towards Change, or Hiding Behind Barriers to Keep From It?

2010-02-16T23:29:00.004-07:00

Sherlock Holmes might say "Watson, the change is afoot!"

I've only been in the field of education since 1991, but it seems to me change is a permanent fixture on our radar. The first few years of my career, as with most of teachers, the change was due to me trying to stay afloat and learn how to teach. After that, I remember many different 'initiatives' from my schools and districts.

The veterans in those early days used to make skeptical comments about 'waiting out the change', but I am not so sure that is possible now. I'm seeing some very sticky change occuring at the higher levels, and I am seeing some very worthy change initiatives being introduced that I think will change our practice forever. Systemic change takes great planning though!

CHANGE IS COMPLEX! DO YOU HAVE ALL THE PARTS?

Managing Change Means Making Sure You Have

Vision, Skills, Incentive, Resources AND an Action Plan!

In general, it seems to me that the external pressures for change are increasing, for a variety of reasons which I won't go into here. This is not the time for a Fraser Institute/Standardized Test/Standards-Based System discussion. Reasons why change is proposed aside, I don't think waiting out change is an option for us now. I'd like to see us take our destiny more into our own hands, and I think the way to do that is to be proactive, get everyone on board, and start to make the changes we know will help us improve the learning that occurs in our schools.

The thing is, change in times of cuts and diminishing resources can be demoralizing! Who wants to change, when change causes uncertainty, when it has the potential for hurt, and when we are not sure of what the results of change will be?

Tonight, as I was replying to some posts made by my students in the online Master's class I facilitate, I was struck by that thought about the demoralizing effect the prospect of change has. I've not really stopped and reflected on it in these terms in the past. When thinking about the uncertainty of change, it is easy to see why an uncoordinated and uninspiring attempt at seeking educational change might be difficult to implement successfully.

In my response to my students, I was sharing the value of perspective when looking at change. We need to honor and strengthen our relationships, but we must also look at the forces that will influence any change efforts. We need to consider the driving and restraining forces, as described by Kurt Lewin's Force Field Analysis strategy. I first learned this technique approximately 10 years ago, and I think it is a powerful tool.

Simply put, Lewin's strategy is used to analyze problems in an organizational setting as a precursor to identifying a solution. With his strategy, you analyze the forces that act as barriers to implementing your change (restraining forces) and the forces that support the change initiative (driving forces). By understanding all the forces in effect, you can direct your future actions to create an unbalanced system. When the sum of the driving forces are stronger than the sum of the restraining forces, change will be successful.

It is not too complicated of a strategy, but for me it does two things. One, it provides what I consider to be needed structure to the change process. Change must be planned if it is to be supported. The second thing I like about it is that it forces us to look at driving forces, not just the restraining forces. All too often I feel we focus on the negatives, and the reasons why we can not embrace a change we think may be good for kids. Focusing on the negative, and battling to overcome those barriers, can be especially tiring. By looking at all the forces in play, sometimes our new perspective will allow us to focus our efforts on the positives.
At times, expending our efforts to FURTHER enhance the positives can help us to tip the balance in the favor of change and our new practice will eventually further whittle away at those restraining forces as well. I find this approach a much more energizing way to approach change, and in general I try to force myself out of my box to look at the forces on both sides of a problem now.

Change is inevitable. So are cuts and recessions and criticisms, and ... What we need to have, to support our work towards our vision, is HOPE and OPTIMISM. We need to play to our strengths, focus on those forces we can influence, and strategically make the changes we know our system, and our students, need. Now, the last line caveat is this: Of course, there is so much more involved to systemic reform than I have addressed here, so if you read only this last line please remember that hope and optimism will sustain us in so many ways!

Cheers

Sample Prezi - Created By My Favorite Test Subject

2010-02-08T22:05:00.001-07:00

I've seen some amazing PREZI's online, but I have yet to create my own. I'd played around with it and made a couple of short presentations, but nothing substantial.

Last week my son, in grade 6, mentioned that he was starting a presentation for Social Studies. I emailed him a link to the site, in case he wanted to give something new a shot for his presentation.

He took the bait, and with no instruction from me, he and two friends learned how to use the program and all 3 completed their presentations using Prezi.

Here is Alex's...leave him a comment in the comments section here, or visit him at his blog HERE to let him know what you thought.

Poor kid....he gets stuck having his dad egg him on to try all the new things.....

The Iroquois Confederacy on Prezi

Cheers

Testing an Embedded Quiz Using Google Docs

2010-02-04T11:51:00.002-07:00

Thanks in advance for taking the following quiz to help me test how to use an embedded Google form as a quiz!

Loading...

Cheers!

Positively Influencing Change Through Perspective

2010-02-03T21:50:00.000-07:00

I read a statement similar to this today, or heard something similar somewhere today, and it has been sitting on the top of my head ever since. I want to make darn sure I remember it for the next personal planning I do, or the next planning meetings I attend, so I'm posting it here to keep it at hand.

Instead of looking to save money by chipping away pieces of what we already have, why don't we instead approach the problem by assuming we have nothing and add in everything we truly need. The leftovers will be our savings and the process will affirm our core values.

I love the PERSPECTIVE this approach offers me. It is a transferable and scaleable approach to looking at situations requiring a critical analysis or a cut of some sort. I could use this to assess the efficiency of how I use my time at work. I could use this to review our personal budget at home. I could use this to review my classroom instructional practices.

What I like best about taking this perspective is that it is POSITIVE (building from scratch to support our core values) for dealing with often negative (budget cuts) situations! It seems like such a positive way to proceed...

Cheers

The AMAZING Potential of Social Networking

2010-02-03T10:52:00.000-07:00

I've sat back and been fascinated by the social networking revolution! I watched Myspace take off, I've seen good friends get immersed in Facebook, and I've had to deal with teeanage conflict arising out of Nexopia. I never participated in any of those networks however, because I didn't have time (I thought) and I just thought it did not look like much fun. I had lots of reasons, I suppose, but at the heart of it I think I was just too busy working and trying to be a good husband/father to my family.

I have always been an advocate of online discussion forums though, as I find them amazingly useful sources of information on a wide variety of topics. When I was a rabid Palm user, I wrote reviews of software and hardware for a while, sharing them in different forums. When I built my mountain bike, I received great support from people in a couple of different forums. When I needed to fix my treadmill, I found the answer in a DIY group. On the whole though, I didn't see the utility of groups like those as anything more than a handy resource. It made sense to me why they would not have widespread appeal, as they were too focused for most people and only the diehards want to talk PDSs all day every day anyway.

Approximately a month ago though, I read an article on the power of Twitter for teachers, and I thought I should check it out and see what value there was in it. WOW! Twitter has helped me identify the true value in social networking. Twitter is networking, but is not narrowly focused. It is real time, and flexible, and can meet the many different needs that many different people may have. Flexibility is a key word re: future learning, and Twitter is flexible. Now, the concept of a Personal Learning Network is at the heart of Twitter's utility to me.

Now, I don't really care to know what my friends had for lunch, unless they are buying me lunch, but I do care when one of them posts a link to some great new research on how to teach math more effectively. Or when one of them invites me to discuss the importance of 1:1 computing with members of their state's government (thanks #vanmeter gurus, that was fun!). Twitter can do that for me, and the people I follow, and interact with daily, are in my PLN. They are great sources of inspiration, and information, and supplement the learning I engage in with colleagues in my district nicely!

If you have not taken a look at Twitter yet, give it a shot. Get an account, go to this site and find some people to follow, get a desktop client (I like Tweetdeck) on your computer and sit back and watch and learn from your group. I bet you will soon find yourself wanting to share as well!

Taking the concept of social networking in a completely new direction, today I watched a video that dropped my jaw to the floor. In a video available on TED, Jamie Heywood discusses his website Patients Like Me, that uses the principles of social networking for patients receiving medical care. As patients share their data, a staggering amount of information is collected and freely available for others to use. I believe Heywood shared that there are over 45,000 patients sharing data on their diseases, which is a staggering amount of collaboration on such an important topic. I can't do it justice, the information contained in the site is a bit overwhelming, so please watch Jamie's video, I think it will AMAZE you too. I'm still processing what I saw, but I wanted to share it now while it was fresh in my mind. I'll come back later and edit it after processsing for a while.

The essence of my amazement is how we can work together, as members from a disparate society, to fight illnesses that in years past would have been solitary battles. If we can do that, and make a positive difference, what can we do for issues like poverty and homelessness if some amazing entrepreneur comes up with a way for us to work together in some new innovative social network?

When I think of the problems I face in my normal day to day life, they pale in comparison to some of the issues I was writing about above. My takeaway learning for the day is that I need to change MY perspective to solve my issues. I need to imagine starting from scratch and trying to build support systems to help meet my/our goals, instead of trying to apply micro-levels of change to my current situation. Einstein's words about solving the problems of the future with different thinking that what caused today's problems never rang more true!

