3387 Search Results for "on"

• Customer Service: Pour Some Su Customer Service: Pour Some Sugar On Me

  • From: Steven_Weber
  • Description:

    School staff focus on curriculum alignment, differentiated instruction, professional development, college and career readiness, standards, and academic interventions. Is it possible that schools can lose their focus on customer service? Customers include families, community members, and all guests who visit the school website or schoolhouse.

     

    Customer service involves the front office staff, classroom teachers, teacher assistants, custodians, counselors, and all staff members. How are customers treated when they enter your school? Ask your school staff, “What does it mean to go the extra mile for the customer?” Do families feel like the front office staff answers the phone in a professional manner? Do teachers fire off emails when they are upset with students or parents? How do schools analyze the way they are treating customers?

     

    Six Ways To Pour Some Sugar On The Customer:

     

    Website
    The school website is the new front door. Families and community members make a judgment about your school before they arrive in the front office. Is your school website customer friendly? If you have a focus on technology integration, does your school website look like it was created in 1990? Does your website offer a welcome message or invite families to visit the school? If Open House was the biggest event between 1980-2000, then the school website opens your school to more than the all of the guests who attended Open House during that 20 year span. Your school is connected with the world. What kind of message are you sending? Would a family in Florida view your site and want to buy a house in your community, based on the information and message on your website?

     

    
    Customer Service
    Customer service involves phone skills, email etiquette, communication skills, and the way the customer is treated when they spend time at your school. Which restaurants come to mind when you think of outstanding customer service? Have you ever had poor customer service at a hotel? Have you ever visited a church and felt like none of the members knew you were in attendance? Customer service is easy to identify, especially when we are the recipient of poor customer service. When families have a bad experience at your school, they will spread the word throughout the community and through social media. As communities build more charter schools, private schools, and home school organizations, customers will walk rather than talk.

     

    
    Blog
    The media may promote your school once or twice a year. Administrators and teachers can promote the school on a weekly basis by posting on a school or teacher blog. Pictures from field trips, class projects, community service, guest speakers, and student awards can assist in communicating with families. Most blogs allow for families to forward the message to their family and friends via Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. Blogs also allow for two-way communication. The traditional method of communicating with families was a flyer in a second grade student’s backpack. With a blog, the school can communicate with families and families can post comments or ask questions about the event before their child arrives home.

     

    
    Coffee Hour
    Several schools host a Principal’s Coffee Hour once monthly. There is usually a topic that the principal or a guest speaker shares with families. The highlight of any Principal’s Coffee Hour is the time that families are able to share their opinions, ask questions, and brainstorm ways to support all students. Coffee Hour provides a monthly time for two-way communication. Parents will provide you with their opinions and they will feel respected because the school provided a forum for adult conversation about their most prized possession, their child. How is your school promoting two-way communication with families and stakeholders?

     

    
    Twitter
    Twitter allows home-to-school and school-to-home communication. Families can receive updates from the school. While Twitter may not work for all families, it is a great tool. Most schools see social media as one form of communication. The sign in front of the school reaches some families, the school website reaches others, and a flyer may still work for families without a computer or a Smartphone. The reason I feel like schools should consider Twitter is because it allows families to forward or reply to each tweet. If you have ever been in a relationship with someone you realize the importance of two-way communication. A strong relationship between families and school staff will improve your customer service and customer satisfaction.

     

    
    School App
    As the number of people with Smartphones increases, your school should consider a school app. “Smartphone vendors shipped 216.2 million units in the first quarter of 2013, which accounted for 51.6 percent of the worldwide mobile phone market” (Bean, April 16, 2013). If the school website is the new front door in 2013, then the school app may be the new front door of the future. An app can combine all of the items highlighted in this article. A school app may not be nice to have, but the next step in your communication and customer-service plan.

     

     

    Conclusion
    Most schools have a professional development plan, school improvement plan, and a curriculum map. I have rarely seen a school’s customer service plan. When it comes to service, if you fail to plan you may be planning to fail. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, said, “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” There are only two kinds of schools; those with outstanding customer service and those without outstanding customer service. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rank the customer service at your school?

     

    Next Steps
    Questions for School Staff to Consider

    
    

    1. Does our school provide outstanding customer service?

    
    2. What are our weaknesses? What action steps do we need to take to improve?

    
    3. What are the characteristics of outstanding customer service?
    (Share your own experiences in school and non-school settings)

     

    4. What can we measure every 18 weeks (semester) to analyze our efforts to provide customer service?

     

    5. Do we have a school plan outlining what customer service looks like?
    (Think Chick-fil-A; It doesn’t matter if the manager or a teenager provides you with service. There is consistency within and across stores).

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  • 2 days ago
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• Fun TraveLearning Fun TraveLearning

  • From: Jan_Michael_Vincent_Abril
  • Description:

     

    The continuously shrinking world and the bout towards a knowledge-based economy impacted every aspect of human life in diverse ways. Even education could not escape this. Educators have sought various ways to make learning more relevant, real-life, and responsive to the changing needs of time.

    Inspired by all of this, LIFECOLLEGE, the school where I am working, came up with a unique program that is an eclectic mix of educational and international exposure and travel for 4th year high school students between 15-16 years old. The travel program commenced in 2006 where students first traveled to Australia. The following year, the school traveled to Singapore and Malaysia. Indonesia was included in the succeeding year. And by 2012, students have been traveling to Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

    As the school envisioned to become a cutting-edge learning hub for global champions, it seeks learning opportunities anchored on 21st century skills that to prepare its students to gain a global perspective without losing their heart for local community development.

    This travel program called Global Competence Class include fun and exciting activities such as visit to museums, landmarks, cultural centers, historic places, science centers, theme parks and the most important of all, one-day immersion in various partner schools.

    Each activity is linked to a learning competency in various learning areas including developing skills in communication, collaboration, and respect for cultural diversity.

    Through this program, the students also learn how to budget their time and money, how to commute in buses, trains, and ferries, how to read maps and follow directions, how to observe keenly and write about what they have observed, and how to understand our identity as Filipinos vis a vis our Asian neighbors.

    All learnings are documented on a travel journal produced by the schools. This is a collection of mindmaps, observation notes, reflections, photos, collectible items, and daily devotions to make the educational travel a memory escapade to remember for life. To prepare for this kind of trip isn't very difficult.

    The following steps would be of help.

    1. Secure passports and DSWD travel clearance. By The beginning of the school year, parents must be aware of the trip's requirements, expenses and itinerary. Legal documents such as passports must be secured from DFA while Travel Clearance is secured from DSWD. These are the necessary papers needed for minors to travel.

    2. Finalize itinerary. The next step is to scout for educational places to visit according to the learning goals? send proposals. Once the itinerary is finalized, search for affordable airline ticket prices and book immediately. Then look for hotels. The group would normally stay in the hotel during daytime. 

    3. Prepare travel logs. Since the itinerary is already set, a journal will help to document what the students learned. This is the most important part of the travel and a source of grade for those who participated. Included in this log are the worksheets for each place to visit, the checklists for the itinerary, contact persons in case of emergency, things to bring, and the evaluation sheet.

    4. Predeparture and Travel briefing. Orient the students with the guidelines on proper behavior in various places such as airports, trains, ferries, and places to visit. It would be best if they know what to do, where to go, and how to behave in places where cultural diversity is the norm.

