An interesting thing happened on Twitter today. Dr. Chris McGee (@cmcgee200) and Josh Stumpenhorst (@stumpteacher) had conversation starter of what teaching would look like it teachers were drafted like pro-athletes. The conversation had a root in the educational practices of Finland and their great successes.
As an aside, did you know that in Finland, students do not start school until the age of 7 and receive all post high school career training for free? Pre-service teachers in Finland go through extensive internships and training and receive salaries on par with other educated professionals in the country. The training is so extensive and challenging that only 10% of the participants complete the program! You can read more here.
Once the idea of a pro-draft was discussed, the conversation took a turn to how might a fantasy teaching league look and how would the "owner" of a league might score points. The conversation started with a few people and eventually had dozens of people contributing. The conversation started around 11 AM CST and within 2 hours had over 200 contributions.
The contributions ranged from serious to silly including:
+2 points for giving borderline students an opportunity to publicly succeed (@wmchamberlain)
DQ'd for using sarcasm to put a kid down (@jmarkeyAP)
+2 points for admitting, out loud, in your class, that you just learned something from a kid, and being proud of it (@ktvee)
+1 point per hit for playing Dodgeball with 200 kids and letting them hit you
(@stumpteacher)
The amazing thing about this conversation the contributions were all about what we want our learning environments and schools to be. These are some great tips and observations about small changes we can each make in our classrooms and schools to make it a better place for the students and the teachers. Why can't we make our fantasy a reality?
See the storyfi of the #fantasyteaching conversation below. If you want to contribute, please do by tweeting with the hashtag #fantasyteaching!
I read today that the lottery is a tax for those who are bad at math. While I, too, have gotten caught up on the fevered potential of $550 million, I got to thinking about the odds of winning the Powerball lottery.
In an article from ABC, a professor of mathematics puts winning the lottery in a little perspective.
"You are three times more likely to die from a falling coconut, he says; seven times more likely to die from fireworks, "and way more likely to die from flesh-eating bacteria" (115 fatalities a year) than you are to win the Powerball lottery."
He continued that a doctor is 100 times more likely to accurately predict the day, hour, minute, and second that your baby will be born (ours could only tell us January 9, 2013) than winning the Powerball.
For those not familiar, the winning numbers are determined by drawing 5 white balls numbered from 1-59 from one drum and 1 red ball from a separate drum of balls numbered 1-35. Official site is http://www.powerball.com/
The overall odds in winning the 5 white balls and 1 red ball (the grand prize of $550 million) is 1 in 175,223,510. It is a simple combination problem of 59C5 *35. If you want the formula check here. With a single ticket now costing $2, it would require an investment of ~$350 million to purchase every possible combination on a ticket to guarantee a win.
While it can be fun to dream, we should combat the idea of being bad at math.
Here is where the fun can come in for your classroom...
Why don't people do this in the US? What are the potential benefits? What are the potential hazards?
How many minutes would it take to print all of the combinations? Is it enough time between the announcement that there was no winner until the next drawing to accomplish this?
Given a ticket that can have anywhere between 1 and 10 possible entries, how long would the roll of paper be to print all of the tickets if going 1 game entry at a time? 10 at a time? How much would all of the tickets weight? How large of a room would be needed to house all of the tickets?
If you wanted to gain investors, how many equivalents of your class, school, town, would be needed if everyone invested $2? Assuming the jackpot was won, how much would each equivalent earn for their investment?
What could/would you do with the money? How would students budget it?
Using a simple compounding interest formula, how much interest would be made at the current interest rate? Would the effect your spending plan? What if you made some large purchases first (car, house, etc)?
These are questions I came up with. Even better, what questions would your students come up with?
Lets make our students better thinkers and better at understanding mathematics and number sense. And, since you are three times as likely to die from a falling coconut as you are in winning Powerball, keep an eye out!
Over the long Thanksgiving weekend, I had the chance to watch the movie Moneyballagain. If you haven't seen it, the trailer is below:
The movie is based on a book by Michael Lewis, which was based on real events of the Oakland Athletics who took an obscure 1964 book (Percentage Baseball by Earnshaw Cook) written about baseball statistics to "change the way the game is played". Essentially, the A's wanted to look at statistics and data that would directly result in winning more games by scoring more runs by getting more players on base...didn't matter how it happened.
It wasn't until this morning, when I received a tweet from Brenda Colby to check out an article written by Michael Brick, titled "When 'Grading' Is Degrading". As usual, something from my tweeps got me thinking. :)
NCLB, for better or worse, has radically altered the way that the public views its schools and the ways that schools are being measured as successful (or not). Schools now take a look at their results from previous years and with their practice testing try to accurately predict how students will perform and what 'grade' the school will receive. I read the article, which mirrors multiple conversations I have had online and face to face about the meaning of the test scores, and thought to myself, "What is the right number to measure?"