Cheers

INFORMATION OVERLOAD? or FILTER FAILURE? A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE PERHAPS....

2010-02-02T22:08:00.000-07:00

I've recently had a change in perspective related to a belief I have had for a long time, and I wanted to share the process by which I ended up thinking of things differently. It has to do with my perceptions and perspectives about the way I see the world, and what I need to do to make improvements in the system!

I watched an interesting video over the weekend, in which Clay Shirky spoke on the topic of privacy, information overload, and how we design systemic solutions for issues we face. Shirky is an author, consultant, and adjunct professor at New York University who focuses on how the internet influences our social and economic realities. I've listened to him speak several times and he is an entertaining speaker, who is astute and has an interesting perspective on issues we are all familiar with.

Since I have begun to read about the influence of the technology on society, I've read quite a bit about the amount that our collection of available information has grown. It is a fact, and until recently I've thought it was an imposing barrier for peope to have to navigate in order to find important information.

Shirky however, proposes it is not necessarily information overload that is the challenge. He makes the point in his video that people have always had access to more books than they could ever read. Information overload is relative, and Shirky proposes it has always been this way since the invention of the printing press. While the topic of his presentation is not on critical thinking skills, I was struck by this different perspective.

Shirky argues that it is our filter, through which we analyze information for validity and reliability, that we need to focus on. Instead of publishers filtering for quality and only publishing good books as in the past, it is us current content users who must filter the information we read for value.

Looking at the issue from this perspective, I think it might give us a different look at what we need to do for our students. We must help our students develop their ability to analyze information and apply their critical thinking skills. Instead of focusing on how much information there is available, we should be designing an approach that attends to the filter issue as opposed to the information overload issue. It is a slightly different perspective that may be reflected in our curriculum and lesson design.

Shirky spends a fair bit of time talking about spam email, which is a filter problem of a different sort, privacy, and other issues but his presentation made an impact on the way I thought about this issue as well as how I hope to look at future issues I study.

I don't know if there is a substantial difference between filter issues or information overload when it comes to teaching students critical thinking skills. That debate is for elsewhere. What I took away from his presentation is the importance of making sure I look at situations from multiple perspectives. I have to push myself to look at situations from a perspective outside my traditional belief system. I need to know my own biases about education, so that as we discuss building learning systems to meet the needs of adults and 21st Century learners, I can identify my beliefs and biases towards any issue and then look objectively at the situation from outside of my perspective.

Cheers

21st Century Teaching Skills and Teacher Interviews

2010-01-19T18:43:00.002-07:00

I was in my first #edchat using twitter today (what a great group by the way - thanks for making me feel welcome) and partway through our large group discussion I was struck with (what may be) a crazy thought about interviewing teachers. I've sat on the administration side of the table for a great many interviews over the last 12 years, and I reflect often on making our hiring practices more effective. Before I get to the crazy thought...a little background.

I've attended workshops on how to develop and ask questions designed to identify behaviors. Myself and my colleagues have put a lot of work into hiring the right teacher for the right job, and I think we have gotten pretty good at it, judging by the excellent people we have had join our team. Assuming we agree there is a need for change in overall instructional practices (which I think we do, based on our common calls for learner-centered instruction this morning), things are going to change in the hiring game. Based on that assumption, and the fact that technology integration will only continue to gain in importance, I think we are going to need to change what we are looking for in a 21st Century teacher.

I thought I would share my thought from today here and I hope you might consider leaving your thoughts in the comments section so we can have a little discussion about teacher interview practices and preparing our schools for the future. Heck, even if you disagree that we need to seek a different skillset than in years past, let me know that too, please!

During the discussion this morning I began to think of turning the interview into a more practical demonstration of teacher skills. Years ago my mentor had prospective teachers teach a practice lesson in addition to the spoken interview. It worked wonderfully, but unfortunately we don't often have a timeline conducive to arranging for test instruction. I'm a little sad to say that I've never used that technique since, because I love that idea. Surely there are other practical techniques out there. Perhaps we should be looking for an electronic portfolio?

Back to the crazy thought at hand though! Regarding 21^st Century Skills, my thought today was that if we value a teacher's ability to learn and creatively solve problems (so they can teach those skills to our students), why wouldn't we ask the teacher to prove it? What if we gave the prospective teacher 5 minutes, a telephone, and internet access to summarize a difficult concept they are not familiar with? Would that give us a realistic view of their tech proficiency as well as their ability to grasp and synthesize new concepts?

After I raised that idea, one of the other participants in the #edchat discussion suggested giving the teacher an exemplary model of a traditional lesson plan and asking them to critique it and/or address how they would change it. The intent of that activity would be to see if they would suggest changes to make the lesson differentiated or more learner-centered. I think that is a very innovative idea too!

Now, what do you think? Are those crazy ideas? What other interview techniques/practices might we employ in order to assess teacher proficiency in the skills we know they need for the 21^st century? Have any of you participated in authentic or non-traditional interviews? Did they work? Did you like them?

If you have the time, I'd love to read your thoughts in the comments section…

Cheers

Testing Youblisher

2010-01-15T22:49:00.001-07:00

I recently learned about an innovative and interesting way to publish and share .pdf files online. Rather than posting a file and expecting people to download it to read it, I am trying out a website called YOUBLISHER.

Youblisher turns your .pdf document into an online magazine. You can then embed that magazine in your blog, website, etc. I've chosen to use my resume as a sample, and it follows. Perhaps someone from an island paradise is looking for an energetic, enthusiastic Web2.0 educator and will stumble upon this blog, find my resume, and whisk me off to the islands.

More likely though, my wife, kids, and mom will look at it an be amazed....by the technology...not the resume...Isn't this a neat way to publish .pdfs though? I'm going to use this in school to publish newsletters, I think...

Big thanks to @jenclevette for giving me the idea to wordle my resume, it makes a great cover page!

Cheers

More From Sir Ken Robinson

2010-01-15T20:19:00.002-07:00

Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talk "Do Schools Kill Creativity" is one of my all time favorite resources that supports my belief our educational system is in need of change.

If you've ever worked with a capable student who struggled with succeeding in school, you know that there are a lot of factors influencing students' dispositions toward school. I believe if we help shape our system to better meet the needs of our students we will be doing what we can about the factors in our control!

To that end, I was thrilled to find the following video on the Educator's PLN ning site tonight. If you liked his talk on TED, you will find this JUST as appealing. He covers essentially the same content, but goes into more depth and takes a broader view of the need for creativity. The overall result is, as usual, brilliant! It is 65 minutes long, and I hope you enjoy it:

Sir Ken Robinson from NYSCATE on Vimeo.

Cheers!

Motion Leadership and Facilitating Instructional Change

2010-01-15T11:30:00.002-07:00

I had the good fortune of attending a one-day working session in Edmonton with Michael Fullan, sponsored by The College of Alberta School Superintendents (CASS), earlier this week. Fullan is working with a cohort of Alberta school districts invovled in a CASS-sponsored Leadership Capacity Building Project titled Moving and Improving.

This was the second time I've been able to attend a working session with Fullan, and the day did not disappoint. His focus was on using the strategies found in his new book, Motion Leadership, to help districts build their instructional and leadership capacities. Myself, and I believe the others I was with, found the day useful and affirming that a lot of what we are working on in our district is on the right path!

If you have read many of Michael Fullan's books, you may have noticed his fondness for lists. In honor of that, I thought I would share my take-aways from the day in the same fashion:

Clarity of purpose is developed through action. Clarity develops while you act.
It is specific leadership behavior that causes positive movement.
If you want to get somewhere you have to have a clear, shared vision of what you want to achieve.
Make your focus student learning. Be specific to the instruction.
Do a small number of things VERY well, instead of a large number of things pretty well.

In his book, Fullan shares 9 components of change, that are part of a READY - FIRE - AIM approach. He believes you should get started first, then adjust your plans and develop your supports once you know what you are doing. From those components of change, I took away:

We must have a bias for action.
Relationships are the foundation upon which all lasting change occurs.
We must expect the implementation dip, where we fall back before improving, but must PERSIST (a focus throughout the day) and fight through it.
We will learn about implementation DURING implementation.
Communication is essential, but, communication without implementation doesn't mean much. It is almost wasted effort.

One goal for the weekend is to read the book and compare my takeways from the brief session with the content in order to develop a deeper understanding of the concept he was sharing. I'll be back with updates, if needed.

Cheers

This Is Something That I Have to See to Believe

2010-01-14T16:17:00.001-07:00

The concept is brilliant, and if it works as well as described below, this new cell phone/electronics charger will be in my pocket the day after it is released!

Obviously, I never thought when I was a child that we would have the powerful electronics devices common today. Taking that notion even further, I believe, the idea that there is a device that can harvest the power found in the AIR borders on incomprehensible to me. Really? They can do that? Amazing. I'll be watching to see if this makes it to market.