    Educators who wanted to make a difference in the lives of their students must learn how to venture out and take bolder steps to innovate. Travel, at the least, is just one of the many options. In this country, where travel is now made available for every one, edu-tours is an exciting way to expose, prepare, and push our students to the real world.

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  • 3 days ago
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• Complexity: Edge of Chaos Complexity: Edge of Chaos

  • From: Kevin_Goddard
  • Description:

    A common saying about schools is that schools are a reflection of the communities they serve, but communities are complex. Schools by nature are a complex interplay of social, cultural, economic, political, and symbolic capital unable to be bound or directed by simple directives such as legislative mandates. Schools should try to use the complexity of the community to envision an even better community than the one that exists. The edge of the community, the unsure boundary, the frothy-foamy conversation between organic fractals of human existence gives complex systems the capacity for innovation and organizational learning (Fels, 2006; Stacey, 1996).

    Equilibrium-oriented systems want to control disorder to move toward stability which limits energy crossing into the system so they act as ‘closed systems’ to keep energy from escaping. These systems apply negative feedback and other controls for order resulting in “strict policies, rigid hierarchies, resistance to change, and maintenance of the status quo” (Gilstrap, 2005, p. 58). In contrast, self-organized behavior reaches a steady state on its own while still remaining ‘critical’ in that it is barely stable (Waldrop, 1992). This is a fine point created by tension along the continuum.

    Stuart Kauffman believes human organizations that are too structured or specialized do not allow agents to learn beyond the traditional processes for performing a job. On the one hand, if no one has clearly defined roles, the organization is chaotic without progress. The organization wants a balance of agents having a common purpose with the ability to adapt to the behavior of other agents in the organization. Complex problems can be solved at the edge of chaos because of the redundancy, loose couplings, blurry but present hierarchical roles, etc. Organizations that can evolve processes to bring in an increasing flow of energy move to the edge of chaos where they can solve complex problems and gain a competitive advantage to anticipate the future in order to survive (Waldrop, 1992).

    Chaos by itself doesn’t explain the structure, the coherence, the self-organizing cohesiveness of complex systems…complex systems have somehow acquired the ability to bring order and chaos into a special kind of balance…called the edge of chaos where life has enough stability to sustain itself and enough creativity to deserve the name of life…The edge of chaos is the constantly shifting battle zone between stagnation and anarchy, the one place where a complex system can be spontaneous, adaptive, and alive….learning and evolution move agents along the edge of chaos in the direction of greater and greater complexity (Waldrop, 1992, p. 12, 296).

    These zones along the edge are similar to boundary conversations discussed by Bruffee (1999) where constant struggle determines what will shift to center and what will be marginalized. This gives new meaning to the phrase “on the cutting edge” of education. With no room to move in either direction, or you will no longer be on the edge, all you can do is move along the edge to stay on. “Systems function best when they are at the ‘edge of chaos’, poised between too much rigidity in the face of change and too much change in the face of achieved progress” (Levin, 2002, p. 12). Education needs emergent boundaries to allow work to be done and to keep systems from freezing up or flying into chaos (Church, 2005).

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  • 3 days ago
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• You Don't Really Know Until Yo You Don't Really Know Until You Go

  • From: Robert_Zywicki
  • Description:

    

     

     

    I recently returned from Hunterdon Central’s Holocaust Overseas Study Tour.  Our group of twenty students and four educators traveled to Czech Republic and Poland to visit Terezin, Lidice, the Warsaw Ghetto, Treblinka, Majdanek, and Auschwitz-Birkenau. It was a transformative experience for me as an educator, parent, and citizen.

     

    I thought I would be prepared, at least intellectually, for what I would see on our trip. I grew up in a city with large Jewish and Polish populations.  From my earliest years I heard the stories of neighbors and close family friends who had survived Nazi camps.  Beginning in the first grade I was exposed to annual Holocaust education programs. As a social studies teacher I taught about the Holocaust for over a decade. Each camp is a visceral confrontation with the worst depravity known to humanity.  All I can say is that you don’t really know the enormity of the Holocaust until you go and visit the sites. 

     

    I hope more educators launch programs like Central’s Holocaust Overseas Study Tour.  Holocaust education is citizenship education.  The benefits are not just historical knowledge of the Holocaust. It is an opportunity to reflect upon what it means to have rights as a citizen and a reminder that we must be eternally vigilant to protect human rights.

     

    The inscription on the mausoleum at Majdanek in Lublin, Poland reads “let our fate be a warning to you.” The twenty students on the trip who come from a variety of religious and cultural backgrounds were in a word – inspiring. Their desire to study the Holocaust and return to present to their peers and the community about their experience is at the heart of everything we aspire to instill in students.   Tonight, our students will share their experiences from our trip and bear witness at the Flemington Jewish Community Center.

     

     

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  • 3 days ago
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• Retire the school newsletter. Retire the school newsletter. Start a school blog

  • From: Ryan_Thomas1
  • Description:
    
    

     
     Most schools use a monthly newsletter to keep parents and the wider school community in touch with what’s going on. Those of you behind the newsletters know how much time, energy and money it takes to generate the content, proof it, format it, print it and mail it. Despite our efforts, we’ve finally come to terms with two things: first, print has fallen out of favor; second, most newsletters end up in the recycling bin along with the Chinese restaurant menus and random circulars parents receive in the mail. So how can schools more effectively communicate with parents? The answer is simple and it won’t cost you a thing: Start a school blog.
    
    

    etire the school newsletter. Start a school blog
    
    

    Many prefer to read news online
    According to research published last year by Pew Research, a substantial percentage of leading newspaper readers get their news digitally. Currently, 55 percent of New York Times readers say they prefer to access news on a computer or mobile device, as do 48 percent of regular USA Today and 44 percent of Wall Street Journal readers. While this isn’t proof that nearly 50 percent of your readers prefer to access school news online, there’s a good chance that they do.
    
    

    Blogs are current
    By the time parents receive their monthly newsletter, much of the information is already outdated. Who wants to read about the “big game” or a service learning project three weeks after it happened? Blogs allow you to update readers as newsworthy events are taking place—not after. Another thing to keep in mind is that event information (dates, times, etc.) changes. Once a newsletter has been printed and shipped, there’s no going back. Blogs give you the flexibility to make changes whenever you want. 
    
    

    Blogs will save you money
    Most blogging platforms are free. No more printing and shipping costs; no more envelope licking; no more label printing. If you are concerned about alienating parents who are less tech-savvy or prefer to read print, send home a survey and find out who your readers are and how they prefer to access school news.
    
    

    Blogs provide a rich, multi-media experience
    Unlike print, which is linear and static, blogs allow you to easily integrate video, audio, photos and text. Now you can show, not simply tell, parents what’s going on in school. You’ll be surprised at how capturing students “in the moment” and posting pictures and videos of them throughout the day will impact parent engagement.
    
    

    There are dozens (probably more) of blogging platforms to choose from and most of them are free. Blogger, for example, is Google’s free blogging service. It only takes minutes to set up and you can customize the theme and color of your site. If you already have a Gmail account, there’s good news: You’ve got a Blogger account too. Simply sign into Gmail and select “Blogger” from the “more” menu. Other blogging platforms you might check out include WordPress.com, Blog.com, or even TypePad Micro.
    