If you watched the trailer, you heard one of the scouts actually equate the beautiful-ness of a baseball player's girlfriend to his idea of self-confidence and whether that player will make a positive addition to the organization. This seems to be a bit of a stretch of logic to me, but the scout, who brings the 150 years of past practice, states that this way of doing things is valid and works. It also seems to me that measuring a school's success on set of test scores seems just as illogical. So again, "What is the right number to measure"?
As I was exploring the Brick article, I came across an older article on www.schoolleadership20.com with a powerful statement right at the beginning of it:
"Data itself has no meaning, until it is organized and displayed in charts or graphs that can be interpreted, usually in multiple ways. These interpretations may usefully inform our dialogue, decisions and subsequent actions so data definitely can be valuable, but it often seems to be granted undue reverence simply because it is numerical. Although insight can derive from analysis of data, equally it can arise out of intuition and, in fact, I wonder if some analyses are not actually rationalizations subconsciously imposed on data to justify intuitive speculations." (Beairsto, 2010) (Taken from http://www.schoolleadership20.com/profiles/blogs/don-t-let-data-drive-your-dialogue-by-dr-bruce-beairsto)
As someone who is trying to move from autopsy data to predictive data, are we just seeing what we want to see or what past experience has told us? I completely agree with Beairsto that we need to triangulate data points to get more meaning and that we must value a qualitative research paradigm to get at the underlying meaning of what the numbers say. Especially as teacher evaluations, under Race to the Top, will bring in elements of student achievement to a teacher's rating, we need to be able to triangulate our numbers to derive meaning. But, just as FOX and MSNBC can look at data and come to completely different conclusions, what will happen when teacher unions and administrators differ on the conclusions from the data?
As we look globally, to the success of schools, school districts, and the American education system, What are the right numbers to measure?
When I see something that makes me think to myself "HOW COOL IS THIS" I try to find a way that this could be done by students as a learning project. It did not take me long to find a way for this one...
A concept in math and science is the idea of symmetry. In biology, there are discussions of radial and bilateral symmetry. Chemistry could even make a discussion of chirality as a non-example to symmetry. In mathematics, there is the symmetry of geometric shapes and even the reflections, rotations, and translations of functions on the coordinate plane. Teachers could even bring in the unit circle for the angles of the axes of symmetry from the x and y axes.
Here is a chance to have students discuss and apply their understanding of symmetry and relate it to the impending weather that comes with winter. Students would have a chance to design, evaluate, and go back to the drawing board to express their creativity. Even better, students have the chance to document their process in the creation of something that is expressly their own!
Students could use a template like this (modified from coolmath.com) and start creating! Print out the template and have students start sketching a symmetrical picture using 2 adjacent segments of the template (or half of a picture using only 1 segment). Cut out the circle and fold it and start cutting!
Blabberize is one of those resources that you come across and immediately think "This could be amusing for kids to use, but I don't see an educational value". This thinking needs to be reexamined.
Blabberize is a free resource that allows the user to upload a picture, draw an interactive mouth, and then put their voice to the picture. It is similar to Voki, but with out the avatar creating. I find blabberize more versatile because I have found the need to expand the anthropomorphic paradigm. (I think I just coined a phrase!)
Anthropomorphism (or personification) is the attribution of human characteristics to non-human things. A fuller description and definition can be found here.
When people first begin exploring Blabberize, they know that they need to draw an interactive mouth on their image and when they speak, the mouth will move. You can see an example that I created here:
In their early uses, users tend to use images of people and even animals (which be an attribution of anthropomorphism). What I mean by the need to expand on the anthropomorphic paradigm is that first time users fall into the trap that they can only use photos and pictures that have a mouth!
I challenged a room of teachers to find a use for Blabberize in a math class. It was an English teacher who said that she would have had a better time in geometry if the polygons described their physical properties to her. Some teachers around her asked her what she meant and she profoundly said "Put a mouth on a polygon"! Once she exclaimed this, teachers started thinking about how to expand the paradigm (or think outside of the box).
What is great about Blabberize is that it can give students a voice in class. They have the chance express themselves without having to stand in front of the class and make a mistake in front of their peers. Blabberize will allow the students to do multiple takes and it helps eliminate some of the pressure. Students get motivated and can be creative!
How great could this tool be for a world language class? Students can practice their speaking (and writing to prepare what they will say) and improve their listening skills to the world language. Students can help bring history to life by providing a voice to a historical figure. Imagine how a "book report" could be changed by having the protagonist or antagonist speak from their own perspective about the events of a novel!
How can you have your students use it in class? Add a comment with your ideas! Have you used it in your classes? Share a link to the student creations!
I came across this comic in my daily Dilbert calendar, but the original publish date was 11/16/2009. If you have read Dilbert before, you know how eeirily prophetic it can be.