And then I will buy one!

That's if it works, of course. I've seen lots of amazing ideas run out of steam on the way to the finish line. I've may even have some of my own crazy schemes, errr, ideas, not make it to reality. Or I may not have.

But still....

What do you think? Are we mere steps away from batteries that never need recharging?

Cheers

Olivia is the Class V.I.P. - January 13, 2010

2010-01-11T12:40:00.006-07:00

Our little girl is her class V.I.P. in grade 2 this week. Today we had to write her a letter and send it in to the class, and I believe the teacher reads it out in class. Of course, we couldn't resist doing a little bit more....she really does deserve it!

Here is Alex, Olivia's big brother, reading the letter my wife and I wrote and sent in with Olivia. Thanks very much to Olivia's teacher, Ms. Kraig, who played Alex's video for the class.

Just as we are lucky to have her with us, Olivia is lucky to have an awesome big brother like Alex!

The pizza lunch was awesome this week too. Thanks very much Ms. Kraig for making the kids in your class feel so special!

Cheers

Different Ways to SHOW What You KNOW

2010-01-08T16:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled Friday afternoon programming, but I came across this today and thought it might be of interest to some of you...

If you are looking to come up with alternative ways to get the kids to show what they know, perhaps this periodic table of visual representation might be useful?

PERIODIC TABLE OF VISUAL REPRESENTATION

I could see this being given to kids too, to choose their own way of presenting information instead of writing the book report or completing a paragraph. There are some higher level thinking skills needed for some of the causal comparative techniques on the page...

Thanks to Ian Jukes for posting this on his Committed Sardines blog. Thanks to the good people at visual-literacy.org for putting it together. It's AWESOME. I learned some new things today.

AND...looking at this reminded me of the diagram to help people choose what kind of chart to make to show relationships between numbers. If your kids make charts, take a look at this link. Thanks to EXTREME PRESENTATION.COM for putting this one online!

Cheers

Do You Work in a Professional Learning Community?

2010-01-07T22:43:00.002-07:00

If you work in a PLC, perhaps you should review the 8 Laws Of Human Nature In A Professional Learning Community.

I read these, posted on another blog I frequent Education Innovation. The objective of a team working together may be pure, the actions of the individuals honorable, but still the work they try to do to help students learn can turn out incomplete or otherwise as they did not intend.

Rob Jacobs, author of the Education Innovation blog explains how PLC teams can veer off course in 8 easy to understand ways. If I were king for a day, I might make this required reading for all of our schools PLC teams at the end of this year AND at the start of next year. There may be some good reflection on team functions taking place as a result...

Wisdom like this, quoted from Jacob's post (HERE) is golden:

"Have you ever considered that the first person in a PLC to share an idea, their knowledge, their opinion, or give input to their Professional Learning Community may create a sequence of events that prevent the PLC from making the strongest most informed decisions possible?

and

"Teachers are often reluctant to share their ideas about effective instructional practices to meet the varying needs of students. Often they are afraid that they will be "wrong." Talking about page numbers and dates carries less risk. "

The PLC teams in our district are doing very well, but I sometimes wonder if enough time is spent developing the proper relationships in order to function effectively as a team. I know as a principal, I never had enough time to work with all of the teams, and other potential mentors were equally as busy. Reflecting on these rules, and reviewing the vision for the teams, may be a very useful exercise!

As I always like to say, you do not have to be sick to get better!!! (edit: Darn, I wish I could give credit to where I heard/read that phrase. If you have a source for who said it, let me know. I think it was W.E. Deming in a video I watched a long time ago, but I'm not sure...)

Cheers!

More on Disruptive Innovation

2010-01-07T22:19:00.002-07:00

Thanks very much to Scott McLeod, author of the Dangerously Irrelevant blog, for sharing the text and audio of his recent presentation to the NEA. Thanks very much to one of Scott's readers (Art Wolinsky) for synchronizing the two and making them available for everyone to enjoy. You can find the individual components HERE and the combined version HERE. If you have any interest in the topic of disruptive innovation or educational change, I recommend you take 20 minutes and watch/listen to this presentation.

Bob Dyan said the times, they are a changing. Scott McLeod's presentation will give you a great overview of the theory that explains why. I'm not a betting man (mostly because I'm on PIL and not as flush as normal), but if I were I might be tempted to bet the 2019 target promoted by Christensen may be reached a bit earlier than that!

The book Disrupting Class, by Clayton Christensen and Michael Horn, makes a great deal of sense to me. The idea of disruptive innovation driving successful organizations from the marketplace makes sense as a potential influence on the structure of education when explained in the book. I believe another book I read a while ago, A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink, helps to further explain the conditions that exist in society to support the upcoming disruption of our systems.

McLeod's presentation will be most helpful to me when trying to explain the changes that will take place during this next decade. When talking to people about the change I believe is coming, they frequently struggle to comprehend the breadth of the dramatic change that is coming. Old perspectives say there is no way kids can learn online in large numbers. The problem with that belief though is we are not using old perspectives. Our students are creating new perspectives every day.

By focusing on what education is going to look like (i.e. an almost 50-50 blend of online and traditional classes at the HS level by 2019), I think I have been contributing to people's inability to understand the innovation that is happening as we speak. I shouldn't focus on the end. It is too dramatic a jump. Rather, to help people understand the influence online learning is going to have, I should be focusing on the conditions being created that will foster kids learning online. I should explain more about how kids are starting to demonstrate their learning. McLeod's presentation did a much better job of helping his audience (and us on the web watching it) build our understanding of what is happening.

The slides showing the exponential curve, especially, will help me to help others understand this concept the next time we are having a discussion about it. Great presentation Scott! Thanks for sharing it!

Cheers

I Think This is Incredible

2010-01-07T08:51:00.000-07:00

I came across this offer this morning:

Explore 120 years of amazing discoveries, fascinating maps, and the world's best photography with The Complete National Geographic. This definitive collection of every issue of National Geographic magazine, digitally reproduced in stunning high resolution, brings you the world and all that is in it. Use the advanced interface to explore a topic, search for photographs, browse the globe, or wander on your own expedition.

Can you imagine having EVERY issue of the National Geographic Magazine available digitally? If you move, they weigh nothing to take with you. Can you imagine how many hours you'd spend poring over the maps, pictures, and articles?

What do you think that might be worth? My first thought was that it would come at a premium. As it turns out, the regular price (on the Geographic website, here) is only $69.95, but it is currently on sale for $59.95!! I think that is an incredible deal. For those seeking a higher level of personalization, you can get them preloaded on a 160 GB hard drive, with your name laser-etched into the shell, for $199.95.

I want....and I know a couple people for whom this would be an amazing gift, too.

This could be a great resource for schools to look at too...and as the size of hard drives increases and prices drop, can you imagine sending your child to school every day with information like this, plus a collection of other resources readily available, at their fingertips? The possibilities are impressive!

Cheers

The Power of Students Tracking Their Own Progress

2010-01-06T16:36:00.000-07:00

I recently read an interesting article by Robert Marzano in the December edition of Educational Leadership (http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/dec09/vol67/num04/When_Students_Track_Their_Progress.aspx) about the influence on student learning when kids are tracking/charting their own performance over time on in-class assessments.

One of the things that Marzano mentions is that for it to be truly effective, the assessments need to measure the students' performance on the same learning objective over time. If one assessment measured performance on reducing fractions to lowest terms, for example, and the next assessment measured performance on converting decimals to percents, those are not linearly comparable. Many other practical suggestions resulting from his research are shared as well.

As an old math teacher, I can think of many ways to make use of this in math, but my thinking immediately took me in the direction of language arts. Reading comprehension and/or performance on different domains that make up writing skills are one area where I think it is a natural fit to involve students in tracking their own progress as Marzano recommends. Most of our schools have standardized reading and writing assessments that are given to students, measuring a specific set of skills, that may be perfect for this sort of use. It may even be possible to track progess over time and give students a long-term sense of their growth over time.

Plus, as an old math teacher, it would give kids more opportunities to make charts, read charts, etc. outside of my classes....

I'm think the kind of feedback students get after taking standardized assessments is inconsistent. It depends on the teacher, the time available, etc., but it is important to get them the feedback. My children will come home and tell me when they have written one of the schools standardized tests, but when I ask them how they did or what they learned from their writing, they mention that sometimes they get a copy back with feedback and sometimes they don't. Please know I am not criticizing teachers at all, but trying to illustrate the importance of raising the meaning of the assessment for the students as well as the teachers. Great learning occurs for the teachers in analyzing assessment results, but by engaging students in the sort of activity Marzano describes it may help create deeper learning for students as well.

Just a thought. I hope you get a chance to take a look at Marzano's research and share any comments you may have!

Cheers!

Twittering and Tweeting...What is it All About?

2010-01-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

Wow.