    

     

                                    

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• 5 tips for a successful end-of 5 tips for a successful end-of-year transition

  • From: Ryan_Thomas1
  • Description:

    For many students, beginning a new school year can be a great source of anxiety. Thanks to a successful end-of-year transition though, one that you can begin right now, a new teacher and classroom can be an exciting event—not one that causes insecurity or dread. To help your students make a successful transition into the next academic year, we’re offering five simple activities you can put into practice right away.
    
    

    5 tips for a successful end-of-year transition
    
    

    The relationship doesn’t end with the academic year
    You don’t have to cry like my second grade teacher did on the last day of school, but do let your students know that you valued your time with them. Also, let them know that the relationship doesn’t have to end with the academic school year. They may be moving rooms and working with new teachers, but let them know that they are always welcome to say hello, stop by after school or interact with your new students on your classroom blog.
    
    

    Ask their new teacher to visit your room
    Arrange a time for the new teacher to visit your classroom so that s/he can interact with the students. If you’re looking for a list of tried-and-true icebreaker activities, you can find them here. 
    
    

    Meet the new teacher’s current class
    One way to ease your students’ fears about their transition is by having them each interview one student in their new teacher’s current class. They might ask questions like:
    
    

    • What’s it like having Mr. X for a teacher?
    • Did Mrs. M assign a lot of homework?
    • What was your favorite memory this year in Mr. X’s class?
    • What should I know before starting the new school year?
      
      

     Once they conduct the interview, have your students share their findings with the class.
    
    

    Visit the new classroom
    Arrange a time for your students to check out their new digs. It’s always easier to walk into an unfamiliar place when you know where to go and what your surroundings look like. Ask the new teacher to give them a tour and, if you can, try scheduling a follow-up visit.
    
    

    To help prepare your students for the upcoming summer, check out two of our recent blogs, 10 Summer Reading Activities for Struggling Readers and 10 things parents can say to struggling readers.

     

                                                                  

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  • 4 days ago
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• Photo on 2012-11-27 at 12.35 # Photo on 2012-11-27 at 12.35 #2.jpg

  • From: Warren_Loy
  • Description:
  • 5 days ago
  • Views: 31
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• How will your child suffer? How will your child suffer?

  • From: Jessica_Bohn
  • Description:

    Normally, I am not one to write on controversial issues, but there is freedom in the provocative, and the time is now (or yesterday) for action in education.  Although this speaks to one state's journey through the massive budget cuts and the looming additional injustices, I think that most educators in the nation have experienced a degree of this.  I humbly share my thoughts with legislators considering budgets for next school year and the community of ASCD advocates: 

    How will your child suffer?  We must stop this ridiculous abomination of a proposed budget now.  The incessant and continuous hit that education has taken in the last 5 years has been beyond reason.  However, this year's proposals fall just shy of criminal.  As a voter, a parent of children in the school system and a school principal, I have many perspectives to offer.  First, as a voter:  We elect officials into office who we believe will stand for the things that we hold close to heart.  Public schools are the birthplace of some of the best minds in America.  What does it mean to be American?  Please ask yourself this, as our elected representative.  Americans value critical opinions and diversity but stand united when someone attacks our home or our community.  To my esteemed elected officials, I say: We are under attack.  Make no mistake... this is a war of interests.  We must not let the future of our children and ultimately our country falter to other priorities.  We know that you are under pressure to invest in the political interests that got you into office, but we beg you not to sacrifice our children, your children or the future of our great nation in doing so.  As a parent:   We cannot provide quality schools without adequate funding to do so.  Should we settle for mediocrity?  Would you settle for mediocrity for your own child?  Absolutely not.  I want my children to get access to teachers with skills that will challenge their minds and inspire their hearts. Teachers deserve pay worthy of the countless hours they spend planning. Let Principals hold them accountable to that. I want my children to have adequate support in their classes as they are acclimated to the rigor of public schools. Teacher Assistants provide this support.  They are educators, advocates and probably teach your child in a center or reading group. I want my child to have access to the equipment, books and materials needed for 21st century learning. As a school principal:   Is the public aware that kids in most counties are still using outdated books, so teachers have to develop their own curriculum materials to match the new standards?  And what justice do we pay teachers when they do this with a smile on their face and protect our children from the perils of society?  We cut their support (TAs), cut their pay (furlough), cut their money for supplies (instructional money), increase their class size (class size waiver elimination), increase their insurance premiums and cut their access to resources and support (district funding going to charter/private schools).   Teacher Assistants are not just secretaries for the teacher, and I wonder if the public realizes that.  They are instructional assistants... they help your children and grandchildren learn.  Also, as a school administrator, one of the ways in which we can provide a duty-free lunch for teachers (which is a state requirement) is through the use of teacher assistants.  Similarly, I wonder if the public understands the correlation between effective instruction and the number of students in a class.  There is an inverse relationship between time for critical learning and the number of students in a class.  This state and this nation is in a dire place of certain demise, if we cannot commit to providing safe, quality schools for our children today, so they can solve nationwide and worldwide problems tomorrow. With the proposed legislation about class size, harsh cuts to public schools (again), elimination of Assistants, sequestration at the federal level, and funneling the leftover pocket change to charter/private schools rather than public schools... I must ask the question... how will your child suffer?
    
    

  • Blog post
  • 5 days ago
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• Is Common Core Evil? Is Common Core Evil?

  • From: Kevin_Goddard
  • Description:

    I have seen a blaze of anti-Common Core sentiment sweep through certain states. These groups that are protesting the Common Core are counting on you not doing your own research and thinking about the Common Core in-depth. There are several FALSE claims you will hear in relation to Common Core that you need to think about. You can verify this at www.corestandards.org.

    First, the Common Core is not a national curriculum. The full name of Common Core is “Common Core State Standards” (aka CCSS) meaning they are benchmarks we want our children to achieve, but how to achieve them is left up to individual states and local communities. Many, many companies are competing for schools’ dollars by offering diverse and varied curricula if schools don’t want to write their own. The feds are not driving Common Core for implementation or for assessment.

    Second, the Common Core does not dumb down the curriculum (the same people claiming we are dumbing down the curriculum also gripe that we are introducing difficult concepts too early—which is it?). On average, we see rigorous standards applied 1 year earlier than we were applying them under the Missouri Grade Level Expectations. Missouri has consistently had the 2^nd and 3^rd most rigorous state achievement test (MAP) in the nation and now we see an even more rigorous test coming next year. In fact, we just piloted the Common Core assessment in the district and students and teacher alike commented on how much harder the test was than the MAP. One question I saw was substantially different than the MAP test. On MAP, a kid would be asked a math problem and then given a set of choices: A, B, C, or D. On the Common Core test, I saw a 5^th grader answering questions that went something like this, “Suzy was given the following math problem.” A word problem followed. “Suzy read the problem, formed a plan to answer the problem with six steps.” A numbered list of 6 steps followed. “Suzy got the following answer which was wrong. Find which step in Suzy’s method was wrong, explain why, and correct her answer.” Folks, a kid has to think a lot deeper to answer that type of questions than a multiple-guess test.