I never gave much thought to using Twitter, as the notion of following someone's (anyones?) every move held zero appeal to me. I stand corrected.

I still have zero interest in knowing where people eat lunch. I am now, however, committed to using the Twitter service as a tool for collecting new ideas and items of interest to me.

Initially I signed up just to take a look at the service when I purchased my new HTC phone with a Twitter application built in to the Android operating system. I quickly found several people who's opinions I respect and/or who's writing I find interesting with Twitter accounts.

I enjoy the opinions and links shared by writers such as Harry McCracken, David Pogue and Thomas Friedman. I have also signed up to follow our provincial Minister of Education Dave Hancock, several local educators, and respected bloggers/authors such as Dan Pink, Karl Fisch and Ray Schroeder. Being on the receiving end of their thoughts in short, 140-character or less bursts is a great way to stimulate my thinking during a busy day and to help focus my reflection on topics we discuss. The value to me is similar to planning meetings at work where we are brainstorming different topics, except these mini brainstorms for me now occur throughout the day.

So, on the relative value of Twitter, I have a new position. I think this is a pretty valuable service and I'm going to be searching for ways to continue to increase the value of it. Twitter as a micro-blog may even render this forum obsolete one day, although I think I'll always need a spot to express more evolved thoughts. A 140 character limit is tough for a talker like me to meet!

A couple of teacher friends are even trying to use Twitter with their classes as ways to use student cell phones to help keep kids on track with their homework and other course happenings. I am excited to see if that takes off!

If you like, you can find me on twitter using. I am @acmcdonaldgp (http://twitter.com/acmcdonaldgp)

Cheers

If We Don't Motivate and Inspire Ourselves, Who Will? (aka What is MY Sentence?)

2010-01-04T19:11:00.007-07:00

The course I am currently enrolled in as part of my journey towards an Ed.D. is on the topic of learning theories/adult learning/lifelong learning. As part of our class discussions last week, we were talking about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and what we can do to foster it in ourselves, our students, and our peers in our roles as educational leaders.

Early last year I read that had been on my list for some time, called A Whole New Mind, and I felt it crystalized many of the thoughts I have been having about changes that we are witnessing in society. It also addressed and supported my belief that our education system needs to be more personal for our students (and ourselves), and gave me great optimism about the future that my children are going to be living in as adults! The book's author, Daniel Pink, connected his thoughts to my world, and I'm fortunate that I now have another chance to reflect on what he has to say.

Yesterday, I happened across a video Daniel Pink has posted on Vimeo, which is also related to a presentation I saw him give on TED a while back and to his new book. Motivation is the topic, and Pink's video from Vimeo, titled Two Questions That Can Change Your Life, are expertly addressed in a very entertaining way.

If you have ever spent time working in junior high school, then you have had many talks with students trying to find a way to motivate and inspire them to (force themselves to) learn what is going on in class. I think the two questions Pink offers might help guide discussions on this topic in the future...

The Two Questions video is short, and embedded below. I dare you to watch it without thinking passionately about the future, or wondering how it might apply to someone you know, or even yourself! While this sort of internal motivator may not appeal to everyone, it might be exactly what some people are looking for to give them a sense of focus that may have been missing before. When life gets busy, our priorities sometimes get shuffled to the side while we deal with other, ultimately less important, distractions. Fun as they may be! Asking ourselves these two questions might be exactly what is needed to get back on track.

Two questions that can change your life from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

Inspiration aside, the second question is extremely practical too! Too many people set goals, ("I want to ...") and do not give thought to measuring their progress towards those goals. Giving thought to assessing your progress makes it far more likely that significant progress will occur!

Now, after watching that short video for inspiration, I have embedded Daniel Pink's talk from TED (July 2009) below too. It is approximately 18 minutes long and my money says you will find this one very interesting too. Watch it, and then do what I do. I'm going to buy the new book Drive!

Cheers

Restructuring Education - Starting With Teacher Training

2010-01-03T18:56:00.001-07:00

In an earlier post I was wondering what kinds of changes to teacher training programs might be appropriate given what we now know about how kids learn, about what works with professional learning communities, etc. Today, I found one University's answer to that question.

The University of Michigan has dramatically changed their teacher education program. As the head of the program, Dean Deborah Ball says, "Image (sp) the difference between learning about child development, which is unquestionably helpful, and learning how to have a sensible interaction with a child, which permits you to know exactly what's going wrong right now with that child's reading, or why is this error occurring over and over again in math. That's actually being able to do something with that knowledge..."

That is a powerful statement, that addresses the difference between teaching theory and making learning relevant. Just as we know that is what our students need, that is what these student-teachers get in their training. I'm excited and impressed by what I've read about the philosophy of this program...I hope it is a success and that the relevant, structured experiences provided these teachers-in-training become common place.

The student teaching experience in Alberta, where teachers have to complete a minimum of 13 weeks (depending on their university) of student teaching is excellent, however I would love to see more focused and specific training in some skills. One of the professors in the U Mich program describes the 'rounds' student teachers go on (similar to medical rounds) as being a way to learn those specific skills - working with small groups is the example used in the article - in a hands-on way as opposed to talking about it in class. I love that idea!

What can we in the schools do to help the training programs? It seems like we might need to step up a bit and offer more of the wisdome accumulated through our teaching experiences to the classroom portion of teacher training programs. I say, sign us up!

You can read the article I am referring to, on the US National Public Radio (NPR) webpage, HERE.

An earlier post addressing the importance of changing teacher training in Michigan, also from NPR, is located HERE. I'll offer a caution with this one however, as this article talks about alternative certification as a way of bringing in passionate new teachers to the system. I'm not too keen on that idea, as I think passion is one thing but knowing how to respond to a wide range of student needs is a completely different thing entirely. I think the master teachers we need with our students need both, not just passion!

Cheers

Current leadership models are inadequate for disruptive innovations

2009-12-31T15:24:00.001-07:00

If you are interested in educational administration, here is a relevant video on the topic of how our current leadership models are inadequate for disruptive innovations:

Current leadership models are inadequate for disruptive innovations | dotSUB

On another note...this dot|sub site looks interesting too...

Cheers

The Impact on Bussing

2009-12-31T15:07:00.001-07:00

I saw this picture today on the Dangerously Irrelevant blog, and thought it very relevant to the issue of restructuring schools. Over the past few years we have spent considerable (and needed) time reflecting on and revising attendance boundaries in our district, to accomodate the opening of two new schools.

This effort was needed, and helped coordinate transportation within our district addressing many issues that existed, but I can not help thinking as we move forward that we might be moving towards larger transportation related issues in the future.

As students and parents seek to increase the personalization of their programs, taking advantage of online and community-based offerings, what will be the impact on bussing and transportation? The picture attached makes me think that the changes coming in the future are going to impact our system in ways that we may not consider now....I feel inadequate sometimes when I think about how much I do not know!

Cheers

Google Goggles

2009-12-31T02:04:00.001-07:00

I'm starting to think I like Google too much.....but this app for my new Android phone is just too cool.

Watch this short video to learn more about visual searching! I'll come back and update after testing it a bit

I think this looks amazing.....

Stay tuned for the mobile Google translate application too.....that's coming soon too, I think.

Cheers

Sent from my iPod

UPDATE: OUCH! As it happens, my HTC Hero runs Android v. 1.5. Google Goggles is listed as working on Android v. 1.6 and higher. Who's sad?

Education Jobs in the Future

2009-12-30T23:12:00.000-07:00

I was reading another future-oriented article tonight, and as with other articles I've read on the subject it predicted education jobs would be plentiful in the future.

I agree, with the population growing it makes sense that we will have large numbers of children in a hoop. It also makes sense that adult education will continue to be a growing market.

One thing that is almost always absent though is recognition that teaching is bound to be a very different job in the future.

We know how important it is to help people construct their own knowledge. When will the tipping point be reached re: changing HOW we teach, for instance? By the time our system changes structure to embrace new methods, what will our teacher prep programs look like? Will the new teachers continue to be the last ones to learn?

Seems to me that might be a good place to start if we know we want/need change.....

Cheers

This post made from my HTC HERO smartphone

Google Voice

2009-12-18T18:12:00.005-07:00

If you haven't stopped by Google to look at their collection of applications lately, I think now might be the time! Not too long ago I again posted about Google Documents and Google Forms because I think they have HUGE applications in the classroom. Here is a little bit of information I've picked up about a new offering from Google that looks very interesting!

I think the content of this post may be more suited for personal use, than educational, but regardless of where it will be used, I now have a new Google application on my list of things to learn more about. There is only one drawback that I see at this point - it is currently only available in the U.S.