    Third, there is a lot of other mumbo-jumbo being tossed around, but opponents keep piling up argument after argument against it until you aren’t even sure what they are referring to anymore. The argument expands to gripe about socialism, anti-Christian movements, abortion, tracking, cost, and I don’t know what else. But those things are other policy and legislative concerns that activists are lumping in with Common Core because they don’t understand it.

    In a nutshell, here is a Common Core kindergarten standard:

    RF.K.2(a): Recognize and produce rhyming words. The standard then recommends “Halfway Down” by A. A. Milne and “Singing Time” by Rose Fyleman although districts can use “Mary had a Little Lamb”, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, or any other district approved literature. The concept can be further developed through artwork, song, science, math, and vocabulary. The curriculum is developed at the local level while the assessment will be used to determine if a student can indeed recognize and produce a rhyming word.

    Let’s try another one in 3^rd grade:

    RI.3.9: Compare and contrast the most important points and key details presented in two texts on the same topic. The standard recommends “Sarah, Plain and Tall” and “The Storm” although districts can choose any literature they want to have students compare and contrast. By the way, this is something we were trained heavily in during my doctoral program in order to conduct academic research…and here it is in 3^rd grade Common Core!

    5^th grade:

    L.5.5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. Exemplar texts include “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “The Little Prince.” Informational texts include, “Who is Neil Armstrong?” and “Women Explorers of North and South America.”  If we don’t like any of those, we can choose any literature we want.

    Can you feel Obama’s fingertips reaching for your children’s minds yet?  If you are confused where the socialist agenda is, I’m with you. But then again, no one has shown you what the real standards look like. Any standard can be written to reflect local control, with local lessons, local activities, and local formative assessments. The board will approve any curriculum that is generated by our own local teachers and reviewed by our own local administrators, myself included.

    Finally, there are some real nice components of Common Core that I want to point out:

    Reading is broken down into Literature, Informational Texts, and Foundational Skills. Writing, Speaking, Listening, and Language are strands of the standards. Reading and writing aren’t just isolated to classic works, but standards are given for reading to be taught in Social Studies classes, science, and other technical subjects.

    Here is an example of the “Integration of Knowledge and Ideas” in grades 9 and 10. Standard RI.9-10.9: Analyze seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (Washington’s Farewell Address, the Gettysburg Address, Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech, King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”), including how they address related themes and concepts. These are four powerful, patriotic, truly American pieces of history that our kids should be grappling with. The teacher moves from the “sage on the stage” lecturing about what these pieces mean to the “guide on the side” helping students hold democratic readings and discussions about what these authors may have intended and what they were dealing with from a historical context. Students must “delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning.”

    The Common Core State Standards are designed to provide a framework of standards that are Internationally Benchmarked, rigorous, and broad enough to allow states and local boards of education create a locally controlled curriculum designed to meet the needs of local children. Go to www.corestandards.org and read through the standards to see for yourself. Nothing is perfect. Education is a practice. Common Core is another step forward in that practice. It isn’t evil, destructive, or anti-American. It is an opportunity for people with an axe to grind to use it as political smoke and mirrors to advance their own agenda. Don’t let the smoke get in your eyes.

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• The Kid Business: 2013 8th Gra The Kid Business: 2013 8th Grade Promotion

  • From: Kevin_Goddard
  • Description:

    I would like to share my words of wisdom to the 8^th grade. Every year, I speak to them briefly, but my own daughter, Savannah, was being promoted. She is a strong personality who marches to a different drum. I never know if I am going to see her come down the stairs to go to school in a pink tutu, leather leggings, and a zebra striped shirt; or athletic shorts, dressy blouse, and flip-flops carrying her flute and her archery bow. She inspired this short speech.

     “Welcome to 8^th Grade Promotion. I would like to read you a poem by Robert Frost called The Road Not Taken.”

     Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

    And sorry I could not travel both

    And be one traveler, long I stood

    And looked down one as far as I could

    To where it bent in the undergrowth;

     

    Then took the other, as just as fair,

    And having perhaps the better claim,

    Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

    Though as for that the passing there

    Had worn them really about the same,

     

    And both that morning equally lay

    In leaves no step had trodden black.

    Oh, I kept the first for another day!

    Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

    I doubted if I should ever come back.

     

    I shall be telling this with a sigh

    Somewhere ages and ages hence:

    Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

    I took the one less traveled by,

    And that has made all the difference.

     “Today, you face a choice. You can take the road taken by most. Well-worn, easy, and clear. Life may be safe, but not very exciting.

     “Or, you can take the one less traveled by—sometimes rough, sometimes muddy with uneven footing and roots to trip over. But it can be exciting, challenging, and rewarding.

     “I hope for the next four years, you will help me take Sarcoxie down the road less traveled by. And when we come to your Graduation Day, you will say, ‘That has made all the difference.’”

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• Complexity: The Structure of C Complexity: The Structure of Complex Systems

  • From: Kevin_Goddard
  • Description:

    Five aspects of complex systems help define internal structure. Internal diversity keeps the system flexible. Redundancy keeps small fluctuations from rippling into chaotic, destructive change. Decentralized control allows innovation and creativity to emerge from the complex interactions between diverse agents. Organized randomness keeps the system moving along cohesively without limiting where it will go. Neighbor interactions keep the system in check in relation to the environment and local fitness peaks (Davis et al., 2006).

    Structure is important to complexity because “a hierarchical, building-block structure utterly transforms a system’s ability to learn, evolve, and adapt” (Waldrop, 1992, p. 169) by giving systems an opportunity to move subsystems around to increase complexity and creativity without having to try out every possible combination of agents and schema. Order is a byproduct of structure through routines and clear structures, rules, and procedures (Marzano et al., 2005). The structure itself is “influenced by social, economic, and political factors; created and socially constructed; learned; and dialectical” (Church, 2005, p. 48). Practices are determined by structures as well as construct structures (Swartz, 1997). Reflective practice gives individuals and groups the iterative vehicles to change complex organizational structures.

    Despite the structures present in complex systems, “it is not possible to separate complex adaptive systems into neat categories based on whether and where selection is operating. In most systems, selection is manifest on multiple interacting scales” (Levin, 2002, p. 4). Structure cannot be permanent because agents reorganize themselves in response to internal and external stimuli so that renewal is continual (Fels, 2006). Complex systems can move along a continuum ranging from order to chaos with complexity sitting at the edge of both simultaneously (Waldrop, 1992).

    “Since the boundaries of complex systems are difficult to determine, it is impossible to draw tidy lines between these organizational layers” (Davis & Simmt, 2006, p. 296). Fuzzy boundaries in the school as a complex system are especially evident when talking about differences in social class, the curriculum of a school, and the schemas used in the school community (Barr & Parrett, 2007; Lareau, 2000; Weiner, 2006). The unique sociocultural capital of diverse social classes determines alignment of groups of agents with the capital present in a school. “School practices and assumptions emerging from the deficit paradigm often hide student and teacher abilities” (Weiner, 2006, p. 1). Deficit thinking comes from either the recessive schema of the marginalized system or the dominant schema of the legitimate system depending on the context the school currently finds itself. The curriculum itself emerges from and as part of the emerging, iterative structures of the school community with “formal, informal, and even ‘hidden’” aspects (Barr & Parrett, 2007, p. 141).