The application I'm drooling over today, available only by invitation at this point before being rolled out on a larger scale, is Google Voice (GV). GV is a collection of internet-based phone features and utilities. A list of the features includes:

Google voicemail: voicemail like email
Voicemail transcription: read what your voicemail says
Custom greetings: vary voicemail greetings by caller
International calling: low cost calls to the world
Notifications: read voicemail messages via email or SMS
Share voicemails: forward, embed, or download voicemails

As well, through GV you can get a Google Number which offers the following features:

One number: a single phone number that rings all your phones
Free SMS: send, receive & store text messages online
Block calls: send unwanted callers straight to voicemail
Record calls: record phone calls and store them online
Conference calls: join several people into a single call
Screen callers: hear who is calling before you pick up

Doesn't that look like an impressive collection of gadgety utilities and features? I've just ordered a new smartphone running Google's Android operating system, and I'll have the full power of the web at my disposal with my phone. Hopefully GV will play well with a phone running the Google OS, and I really look forward to getting set up with Google Voice to take advantage of some of these features.

Oh, and hopefully Google will make it available in Canada too.

If you would like to watch some video of these features in action, please check HERE. If anyone out there has used Google Voice, drop a quick comment here and let us know what you think of it so far. I don't think I'll be able to get an invitation, as it appears to be only available in the US at this point, but I am still interested....maybe I can set it up and use it somehow when I'm in Arizona for a month later this spring...

Cheers

Electric Vehicles

2009-12-18T09:54:00.003-07:00

The idea of moving from internal combustion to electric vehicles is BIG idea to wrap our heads around. It would be a monumental shift in the car industry. The concept is immediately appealing for the value it offers to our environment, but as with most great ideas there is a great deal to consider to make it reality.

I recently viewed a brief video created by IBM predicting the top 5 ideas that will be popular in 5 years in cities. Number one on the list was electric vehicles. The talk of smart grids with charging stations started me thinking about battery issues, and I was reminded of the single best presentation I'd ever heard on this topic.

Watch this 18 minute presentation from a TED conference in February of 2009. Does this not sound like an amazingly simple, yet powerful and effective, idea?

What do you think of that? Doesn't that sound possible? When I watch this, I think to myself "Why not?" It comes down to will, doesn't it?

UPDATE: I just visited the Better Place website to see what they have been up to since this presentation, and they have pictures and test drive results for the Renault Fluence. It is a nice looking car (I'm still waiting for the 4WD version) and the early reports are positive. Of course, I doubt the negative comments would be posted here. Regardless, progress seems like it is being made....now if they make a vehicle that fits me, and that I can effectively use here in the frozen north, then I'm in!

Cheers

Personal Learning Networks

2009-12-17T23:42:00.001-07:00

I've been giving a lot of thought lately to the creation of knowledge, while I've been reading up on theories of human development and how people learn for my current course. The focus of the course is adult learning and lifelong learning and it has been very interesting to reflect on how I've consciously and unconsciously come to know what I know and (more importantly perhaps) discover what I don't know.

Obviously, formal learning plays a significant role, as does professional reading. Equally important in the world of adult learning, I believe it is an individual's personal learning network (PLN) that helps them construct meaning of what is going on around them and inspire the deep, lasting learning that makes a difference. Learning in a vacuum can only go so far, it is when it is shared and built upon that it becomes deep and embedded.

On that note, thanks to everyone who has taken the time to share an opinion with me in the past, to wax philosophical about teaching and learning, to email me a link to an interesting article, or to ask questions and reflect with me about what we do. You are a valued member of my PLN and there is no way I would know what I know without our interactions.

Over the last few days I have had the privilege to spend significant time with some members of my PLN in person AND ONLINE, and as always I appreciate (and benefit from) their knowledge, PASSION, and energy levels. I hope everyone has someone like that in their network. I also hope you are taking advantage of technology to broaden your perspective and to add to your network. It is incredibly easy, and valuable, to find an online group you are interested in and touch base with them to find out more about what you know and don't know.

For those of you who may be reading this, I have some questions for you to reflect on. What do we do to help our students understand the importance of building those connections with their peers? Do we do enough modeling for our students and are we beginning to train them in the skills they will need to be lifelong learners? Are we providing them with opportunities to shrink the world and broaden their knowledge through involvement with peers in other parts of the world? Should we?

I hope you get a chance to discuss this with those in your personal learning network, and if you'd like to share your thoughts on these questions with me, go for it. I would love to hear them...

Cheers

Web 2.0 For Teachers

2009-12-13T20:48:00.004-07:00

Howdy!

As most teachers will be able to tell you, there are an amazing number of web-based resources available online.

Many teachers think a significant challenge to making use of different software is learning how to use them. I disagree that is our biggest challenge. Through experience I have found many similarities among software applications, and most students intuitively learn their way around web-based software quite quickly. I think all we need to do as teachers is help (most) students find the medium, and they will be able to figure out how to use it to communicate with us!

The bigger challenge, I have always felt, is staying up to date with what applications are out there. It seems like every week I read about a new tool, or someone shares one with me. I frequently find myself thinking/worrying that I might be missing something important...UNTIL NOW.

Today, I happened across what appears to be a very comprehensive collection of web 2.0 tools for teachers, all in one place. Thanks to Jesper Isakkson for putting this together! I've added it to my delicious bookmarks, and I hope it comes in handy for some of you too! A screenshot showing the list of categories is at the beginning of this post.

As comprehensive as this map is, I have not seem some of my favorites on the list. One that is missing is www.dipity.com. If you have students create timelines in your classes, perhaps some may find the option of making their timeline online appealing? Here is a link to my favorite 11 year old blogger's most recent assignment in social studies, created using dipity: http://www.dipity.com/SuperMrgolf12009

Cheers

Google Documents for Teachers

2009-11-27T10:27:00.004-07:00

I came across this good introduction to Google Documents for teachers (see below) the other day.

I know I have posted about Google Docs before, but I think we are missing an opportunity here for having students work collaboratively on one document. This is an area where I believe we need to do more!

There are other potential benefits to having students use this impressive suite of tools to collaborate on work at home and at school too, not the least of which is removing compatibility issues and helping to share documents. The history function is potentially helpful too!

On my to-do list is learning how to use Google Forms. It looks interesting, almost like a survey application in some ways.

If your students are doing lots of collaborative work, Google Docs might benefit them more than using other more popular applications. They do require a Google account (gmail address) to use this however, which may be a problem depending upon the students' age and/or school or district policies regarding having students sign up for external email addresses.

Cheers

FQFP8FV2S2G6

Shameless Plug For a New Blog I Like

2009-11-24T21:31:00.001-07:00

How could I not put in a plug for what is likely the best blog started by a grade 6 student this month?

Take a minute, if you can, and pop by and check out my son's blog. He's put up some videos of some trebuchet prototype designs he has built from lego, in preparation for building a wooden one later.

http://almosteverythingisliked.blogspot.com/

Well done buddy!

Cheers

Meaningful PD - How Great Does This Sound

2009-11-24T00:14:00.001-07:00

Tonight I was reading one of the educational blogs that I subscribe to in my RSS feed ( and I came across an online post that I felt addressed our current PD needs perfectly. I found it very affirming for the district I work in because I believe we try to tap into our expertise in this manner regularly!

I sometimes worry that we are making too much use of our experts, but it sure is impressive to consider the expertise that exists in our schools.

On Ian Juke's Committed Sardine blog I read an article from the Dean of Instruction at Noble Stree College Prep school in Chicago, title 'When Teachers Are the Experts: From Traditional to Collaborative Pro D'. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this short article summarizing the shift taking place in our schools.

The post is available here: http://tinyurl.com/sardinesforEDA564

(or search the blog entries at http://committedsardine.com/blog.cfm , I just shortened the URL when I posted this link to my class)

For what it is worth, I agree with Ian. I'm going to miss the donuts too!

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the post. Did anything really connect with you? Is there anything you disagreed with? Did you find anything in there that might be useful at your school? etc.

Cheers

Disrupting Class by 2019....by 2014 in College....

2009-11-23T23:37:00.000-07:00

In his book Disrupting Class, Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen makes a case that half of all HS courses in the U.S. will be delivered online by 2019. He has used logarithmic graphing of present day statistics to identify the growth curve that exists for online registrations.

Many people question Christensen's position, but he presents pretty compelling evidence to support the growth curve being very steep, similar to exponential growth.

I feel Christensen's prediction could come true. His argument makes sense. I don't necessarily know what we need to do about it yet, but I think it could come true and we better start getting prepared soon. I also think the future is part online, and part on the ground, where the majority of students will be in blended programs. They may even be online, at school!

All the uncertainty, and excitement, I feel for the possibility of big changes in public school enrolments aside, today I read about something a bit closer to us than 2019.

2014 to be precise.

On October 21 I shared some information from a webinar I attended with Ambient Insight Chief Research Officer Sam S. Adkins (content below). Today I read a summary Ambient has produced about college students participating in online courses. They predict 2014 will be a big year. Let's look at their numbers using a NOW and 2014 comparison.

NOW (fact)

100% online courses: 1.25 million students

100% traditional courses: 15.14 million students

Blended courses: 10.65 million students

2014 (prediction)

100% online courses: 3.55 million students

100% traditional courses: 5.14 million students

Blended courses: 18.65 million students

What do you make of all that? Are these numbers reasonable? Knowing that colleges need to make money too, are there any lessons in these numbers?

I think there might be....

For what it is worth, full disclosure is that I am taking courses online right now. The courses I am taking are excellent, and much like in a regular classroom, the quality of the teacher makes the course.

the whole article on Adkin's predictions is available here:

http://thejournal.com/articles/2009/10/28/10.5-million-prek-12-students-will-attend-classes-online-by-2014.aspx

Cheers

Brain-Based School Design

2009-11-22T22:49:00.000-07:00

In our line of work, education, we hear a great deal about making use of what we know about the brain to influence our teaching and student learning.

The problem is, most of us don't know much about how the human brain works. Sure, we know we all have different learning styles, and that our brain changes over time, and other things. But when it comes to concrete, instruction-specific knowledge, I believe in general we don't know much at all.

And, I think that is too bad, and due to change in relatively short order. People are going to demand changes, sooner rather than later.

One of the topics I have been most prone to discuss in the past 18 months is the need for education to be more responsive to the individual needs of the students. I believe completely a relevant, meaningful, and appropriate education will engage all students.

Fullan, in one of his books (sorry no reference, its late, if you really want it, email me and I'll send it to you. Breakthrough I think but I'm not getting up to check) spoke about the need for precision and personalization in education, coupled with professional learning. Daniel Pink, in his book A Whole New Mind, describes our current design era as being notable for people's desire to have their lives customized to meet their specific needs. Clayton Christensen talks about how virtual education will help meet the unique needs of more students by allowing them to learn online while also in traditional school settings. All of these resources exist because we are trying to learn more about how we learn.

All 3 of the examples in the last paragraph address the same concept, and I believe the underlying reason for the similarities is that people (parents/students) are slowly starting to recognize in many cases they can always get what they want.

Recently, the Toronto Star ran an 8-part series on brain-research and its applications to education. It is a brilliant collection of brief articles put together by the 2008 Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy winner Alanna Mitchell. If you are involved with education, I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE you to read this series. When you are reading it, don't think about the changes that are difficult for us to comprehend. Think about the POTENTIAL that exists for student learning if we could somehow make this knowledge evident in our practice!

Isn't that potential impressive? Do you want education for your children, or grandchildren, like those students in the Australian HS are getting?

The series is located here: http://www.thestar.com/topic/Atkinson2009 . Please read it. It's likely the most important post I've made on this blog in a long time! And when you read it, dream BIG!

Cheers

Of Data and Perceptions and New Ways of Looking at the World

2009-11-04T08:40:00.007-07:00

I spent 20 minutes last night listening to a fascinating presentation on new ways of looking at the separation that exists between countries in the world, and how the gap between countries has narrowed over the past couple of generations.

I hope you have some time to watch the video, the presenter, Hans Rosling, provides an inspiring use of statistics! In general, his point is that the way we look at the world (our mindsets) are often based on old information and that the modern way the world is (represented by his datasets) is significantly different.

For teachers of Social Studies, or History, or even Mathematics, this video could potentially be quite useful!

If you would rather watch the video full screen from its original location at TED, click here.

I hope you enjoy it!

Cheers

MOVING THE BAR and INCREASING GRADUATION RATES

2009-10-29T13:22:00.000-06:00

For many years an oft-repeated phrase in education was that we needed to raise the bar, meaning we needed to establish higher expectations and help all students attain those higher levels of achievement. I am not a high school teacher, and it has been close to 20 years since I taught in a high school, but I am thinking that the bar has been raised considerably at the high school level.

Thinking back to what I worked on in high school, and what I hear students are working on today in the higher level courses, makes me think that it must be a heck of a lot tougher to be in HS now than in the past. Is that not raising the bar?

By that thinking, the fact that our graduation rates are higher today than they were 20 years ago it makes me think that our schools have done a good job of helping students get up and over the higher bar.

I started thinking about this notion while reading an article online the other day about how schools in Des Moines Iowa are considering creating a fast track high school diploma intended to graduate more students with fewer credits and keep kids from dropping out of school. Is the idea being considered in Iowa proof that we have raised the bar considerably? One rationale presented in support of the concept is the fact that graduation requirements are up considerably since the 1980’s…

What do parents and employers want? What skills are they expecting graduates to have, and can those be learned in a fast track setting?

This school reform stuff is tricky business…

Cheers

More On Common Sense

2009-10-22T16:20:00.003-06:00

I love the concept shown in the following video. I think the FUN THEORY makes perfect sense. I also think it is a VW marketing campaign....but that works for me and I'm OK with that...

What I'm thinking about now though, is what applications does this have for kids and school?

Relevance is not the only factor that increases motivation. Fun plays a part too. What old ways can we get rid of and replace with new fun ways of getting to the same place?

Spelling lists and tests? Math basic facts? Tests? There are lots of educational escalators out there!

Cheers!

The Virtualization of Education

2009-10-21T13:57:00.007-06:00

I attended an online webinar earlier today, sponsored by Ambient Insight, an online market based research firm, on the topic of the virtualization of education. I've read more and more about this topic online of late. It is hard to avoid hearing about it online, and Clayton Christensen's book Disrupting class: How disruptive innovation will change the way the world learns has made its way around our district so there's been some discussion locally as well.

This is a topic that fosters great discussion among educators and the public alike. Everyone has an opinion on school, and most people I've talked with are firmly in the camp that there is little chance online learning will substantially impact traditional education

I disagree. Ambient's research, and predictions based on existing trends, would seem to support my position! Here is a slide from their presentation showing the growth of pre-K-12 online learning:

What I find really interesting though is the predicted growth of blended learning that takes place in both schools and online. Check out the growth in the yellow slice of pie, above! Here is some other interesting, recent, information:

Even the U.S. Government appears to be getting in on the game. Here is a slide providing an overview of a recent US Education report, with the headline touting the effectiveness of online learning! In one of the most interesting parts of today's webinar, the presenter was talking about the number of U.S. states that are starting to mandate giving students access to online learning. The topic of cost savings came up when it was shared that online students draw, on average, half of what brick and mortar students get in education funding. Those are potentially huge savings.

The final interesting point I took out of today's webinar is this final slide, showing the evolution of a variety of different online educational trends. LMSs, which we have spent so much time focusing on, yet don't even use yet, are the first wave with Social Learning Platforms the third wave. Licensing models are moving towards no licenses, and business models are then looking to collect $ from subscriptions and advertising.

The social part of these trends is what appealed to me the most. Research I have read suggests teachers and pedagogy are at the top of the list in determining the effectiveness of online education. Social networks are taking off, and the trend is for peer to peer social learning to take more of a role with teachers developing more of a facilitator role than providing direct instruction.

I don't think there is going to be any avoiding this, and I also think that if we do this right, many of our students are going to benefit and get better educations than they do now.. I think I see some more reading in my future.

Cheers

(if you want the .pdf of the whole presentation, it is available along with others here: https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/event/playback)

Stunning New Research!

2009-10-21T11:31:00.004-06:00

Well, I don't know if this is earth-shattering news or not, but it certainly gave me a good laugh this morning.

I am signed up for the Association of Curriculum, Supervision and Development (ASCD) Smart Brief. Every day relevant stories are sent to my inbox in the form of this Smart Brief, helping me to keep current with what is happening in K-12 education outside of my district.

Today, I think, one of their headlines made it past the editors without getting caught. It gave me a good laugh to read:

Eye on Curriculum

Research shows trial and error helps students learn

My first thought was "Really? I never would have thought that!"

Sarcasm aside, the more I thought about it the more it made me think of how important it is to give kids the opportunity to learn by doing. Working on projects, engaging in relevant exercises, and having to go back and make changes because the results were not acceptable is how I learn best, and I think how most people learn best.

Do we do enough of that in our schools? Now that is authenticity in learning!

Cheers

(if you want to sign up for smart brief, check here: http://www.smartbrief.com/ascd/ I highly recommend it)

www.visuwords.com

2009-10-15T11:33:00.001-06:00

Thanks to our colleague, Mr. Funk, I will likely never be at a loss for words again!

Today I was directed to www.visuwords.com, which is an online dictionary with a twist. Instead of defining a word, visuwords gives you a visual representation of the definition as well as illustrating links your word has with other words, derivations, etc. The picture with this post is a screenshot of the result for searching the word "KNOWING".

Immediately I thought of all of those students I have worked with over the years who did not have a strong vocabulary. They recognized words when they heard them, but struggled to come up with them when working on writing activities in class. With this visual search engine, no longer will a student need to say "I can't think of anything else to write about.". If they are interested in hockey, then can enter the word in and be given all kinds of ideas for directions to take their writing in. This program is simple, but it just makes sense!