    The subsystems of complex adaptive systems are the legitimate and recessive systems with agents interacting according to schema with dominant and marginalized parts respectively. Paradox exists multi-dimensionally as well at the system, agent, and schema levels. Ordinary management techniques drive legitimate processes while the recessive system requires extraordinary management. Stacey (1996) claims that the boundaries of the legitimate system are “clear-cut” while the recessive system’s boundaries are “fuzzy”; however, the fact that the legitimate system is aware of and ignores much of the activity of the recessive system makes the legitimate system’s boundaries fuzzy even if they are less permeable than the recessive system.

    The legitimate network in an organization plans enculturation and avoids surprises by using the dominant schema to control interactions keeping them linear (uniform, conformed, repetitive) resulting in proportional response to stimuli, balanced input/output, and in the end, the system equals the sum of its parts. The recessive system, a subsystem of the legitimate system, can also stop renewal and maintaining stability by resisting change; however, changes to the legitimate system are actualized through processes in the recessive system. Efficient legitimate systems are stable with the equilibrium to actualize the mission of the organization. The recessive subsystem’s schemas lead to diversity in the system which is an integral part of complexity and “comprises all social and political interactions that are outside the rules strictly prescribed by the legitimate system” (Stacey, 1996, p. 290). Conversely, power is relative and can exist in either the dominant or marginal ideology. Social change can be brought about by activating power and negotiating interests in the margins (Watkins & Tisdell, 2006).

    In complex systems, team-based units allow for structure without being overly so through redundancy in the form of organic fractals. Teams exhibit characteristics of open systems with permeability and high information flow; nonlinear responsibilities and interests; self-referencing knowledge and redundancy; organic in the self-selection of members; and share vision, culture, and meaning as possible strange attractors (Gilstrap, 2005). Creativity also resides in the redundancy that teams allow “for the repetition of different ideas and experiments in slightly different ways, and…means that the organization will be more resilient in the face of inevitable failures” (Stacey, 1996, p. 280).

    The principal acts as the recognized leader of the legitimate system; however, leaders operate as participants in the recessive system helping contain anxiety in the face of change through urgency and assurance at the boundary while observing processes in the organization. Leadership shifts from ordinary management in structured times to extraordinary management in phase transitions as the school moves along the continuum between order and chaos (Stacey, 1996).

  • Blog post
  • 6 days ago
  • Views: 41

• Complexity: Long-term vs Short Complexity: Long-term vs Short-term Predictability

  • From: Kevin_Goddard
  • Description:

    Long-term predictability. In non-linear systems, a lack of understanding, the smallest miscalculation, or the smallest bit of information missing magnifies throughout the system until predictions are useless (Waldrop, 1992). Unpredictability is key to creativity which emerges from complex interactions and “cannot be intended in any comprehensive way….we are agents in systems that are coevolving into an open-ended evolutionary space” (Stacey, 1996, p. 71, 217). We are not in control of what happens in long-term outcomes.

    The system moves toward a strange attractor like the mission and vision of a school, but never reaches the mission and vision. The system continues to move toward the mission and vision from the given point of the school generated by the sociocultural and environmental contexts driven by the specific interactions of the multitude of agents residing in the school community or any networked systems resulting in the school “orbiting” shakily around this strange attractor as those negotiations are made (Gilstrap, 2005). Long-term outcomes based on these uncertain, complex movements are unpredictable at best (U.S. Department of Education, 1998).

    Short-term predictability. In complex systems, themes and archetypes are recognizable (Stacey, 1996; Waldrop, 1992). In fact, understanding the history of a complex system to look for patterns allows educators to plan within a short-term time frame, sometimes simply the next move to be made. This almost total lack of control causes the behavior of the system to emerge. Short term, general predictions are possible since tiny fluctuations take time to build and the momentum of the system is rooted in the past (Kieren, 2005; Stacey, 1996). “Patterns emerge at higher levels as a result of adaptive dynamics at lower levels of integration…prediction is limited, and…we must develop statistical mechanical methods to extract the knowable from the unknown” (Levin, 2002, p. 15).

  • Blog post
  • 6 days ago
  • Views: 37
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• Complexity: Unpredictability Complexity: Unpredictability

  • From: Kevin_Goddard
  • Description:

    When analyzing their school’s organizational context, principals cannot underestimate the unpredictability of the long-term future of the system. Marginalized populations within the school act as a recessive system undermining the efforts of the dominant, legitimate system. The future of the school emerges from interactions within and between the recessive and the dominant systems. A new paradigm that recognizes and makes meaning of the dynamic, nonlinear versus linear nature of the processes and interactions of these two subsystems would help protect principals from unreasonable long-term planning, unproductive and unmanaged conflict, innovative but misguided agents, and wasted time due to superficial work and restructuring efforts not based on emergence (Bower, 2006; Stacey, 1996).

    The dominant paradigm rosily sees success in stability, predictability, and carefully strategic plans (Stacey, 1996). “Predictions are nice, if you can make them. But the essence of science lies in explanation, laying bare the fundamental mechanisms of nature” (Waldrop, 1992, p. 39). Educational complexity is not different. Researchers have to look at explaining how education works with the knowledge that it may not result in predictability since education is emergent based on too many factors to mathematically analyze.

    History and past pedagogy is important to creating effective high-performing, high-poverty schools (HP2S), but vast changes in the sociocultural capital available to students in this decade make research of previous decades null or irrelevant. Even within the same time period, findings in one context will not be generalizable to another setting. Failing schools that are trying to transform cannot hope to perfectly implement what other successful schools have accomplished because of the unpredictability of complex systems (Barr & Parrett, 2007; Berliner, 2002; Brady, retrieved October 22, 2007; Church, 2005).

    Strategic planning in complex environments results in rigid processes such as goal setting and action plans that restrict emergence. Educational institutions should allow for a more flexible process that takes into account causal relationships (Gilstrap, 2005). Small fluctuations would have a harder time permeating multiple boundaries within similar structures across a flattened hierarchy. This redundancy provides stability, robustness, and resilience against small environmental fluctuations (Stacey, 1996).

  • Blog post
  • 6 days ago
  • Views: 44

• Highlighter: a free reading as Highlighter: a free reading assessment app for teachers

  • From: Ryan_Thomas1
  • Description:

    There are a number of ways to work through assigned readings with our students, but we’ve always gravitated towards open-discussions. Though we prefer these over delivering lectures, seminar-style classrooms are not entirely unproblematic. Here are a few of the challenges we regularly encounter:
    
    

    • Not everyone feels comfortable speaking in front of the class
    • Not everyone actually reads the assigned text
    • The same five or six students (whether they done the assigned reading or not) end up carrying the discussion
    • Assessing student understanding is challenging
      
      

    Recently, one of our colleagues told us about Highlighter, a free web application that actually addresses all of the challenges we mentioned above. Here’s how it works:
    
    

    • Teachers upload course materials to highlight —PDF files, Word docs and webpage links—and students access them on their computer, laptop, iPad or smartphone
    • Teachers assign students to virtual groups
    • Students read the uploaded documents, highlight and bookmark important sections, and make comments directly on them. Each group will only be able to see what other students in their group are highlighting.
    • Teachers receive email notifications when students make notations
      
      

    Highlighter lets teachers know exactly what sections of the course material is most engaging—or most confusing. Knowing this allows teachers to plan accordingly, clarify confusing sections, or expand on key concepts. No longer will you wonder if students have read the course material — now you’ll see they have highlighted, commented, shared and saved.
    