Give it a look, I think you'll be amazed at its utility too! If I can think of a use for this, imagine what an expert in teaching writing could do?

Cheers

Teacher Professional Development: LESSON STUDY

2009-10-13T14:07:00.002-06:00

In today's edition of the Washington Post there is an article describing an elementary school's use of a technique known as 'Lesson Study' to improve teacher knowledge and ability. Lesson Study is a practice that originated in Japan, and see's teachers working together weekly to create and refine specific lessons.

Once the lesson is created, one member of the group teaches it to students, while the others observe the students and take notes for their future discussion. The teacher is not evaluated, as the group created the lesson, but the extra sets of eyes help to identify problems and/or successes the students may experience as they learn the concept.

Following the initial teaching, the group reassembles and reworks the lesson plan to incorporate the feedback, and then it is retaught with the same purpose. The idea behind this practice of professional development is that teacher growth is most effective when it is embedded on the job, and it needs to occur in smaller occurrences to be sustainable.

This is a very interesting topic. I think it is a logical extension of what we are doing with our school-based and/or district PLC groups, and I hope to learn more about it.

The original article may be found HERE

Cheers

Virtual Field Trips

2009-10-10T00:02:00.001-06:00

This is a very interesting site that I think might have an elementary focus. I enjoyed looking at the content I checked out, and I can see that it might be useful in class. Maybe on a SMARTboard during an inside recess? Or for playing at lunch? Or perhaps there is a trip that fits with your curriculum?

I LOVE the video book reviews - these are dead simple to do! Perhaps you could do some of these?

Maybe you and your class could create and submit a virtual field trip to somewhere local and see if you can get it put it online?

The following description is from their homepage, located at http://www.meetmeatthecorner.org/:

MEET ME AT THE CORNER, Virtual Field Trips for Kids takes you to meet fascinating people from all over the world.

New educational, kid-friendly episodes are uploaded every two weeks. Included are links to fun websites and our Learning Corner with follow-up questions.

Check it out....maybe you'll find it interesting?

Cheers

Interesting Documentary re: Living With Asperger's Syndrome

2009-10-09T00:32:00.004-06:00

Not too long ago I read that Autism Spectrum Disorders affects over 1% of all school-aged children in the U.S.. You'll have to Google it, I don't have a reference for that, but THAT is a lot of kids!

Tonight while making the rounds of some of the interesting places I like to stop and read (HERE), I read an amazing story about a young professional surfer with Asperger's Syndrome. He's been misunderstood for years, and plays by his own rules, and just a few years ago he was diagnosed with Asperger's. Interesting. Ah....makes sense a lot of people thought....

Surfing legend Laird Hamilton describes Clay Marzo as "an artist who can't be pigeon-holed. He's something all together different that should be cherished.".

There is a lesson in there about the effect of the assumptions and biases we all have (whether we admit it or not) when dealing with kids (whether they have ASD or not)! I want to see the movie/documentary made about this kid....it looks good....read the article linked above, and then if you have 3:24, watch the trailer here to see some amazing waves:

Cheers!

Thoughts on Grading at the JH Level

2009-10-09T00:04:00.003-06:00

The Only Place We Should See % and Grade Together

I am comfortable with using percentage grades. They are familiar to me, I know generally how to interpret them, and I find percentage grades a pretty good descriptive snapshot. Most teachers feel the same level of comfort and understanding, and I know most parents do too.

For those reasons, it is an annual occurrence, when discussing grading and reporting with parents, to have parents ask us to "...explain what these numbers (i.e. rubrics) mean..." and having to answer when they ask "Why don't you guys use percentages like we had?" They are not used to rubrics, and miss the comfort of the understanding afforded by percentages.

The problem is, we need to get rid of the percentage grading system at the JH level. For lots of reasons.

I think we are on the verge of being able to do so in my district, with the advent of our new standardized elementary report cards. As parents develop a comfort level for this manner of reporting, one day we will be able to move to using more appropriate methods of reporting for our older students too, but it will take a very solid implementation plan to get there.

To that end, I wanted to share a few passages from an article I read earlier today that was written by Dr. Thomas Guskey, a general assessment guru and professor of Ed Psych at the University of Kentucky:

"To recover from a single zero, a student must achieve a minimum of nine perfect papers."

and

"To move from a B to an A in most schools, for example, requires an improvement of only 10% at most, say from 80% to 90%. But to move from a zero to a minimum passing grade requires six or seven times that improvement, usually from zero to 60% or 70%."

(you can read Guskey's whole article here: http://www.hopefoundation.org/nl/1009/guskey.html)

I realize what I am discussing above is much more than just how we report. The changes will need to strike first at the very heart of how we teach and what kind of feedback (and engagement) we give kids on a daily basis. It is important to start thinking about it changing how we report, because change is needed, and I believe it is on its way!

Last One For Today

2009-10-01T10:40:00.004-06:00

I attended a webinar yesterday on the topic of virtual learning. As I've posted earlier today, this topic holds great interest for me. I've enjoyed seeing it evolve from online correspondence materials to true, engaged learning. The program I am taking through the University of Phoenix has been the icing on the cake for me in this sense, as it is amazing learning. I can see how it would not be for some people, but for those who could succeed in this model I think we are doing them a disservice by not providing them with the opportunity.

One of the presenters yesterday mentioned how little schools have physically changed over the years, and showed a couple of pictures to illustrate his point. Not being terribly original, but definitely loving the impact of pictures, I thought I would share this image here as well.

I realize there are always exceptions, and these are generalizations, but I think they are pretty accurate. Certainly my experience in the 70's and 80's as a student, and since then as a teacher, supports the pictures.

What will our classrooms look like 25 years from now. Children, society, and what we know about teaching and learning have changed a great deal since the 1900's, do our classrooms maybe need to change too?

When you look at the pictures below, do you see any similarities?

1900s (original available here)

1930s (original available here)

1950s (original available here)

1970s (original available here)

1980s (original available here)

1980s - When technology started to appear...but how many did we see like this? Or do we now see like this? (original available here)

The saying is, if it works, don't fix it. Maybe we need to reflect on the question: is it working well enough? And if it isn't broken now, how long will it be before it is broke and in need of fixing? In his book Disrupting Class, Clayton Christensen says it won't be too long now...

This gives me something to think about for the rest of the day, anyway!

Cheers

Digital Indigestion and R.O.L.

2009-10-01T10:06:00.001-06:00

I read something this morning that just sort of clicked for me. Ian Jukes was describing the concept of Digital Indigestion on his Committed Sardine blog (http://committedsardine.com), describing how using technology can be like eating at a buffet. We tend to take a little of this, a little of that, and end up taking too much for us to handle. With technology we take a little video, a little interactive white board, a little photography, a little audio and end up with a jumble that leaves us with digital indigestion.

Jukes describes the need to maximize our R.O.L. (Return on Learning) by selecting technologies to integrate that maximize student learning. He describes how learning to keyboard helps students learn to write, and offers examples of how it can be done. This makes perfect sense, and it brings technology right back to the very heart of our core learning objectives.

The importance of technology planning, for instruction not hardware and infrastructure, makes so much sense it is a shame we don't really tend to do it in our schools!

Cheers!

It's About Time

2009-10-01T08:58:00.001-06:00

Well, summer has been over for a while, and it is about time I got back on the horse. It has been far too long since I posted to the blog, and I have a lot of stuff built up that I should have posted online some time ago...so here goes, my first post of the new school year:

ONLINE/VIRTUAL SCHOOLING

I've been giving a great deal of thought to using online course delivery as a way to address crowding issues in schools and increase the personalization that kids get in their education. Especially for those JH kids at risk of not finishing HS, I think the possibility of their having success in a blended program might make a big difference. Success does breed success. Yesterday I attended an online webinar and was reminded that the single most influential factor in a student having success in an online course is the teacher. It always comes back to the teacher, doesn't it? Which then speaks to how we plan and use our PD funds...

DID YOU KNOW 4.0

The original DID YOU KNOW has been updated yet again, and has some interesting new data about smartphone and digital information usage. The new way of doing things is not a futuristic topic. It is here. I wonder how far we are behind before we even start? I read somewhere recently (in Disrupting Class maybe?) that the average teen has to power down when they get to school, endure school's traditional methods for the day, and then power up at the end of the day to get reconnected. I'm starting to crystallize my thinking about what that looks like, and it seems pretty important that we leverage students' technological prowess to keep them engaged in school!

Watch the new version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8

Cheers!

The Second Marshmallow

2009-06-07T21:24:00.003-06:00

I suppose it is no coincidence, I read topics that are of interest to me after all, but I find it interesting that after coming across Joachim De Posada's TED presentation I recently found another very interesting article on the concept of self-control and delayed gratification using the Marshmallow Test as the basis of the article.

One of my favorite blogs is the GIFTED EXCHANGE, and a recent post there linked to an article in the NEW YORKER which provided the historical basis of the Marshmallow Test and shared how researchers are extending that research in an attempt to identify the specific region of the brain where self-control is located. The history of this research was interesting, and the use of fMRI technology makes sense too, but I wouldn't have thought of it going in that direction....

Fascinating stuff, and affirming as well. I think we are exactly on the right track to be trying to teach our children to improve this skill ("Stop and think") and to understand why it is important. The more I read and reflect, the more benefits I see to teaching our young students the value of self-control.

One day my mom told me that she used to tell my brothers and I no when we asked some questions, even if she did not really care if we did what we were asking about just so we would learn to hear what no means. I think she was ahead of the curve a bit with respect to teaching us delayed gratification.

Cheers

Marshmallows and Maturity

2009-06-04T21:40:00.002-06:00

Some time ago I summarized the 'marshmallow test' with the staff at work as it fit very nicely with our vision to develop the emotional intelligence of our students. It led to some interesting discussions at work.

Yesterday I came across this video on TED.com, one of my favorite sites. I have the TED app on my iPod and once a week or so check in and check out their newest videos. This short one was a very engaging summary of the 'marshmallow test'.....and it fits so well when talking about the current credit crisis so many people find themselves in right now....

Enjoy:

I'm thinking I'm not in Kansas anymore...

2009-05-28T23:15:00.003-06:00

School life in a relatively small town in northwestern Alberta is exciting. Exciting though, I suppose, is relative. When I sit back at the end of the day and I reflect on what I had to deal with, and look at some of the experiences peers in other locations have to deal with, they don't seem to compare on the surface.

I'm currently reading Current Issues and Trends in Education and (again) on the surface I do not have a great deal of experience with some of the issues and trends I have read about to this point. Racial diversity in a gateway urban setting such as San Francisco or New York City is different than racial diversity in Grande Prairie. Violence in some larger school jurisdictions just does not compare to the school violence we experience.

Education here seems to be quite different than education in, say, San Francisco. Is it?

I have given this a great deal of though over the last couple of days and I think our overall experiences are not substantially different, but rather they are reflective of the scale of our differences. I believe the issues and trends occuring in our little old town are more similar than I first thought. They are just smaller. I think.

During my next Ed.D. class, Social Contexts and Contemporary Issues, I am going to get a chance to see if this theory holds true. I look forward to the opportunity to compare and discuss the at-risk students in my environment with those in larger, more globally representative urban settings. I'll get to compare the educational experiences of our first nations students to that of the Asian-Americans and Hispanics. Etc. I am looking forward to this more than any course I have taken in a long time. I have reflected on this at great length and I think the challenges we face in all of education really do align despite the surface differences.

My guess is it comes down to our systems.

I look forward to the learning I am going to experience with my peers from Hawaii, LA, Las Vegas, etc. I think at this point kids are kids, and the skills we must possess to address their needs are the same. The needs differ somewhat though, and I look forward to testing my hypothesis.

For anyone that stops by to read this...what do you think? Am I naive? Missing something? Outright wrong? Drop a comment and let me know what you think....

Cheers

Phwew!

2009-05-18T13:41:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm feeling a bit like I've been shot through an orchard and hit every tree! But, the first five-day residency of my doctoral program is over. It has been a whirlwind of dissertation practice, research methodology, scholarship-practitioner-leadership, and writing styles. It will likely take a week or so for me to synthesize the content, but WOW, that was some week. One thing I learned? I have some peers in this program who are pretty amazing people.

Cheers

I can't wait to ditch the cables....

2009-04-28T20:49:00.002-06:00

I wonder how many power adapters I have owned over the course of my lifetime? Somehow it seems they never get recycled or even tossed out when their gadget-anchors die or (most likely) get handed down to someone else! I have a huge box full of them, and truthfully I can't wait until the day that either inductive coupling pads or WiTricity hit the mainstream!

Imagine, laying your phone down on a pad on your desk and it charges. Or collecting power over wifi....holy cow....

After seeing a prototype Kyocera foldable OLED screen the other day, and thinking of it in terms of educational applications......I seriously need to step back and try to grasp the BREADTH of the impact these sorts of evolutions are going to have on teaching and learning, let alone society....

No more laptops even.....and really....for doing our investigations (will it still be called teaching if it is all about learning?) will we even need classrooms for the big kids?

Cheers

Innovation in Education

2009-04-27T10:21:00.002-06:00

I have been doing a fair bit of coursework in the last week or so on the topic of innovation in education. In particular, we have been discussing the boundaries or barriers to innovation.

I’ve been thinking that our ability to innovate in education seems to be dependent upon personalities and their predisposition towards the concept of innovation. It seems too though that our current government ministry seems inclined to look for ways to innovate though, so I am wondering how we could build the idea of innovation into our SYSTEM? Is our archaic system ready for pushing the boundaries of innovation?

Or is that what AISI is for? We may be on the conservative side with those projects…

Cheers

A NEW STRUCTURE FOR LEARNING...

2009-04-04T08:32:00.003-06:00

I’ve just finished doing some reading about how the entire Adams 50 School District (~10 000 students in metro Denver) is moving AWAY from graded classes, to standards-based multiage groupings. Students will only move from one level to another with a B average, essentially ensuring all HS graduates leave with a 3.0 average (minimum).

This is an interesting concept….I think it warrants more investigation. One of the features I’ve seen promoted that appeals to me the most is the idea that the students would have a lot of say in the operations, rules, etc.

Very exciting, I think! And LOTS to read about on this topic HERE.

Cheers

I Just Had to Say...

2009-04-02T10:49:00.003-06:00

This is cooool…..I’m having a good tech day……I figured out how to embed video onto our school website. I think this is going to make the ‘School Tour’ page a lot more interesting, at least. I think there are a great many other, more educational uses too. For now though, we test…..

The embedded Student News of the Day looks pretty impressive on that portal front page!

Cheers

Something Just For Fun?

2009-03-28T13:32:00.001-06:00

Sometimes it is not all about work or predicting the future or integrating technology. Sometimes it can just be fun. Got digital pictures? Want to have some fun with them? Visit this link and check out the 25 sites listed here. Guaranteed you'll have fun:

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/25-websites-to-have-fun-with-your-photos/

Cheers

The Future of Technology in Education...

2009-03-27T10:39:00.002-06:00

I’ve just started reading the HORIZON REPORT: K- 12 Edition. This report addresses six technologies that the New Media Consortium suggests are going to be rapidly emerging in our K – 12 environments over the next few years.

The web edition is available here: http://wp.nmc.org/horizon-k12-2009/

If you are curious about the potential impact of mobile devices, cloud computing, smart objects and the personal web, you might want to check out this report! Widespread NINGS in 5 years? I'm not sure....but it is interesting reading so far......

Cheers

21st Century Learning...

2009-03-23T18:44:00.004-06:00

I attended a workshop a while back in which one of our facilitators suggested we should stop talking about 21st Century Learning because we are almost 10 years into the 21st Century already. That was an interesting point - and it took me a bit by surprise!

I thought of that point again tonight when I heard this line from John Legend's song "If You're Out There": "The future started yesterday and we're already late!"

Thinking about this just leaves me with more questions.....Are we already late for the future? What do we need to do to catch up to the future? Anything? Or is it like buying a PC and we are ALWAYS going to be behind? What kind of reform is coming to our schools? I think I had better start reading my new book....Disrupting Class.....maybe the answers are in there.

Cheers

Digital Story Telling

2009-03-22T23:01:00.002-06:00

I love asking students to represent what they know in new ways. One topic of great interest to me is Digital Story Telling. I am doing an after-school introduction to this soon, so I thought I'd post my resource materials here as well in case they might be of any interest to anyone.

http://sites.google.com/site/digitalstoryworkshop/

Cheers

I Found a New Blog to Add to My RSS Feeds

2009-03-21T12:01:00.001-06:00

My copy of Failure Is Not An Option is getting worn out. This book was a great resource during our first year at DTPS, especially the section on creating mission, vision, values and goals.

I have been receiving emails regarding What’s Working in Schools from the Hope Foundation (who published FNO), and now they have a blog. I’ve added their RSS feed to my iGoogle account and I can more easily keep up with their announcements.

Today was my first look at it, and I like the content. I’m impressed so far, and especially like this post about what the research says students want (aka need) from us in school! We need to do this for all students, but especially for our neediest students, we need to plan well, engage them and teach to their needs, and not give up!

Cheers

A New Me

2009-03-21T11:09:00.003-06:00

I was going through my students’ folders, marking their work, a while back and I came across this picture of me that had been ‘modified’ by one of my students. He took my school picture from this year and used some quick effects to photo shop it.

I like it. It is now going to be my new ‘online persona’….so say hi to the new me!

Cheers

(plus I wanted to test how the blog works when I make a post by email with a picture attached. Note to Self: It works perfectly, embedding the picture at the start of the post!)