    

    To learn more about Highlighter, you can watch a video by clicking here.
    
    

     

                          

  • Blog post
  • 6 days ago
  • Views: 52

• Moving from a Deficit to a Dev Moving from a Deficit to a Developmental Mindset

  • From: Adrian_Bertolini
  • Description:

    Deficit (noun):  Inadequacy or insufficiency, an unfavourable condition or position, to be lacking or a shortage. From the Latin – it lacks

     

    Developmental (noun):  The act of developing from a simpler or lower to a more advanced, mature or complex form or stage

     
    

    I received a call this morning from a teacher friend of mine. Claire[1] is a second year out teacher who began her teaching career after a varied and wondrous life journey.  Her life is a litany of success and achievement. She has been a nationally ranked gymnast, playwright, leader of transformational seminars, managed sales teams, mother, and carer. She rang me because she needed to talk to someone who understood the life of a teacher but was outside her school environment.

    Claire felt that she was struggling at school. The school had asked her this year to step up to co-coordinate and rejuvenate English at a critical year level whilst taking on managing the school play and teach more classes. The school leadership team obviously thought a lot of Claire and her capabilities otherwise they would not have given her this opportunity. Claire’s challenges echo that of most teachers in the profession – the feeling that there is never enough time to get everything done that you need to do, let alone what others expect of you. Claire was currently experiencing her work as never being complete to her satisfaction, teaching as well as she would like to with a particular group, as well as having times of being overwhelmed.  Much of her concern was self-talk about not being enough and that other staff members were judging her performance.

    In my experience this is a common feeling amongst teachers. With the relentless day-to-day nature of education many teachers rarely have the time to neither reflect deeply nor acknowledge the progress they make each and every day.  The feeling of needing to be constantly driven yet never enough is familiar to many. It is an experience of deficit – and I assert it is symptomatic of the paradigm in which education currently swims.

    Recently in my work with a school to create supportive structures to empower and develop teachers I had a blinding insight about what we were actually trying to achieve – and it was far larger than I had anticipated and could explain why “performance” and “teacher evaluation” was resisted by many teachers.

    Human beings, for the most part, live in a deficit paradigm. It is everywhere. It is in how we see ourselves, how we see the world, how the media portrays the world, in how politics is currently working, it is endemic in our schools. It is how companies sell us products, programs and desires. We aren’t doing enough, productive enough, rich enough, thin enough, smart enough, careful enough, etc. The recent viral Dove Real Beauty Sketches are a perfect example of how people see themselves from a deficit paradigm and the impact of that viewpoint.

    Our education systems are then built upon this deficit thinking. We need to “improve” our schools. We need to “evaluate” or “appraise” our teachers and get rid of the bad ones and pay the good one’s more. Politicians use the language of deficit and impose deficit thinking models on schools and school systems. They look at other countries like Finland and Singapore through deficit eyes. If you just look at the language alone (e.g. ‘appraisal - the act of estimating or judging the nature or value of something or someone’) I am not surprised teachers and schools are resisting this thinking.

    If you look at ANY high performing school, school system, team, organisation anywhere in the world, the paradigm that they operate from is one of nurturing, growing, building and development. This is not the language or viewpoint of deficit. There is nothing lacking but something to grow and nourish. Two recent TED talks by Rita Pierson and Sir Ken Robinson both point vividly to this.

    Currently, we are immersed in a world of deficit and because of this we develop learning in schools from this mindset and we relate to one another from a deficit mindset. Our school structures hamper and hinder developmental thinking. Teachers need time to think, to reflect, to develop, to grow. Running from one class to another limits this. To improve performance in schools we must create structures for teachers to develop their own meta-cognition as a core part of being a teacher (or as I like to refer to them – master learner).

    If we wish to create and transform the education system to unleash the potential of young people (and of ourselves) it is critical we create a developmental mindset and view the world through the eyes of “developing from a simpler or lower to a more advanced, mature or complex form or stage”. When something is developing it experiences stages of growth and stages of challenges. It needs to be nourished and watered and fed to grow.

    The real battle we need to be fighting is one of context.

    Inside a developmental paradigm there is empathy for the stage of development people are currently at. There is not judgement just an acknowledgment. It allows for acknowledgement of progress, and celebration. It realises there are muscles to build, and capacities to grow. In the realm of agriculture one does not judge the value of a plant and ask it to improve. We create an environment for it to flourish and grow. That is what we are actually trying to do with students and staff in schools – aren’t we? In fact, I assert that wherever you find a great teacher, a great school, great parents, great coaches, great teams and high performance – you will find this paradigm. Not surprisingly you will also find habits, structures, practices and actions that develop and grow learning.

    My coaching to Claire was simple. As we spoke she became clear how hard she was on herself. She saw that she could have a lot more empathy for herself and also share and communicate with people at the school what she is dealing with right now and what support she would like. She left clear and empowered.

    How does deficit thinking play out in your school? Where do you struggle with deficit thinking? Where do you see developmental thinking?

    
    [1] Not her real name

    ---

  • Blog post
  • 6 days ago
  • Views: 52

• Refocus on the Learner Refocus on the Learner

  • From: Michael_Fisher
  • Description:

    

    Recently, I worked with Steve Hargadon of Classroom 2.0 at an educational conference in Jacksonville, Florida. Steve is a marvelous conversationalist and has fantastic stories to share.

    
    

    In the car on the way to the conference, Steve and I were discussing the “institution” of school and the “system” of school. The largest part of our conversation centered around the fact that we have, collectively as a nation, created a massive operation for educating children that does not work. Students are not graduating with the skills they need to be successful in the world they are graduating into. No surprise to many of you reading this--it isn’t “new” news. We know it’s not working.

    
    

    The “institution” is the bureaucratic, policy side of public education that demands that “each get some.” The “system” is the mechanism for delivering the “some” to all.  The good ideas that created the system and thus the institution around it are lost in the shuffle. Doing what’s best for kids and doing what’s fair for all have each become a separate megalopolis each on a separate continent.

    
    

    Education has become so institutionalized that the act of “doing” something equates to readiness for the next checked off item on the “to do” list of instructional practice. The ebb and flow of “doing” becomes the barometer for success as measured by standardized high stakes tests that, in one moment, assess a student’s ability to “do school,” measure a teacher’s effectiveness, and be a checks and balances sheet to maintain the system as directed by the institution.

    
    

    Note that in the previous paragraph, the word “learning” was not used. In a Huffington Post article from last March, Connie Yowell describes education as what institutions do and learning as what people do. What’s happening, though, is the system and the institution are methodically destroying learning. I think it’s high time we refocus on the learner.

    
    

    My friend and colleague Jennifer Borgioli recently wrote a piece for the Gotham Schools blog about standardized testing, in the wake of the recent Common Core aligned New York state tests. In the blog post, she describes learning as a construct. We can measure variables that indicate that learning is happening but cannot quantify the whole of what learning means. In Jen’s words, we can’t “pull out a child’s brain, slap it on a scale, and say, yup, they’ve learned this much.”

    
    

    The system and the institution would have you believe that it is possible to well quantify the learning with one high-stakes assessment that serves as a good indicator of year to year growth, how well a teacher teaches, and whether or not the school as a whole is an effective system. The problem is with the variables. In science, we draw conclusions based on the experimentation of one variable at a time, a process approach that helps winnow the possible outcomes of comparative observation. In our current model, the system and the institution are on a multi-variable train that not only amounts to bad science but, in turn, leads to bad practices.

    
    

    Case in point:  A few weeks ago, students in New York State took the first version of the new Common Core aligned tests. They were asked questions that were more rigorous than ever before in an attempt to measure the learning of the Common Core standards. The stories that came out of the woodwork over the course of the week involved students walking out of the test, kids crying, kids unable to finish, kids just giving up, etc. The test was designed to measure the degree to which the students met the Common Core standards. The test does not allow for variations in home environment, parental support, socioeconomic status, etc., all of which are variables that are not necessarily considered as important but in the end, majorly affect the data collected. (Other variables here would also include teacher support, teacher training, schools as systems supporting the standards versus pocket buy-in, etc.)

    
    

    The test was designed to evaluate the system and perpetuate the institution. The tests in other states that are being designed to evaluate the “learning” are all heading in the same direction.

    
    

    Do we want our students ready for college and careers? Absolutely.

    
    

    Do we want them ready to meet the challenges of the world they will graduate into? You betcha.

    
    

    Do we need assessment? Of course.

    
    

    Do we want them suffering through assessments that were designed with the institution/system rather than the child in mind? Not at all.

    
    

    Steve and I discussed how the people with the best ideas are usually not the ones running the companies that develop and market and sell the product that the idea people generated. Wonderful ideas are snagged up by companies or companies are created around them. In order to sell to the masses you need a system set up for production and delivery. You also need an institution to maintain and advance the ideas, normalizing everything for the benefit of impacting the most people possible to increase the bottom line over time.

    
    

    The problem though, lies in the fact that once the ideas/learning lose the focus of priority in favor of the system or the institution because of a mistaken belief that “some” of the original ideas are best for “most” in the system, the system falters. How well does that work when the institution or the system becomes the priority? You tell me: Polaroid. Enron. Commodore. Hollywood Video. Madoff Investment Securities. The list is long...

    
    

    Assessment is not bad. In a previous blog post, I wrote about why in the world we would practice for a game we never played or rehearse for a performance we never give? I also don’t disagree with checks and balances in the system, but the system must have integrity. That integrity lies in the priority of keeping the learner at the center. That means that we must not only find ways to more rationally assess students without causing complete psychological breakdowns on test days but also that we address some of the other variables that the system and the institution keep in the periphery, primarily poverty and family/environmental support.

    
    

    Hmmm. “Test days.” Now that I’ve said those words specifically, perhaps that’s the beginning of the new conversation. Instead of the grimness of the dark and scary hell week of assessments, perhaps we start looking at what can be embedded in instruction. Perhaps we look at leveraging opportunities for choice and differentiated products through performance tasks and problem-based scenarios that not only generate a product but also are a launching pad for the next learning moment. These aren’t new ideas. I’m not innovating here. I am talking about something though that is difficult for institutionalized implementation. It is difficult for systemic production and delivery. It’s expensive and messy and would involve much more local control.

    
    

    We can send a man to the moon but we are still having trouble negotiating the creation of a better assessment of student learning? I wonder how many one size fits all, end of the year, high stakes assessments those NASA engineers took before they were finally ready to, according to the system and the institution, design and implement their ideas? I wonder if Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin would have been comfortable putting their lives on the line for a bunch of scientists that did REALLY well on their one moment in time, end of year state tests?

    
    

    There are no easy answers here, I know that. But I also know that there are still kids at the heart of all of this. The institution and the system need to refocus on that. We have an unbelievable challenge and a massive obligation to get this right.

     

    Originally blogged on Smartblogs.com/education. Portions added.

     

     

    Follow Mike on Twitter

    Upgrade Your Curriculum now available at the ASCD Bookstore

     

     

  • Blog post
  • 1 week ago
  • Views: 415

• The Miss for Bliss The Miss for Bliss

  • From: Tom_Whitby
  • Description:

    After watching the Jeff Bliss’s, viral video, as well as the remix of it, created to popularize the event even more, I was almost moved to do a reflective post on the subject. After viewing a number of supportive blog posts for the Bliss position I kind of backed off thinking that I was off base in my position. Then I read Why the Jeff Bliss story makes me want to quit by a fellow English teacher.

    The end of the academic year has all teachers stressed out. After giving one's all for a year, and having it come to an end, hoping all along for the success of the students, leads one to question much of what had been done during the year, and even why it was done.  When I first saw the Bliss video, I saw a kid being asked to leave the class for whatever the reason, and the kid trying to get back at the teacher. The kid began to use an attack that echoed the focus of many educators seeking to reform the system with the same rhetoric. Without knowing anything of the student, I determined he must be active on social media and had an interest in what was being said about the change in education. This was some evidence of intelligence. I also felt that everyone would see this teacher as the “devil teacher” responsible for all the ills of our system. There is probably some accuracy to both of those descriptions but I think neither is a reflection of the whole truth in this situation.

     As a retired teacher I encountered many rants from students that I removed from class for disruptive behavior. What is different in this instance is the addition of social media and the educator’s perceived opposition of the position taken by the student. This was further advanced by the teacher's negative responses to the student's critique. All of this recorded and published to the world in You Tube Celebrity.

    I was moved by the frustrations of the blogger who feels overwhelmed with the on going blogging, reflection, and discussion in social media about all of the turmoil in education. Much of this is flamed by the mindless, senseless and poorly planned reforms put forth by non-educators. I am not arrogant enough to think only educators can intelligently reform education, but the general feeling among educators is that the reforms are being mandated with very little educator input. That is the most frustrating part to many educators who are being targeted and maligned even by fellow educators. Educators seem to be circling the wagons and shooting to the inside.

    Most educators are doing what they have been trained to do, or what is supported by their school’s culture. I hate the fact that so many teachers use the work packets to present material, but that again is what is supported by the system that they must work in. We need to improve our professional development and be open to more relevant teaching methods, employing more relevant tools for learning, as well as more relevant attitudes toward student-centric learning.

    My friend and colleague Lisa Nielsen is a great student advocate and passionate education reformer. We have collaborated on a few very popular blog posts. I do not fault her for taking the side of Jeff Bliss in his rant against his teacher. Bliss made a convincing, and passionate speech against an outmoded method of teaching that stymies our system of education every day. I hope Lisa continues to follow her bliss (not the student) in supporting students in education reform. I would only hope that an “us and them” mentality does not dominate the discussion of education. There is no group more in favor of positive education reform than educators. We must keep in mind that educators are also products of the same education system that we seek to reform. They should not be the targets for the reform; they are in fact victims of that system as well. In order to educate our students, we need to first better educate our educators, and continue to educate them as part of their job. To be relevant educators, we need to be relevantly educated. That implies continuous education in a computer-driven, continuously developing culture.

    I would hope that this blogger was not discouraged by the reflection and conversation going on about education reform. We need more educators involved in the discussion that has been hijacked by business profiteers and politicians. There is a planned assault on public education. We need more educators adding their voices to the needed change. We need educators to tell other educators that it is okay to give up methods of the past, that are not working in today’s system of education. It is a question of permission, as opposed to confrontation. Educators are all in favor of kids succeeding; it is but a question of how to accomplish that goal. I would encourage this blogger to hang in and continue to speak out.

    If the post by this English teacher moved me, others may be moved as well. That is a skill that is not mastered by many and it is a powerful tool for change. We need more educators stepping up and speaking out if we as educators are to take back the discussion that we left to other less qualified people to dominate.

  • Blog post
  • 1 week ago
  • Views: 54

• Speed Geek Your Faculty Meetin Speed Geek Your Faculty Meetings

  • From: Michael_Fisher
  • Description:

    

    I love witnessing miraculous things and I love it even more when it’s kids performing the miracles.

    
    

    I attended a conference last weekend called EdJEWcon in Jacksonville, Florida where I attended a “Speed Geeking” session designed and presented by 4th and 5th grade students. In the session, participants were engaged in a “Speed Dating” model but with technology. Each of the seven students prepared a five minute presentation around a technology they cared about and shared with the participants how it impacted their learning. Students shared a variety of technologies including blogging, iMovie, Frames, and more!

    
    

    
    
    
    

     

    The whole model reminded me of a discussion I had several weeks ago at EdCamp Buffalo about student S.W.A.T. teams: Students Who Assist with Technology. These are students who help each other and their teachers learn new software and hardware tools.

    
    

    This is EXACTLY the kind of student-centered authenticity that schools need more of! In fact, I would love to see much much more of this going on in schools, particularly in faculty meetings. This would be a fantastic use of faculty meeting time to not only introduce new tools but to add new tools to everybody’s toolboxes. This also invites students into design and instructional practice and gives them an opportunity to be valued as contributing members of the school.

    
    

    I’ve talked with administrators all over about leveraging digital tools like Padlet or Today’s Meet or Google Docs to have “meetings without meetings.” Asynchronous, anytime available digital opportunities increase participation in discussions and ease the dissemination of information without having to sit through a meeting that was called for the sake of saying we had one.

    
    

    Speed Geeking is a way to kick that up several notches and upgrade the WAY a faculty meeting is run. Imagine it: Student Led Faculty Meetings! #AwesomeAwesomeAwesome

    
    

    I was so impressed with these students and was absolutely thrilled to be able to see them in action! Kudos to the 4th and 5th graders at Martin J. Gottlieb Day School!

    
    
    
    

    Pictures from Jon Mitzmacher - @Jon_Mitzmacher

     

    Upgrade Your Curriculum now available from ASCD.org
    

    
    
    

    Follow Mike on Twitter: @fisher1000

     

    Originally posted on Smartblogs/Education at: http://smartblogs.com/education/2013/05/08/speed-geek-your-faculty-meetings/

  • Blog post
  • 2 weeks ago
  • Views: 1206

• Using Foreign Films to Engage Using Foreign Films to Engage Reluctant Readers

  • From: Ryan_Thomas1
  • Description:

    In her book Engaging Reluctant Readers Through Foreign Films, Kerry P. Holmes recounts a Saturday evening, one where she intended to put all thoughts of school aside and relax with her husband. It was decided that they would finally watch East/West, a French film with English subtitles. At first, she found herself grumbling over the subtitles, but as the film progressed, she became swept up in the plot—so much so in fact, that she forgot she was even reading the subtitles. This experience sparked an epiphany: What if she started using foreign films to engage reluctant readers?
    
    

    As many of us know, finding creative ways to focus reluctant readers on books, the very thing that evokes feelings of frustration, inadequacy and failure, is challenging. But there are several reasons that foreign films can capture students’ interest and stimulate their imagination in ways that books can’t.
    
    

    Films are sensory
    Psychologists have long known that the brain is a “novelty seeker.” We are attracted to movement and stimulated by unexpected events. Films are brimming with moving images and sounds; these create a context for the text in ways that print simply can’t. Let’s explain.
    
    

    In foreign films, sight and sound are used simultaneously. A man shouts; we see it, hear it and read it. In fact, every action is accompanied by sound, movement and text, which means that your reluctant readers are hearing and seeing the emotion of the words they are reading.
    
    

    Subtitles come in short bursts, not long pages
    Long paragraphs and twenty-page chapters can be paralyzing for reluctant readers. The text in subtitles, however, appears in short bursts that are never more than one or two sentences at a time. There’s something else to consider: The text we find in a typical book is limited to small black words on a page. Sure, there may be accompanying pictures or graphics, but they don’t move, speak, or make sound. Films do all three.
    
    

    Foreign films come in a variety of genres
    How often do your reluctant readers complain that there aren’t any books that suit their interests? By adding foreign films to your classroom library, students will have even less of a reason to say they can’t find “books” that they like. Like books, foreign films come in a variety of genres; there’s bound to be one that will resonate with them.  
    
    

    Foreign films expose students to cultural differences
    As with books, foreign films allow students to transcend their own lives for a short time and enter the lives of those from another culture. In films, cultural differences (which are often abstract) can be seen, heard and read, making them much more real and digestible.
    
    

    If you are looking for a few more ways to engage your reluctant readers, check out two of our recent blogs, Text-Based Games: A cure for the common book?  and Engaging reluctant readers with a multi-media reading experience.
    
    

     

    

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• WILL#7 WILL#7

  • From: Joshua_Garcia
  • Description:

    What I Learned Lately (WILL #7)

    5/8/13

    @Garciaj9Josh

    As a father, son, husband, and brother, I share a name with all other men, (Mr.).  When I pause to think about this connection, I remind myself to maintain what I call a “Brothered Mind".  For me this concept is grounded by the need to treat others as family, love my brothers for the common good, and to check my own ego and desires in order to create a better world.  Additionally, it reminds me that I have responsibility to be a "good man" and ultimately my actions label other men around the world.  This is a responsibility that I take extremely seriously. 

     

    The irony for me is that I have learned how to create and maintain a "Brothered Mind" from powerful women.  Women all across the world teach their children and students the value of respecting self, family and community.  In my life, women have taught many lessons.  My mother grew up in abusive family.  My parents ran from the abuse in order to save our family.  For years, I have watched my mom battle through losing homes, jobs, her health and the struggle to separate herself from her past.  My mom has taught me the concept of "relentless".  My wife has and continues to be my mirror.  Teaching me how to raise a daughter, model for my sons and to truly be "present" in the world I live and work in.    From my boss, I learned the concept of unconditional love.  She has taught me that you can't run from your family, past or present; rather you must continuously and unconditionally work to support those that you need you the most.  In our work, we are continuously surrounded by women who teach us how to love each student and to treat all of them as they were their own sons and daughters.  Growing up, learning how to run and now being taught to be present has been rigorous for me.

     

    As I reflect on my learning and get ready to celebrate Mother's Day.  I would like to celebrate all the women that are in all our lives.

     

    Finally by William Butler Yeats - The Song of the Old Mother

    I rise in the dawn, and I kneel and blow Till the seed of the fire flicker and glow;

    And then I must scrub and bake and sweep Till stars are beginning to blink and peep;

    And the young lie long and dream in their bed Of the matching of ribbons for bosom and head,

    And their day goes over in idleness, And they sigh if the wind but lift a tress:

    While I must work because I am old,

    And the seed of the fire gets feeble and cold.

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