Assume that the Pointy-Haired Boss is a Superintendent that is unaware of the current best practices in technology integration to improve instruction, but knows that technology is a new buzzword in education and makes a large purchase in hardware and software. Now assume that there is a building principal who will be require to actually implement and realizes the need for some assistance. Is it safe to make the connection that a superintendent who would make this sort of purchase without doing any research might make the same statement to that building principal? What is the principal to do?
This is a perfect illustration as to why we need more educators and leaders connected. If you are looking for a place to jump in, here is a great place to start: http://connectedprincipals.com/. You can also follow the hashtags of #edchat or #cpchat to find great educators and discussions.
There has been the trend to note what people are thankful for every day in the month of November. I think that for December, people need to give the gift of connection. Here are some options:
When I present a digital tool to a group of teachers, I inevitably get the question of "Oooh, that is cool! How can I use this for [enter name here] project"? After that question is asked, I then use my kitchen remodelling analogy. It goes something like this:
If you are remodelling your kitchen and you want make new cabinets, would you pick up a hammer and say how can I make this work?
The concepts found in Understanding by Design that are commonly applied to unit and lesson design should still be applied to the integration of technology. Begin with the end in mind. When doing the kitchen remodel, you assess what your goals are and then check your toolbox. It is great to be familiar with a large number of technology resources...this increases the number of tools in your toolbox. It is more important to know what you are expecting in terms of a final performance outcome for the project/unit. From there, you can help students select appropriate tools to accomplish the goals and objectives of the project. (As a side note, it is important for the teacher to not have a specific product in mind because this might limit the creativity of the students in demonstrating what they have learned. Rubrics written based on learning objectives and goals, as opposed to a digital checklist, will help)
With that in mind, I want to share a resource that I have developed. This resource provides over 35 online tools and resources that can be used in the classroom. But, just as this post indicates, it also matches the tools with themes that might be found in a class project.
When this was shared with teachers, it seemed to bridge the inevitable question with a better way of thinking about integrating technology into their instruction to get students demonstrating what they have learned and what they can do.
If you know of more resources/project pairings, please share in the comment for this post!
"If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right" -- Jerry Seinfeld when encouraging George to fight his natural instincts.
I was extremely surprised to read the ISTE Update and see myself quoted from my Twitter feed:
From Bob Abrams: When
creating a tech vision, impulse is to grab the early adopters. Flip your
thinking. Involve the late adopters to minimize fear
Seeing this quote tweet again got me thinking as I was presenting yesterday at the T21 Conference at Illinois State University. If you don't know about it, T21 is a free conference put on by ISU and is intended for pre-service teachers to learn about current practices and future trends about technology integration in instruction. This year was slightly different as the conference has expanded dramatically from 1 room in 2010 to taking over multiple rooms and floors of the Bone Student Center and having a great keynote by Jonathan Bergmann.
During the conference I reminded teachers to just be willing to try something new and from someone on my Twitter feed, I was reminded that the questions that we ask matter.
" @misterabrams It really is all about the questions we ask!@Leadershipfreak: Ask, "What did we learn?" NOT "What went wrong?" "
The power of our language is almost immeasurable...until you use the wrong language. As leaders in education and technology, we need to constantly be aware of the language we use and COACH teachers by working with them and letting them discover what might work and what might not. Funny, the same holds true for working with students...
But I digress, there are many times that we need to fight our natural instincts. Whenever we introduce a new technology product or concept, we often want to run to the people we know are early adopters to show them how cool, useful, and productive this tool can be...FIGHT THIS INSTINCT! The early adopters are going to do this anyway. The people we should approach first, with the coaching approach and language, are those people who say that they are not proficient in technology. If we bring in the late adopters first, we can help minimize their fear and apprehension and provide them with the most time to play and explore! How awesome would it be to have someone who says that they are not good with technology to show off their creation to the rest of the staff?!
Between the early and late adopters of technology, we will be able to create that critical core of people needed to initiate the change. In many of our approaches, we continue to follow past practices and get similar results. Take that all important step of reflection and metacognition. When possible and optimal, flip your thinking and look at the situation from a new perspective. You never know what you might be able to see...
So we are driving in the car, taking my kids home from school (daycare), and my 4 year old is telling me about the letter of the week: Q. He is describing how the letter q is simply a circle with a small line going through part of it. He then tells me words that he is learning that begin with the letter q: Queen and quilt were the examples he told. I figured that I would ask him a question that has been asked many times in the world of pre-k and elementary education to student who are learning to read, write, and spell...What letter ALWAYS comes after the letter "q"?
His response got me thinking about the questions we ask in school, the preconceived answers that we expect, and how we react when ne'er the twain shall meet.
When I was in the classroom, I tried to ask questions that challenged my students to think and evaluate options...even on my multiple choice questions. Students called them trick questions when they got them incorrect, but I always gave students a chance to appeal a question by explaining their thinking and why their answer/response was better than mine. While I only granted 2 appeals, students did try to explain their reasoning and they were given a chance to reflect on their answers.
Nowadays, I would hope that teachers in the classroom would avoid asking questions that can merely be googled and require students to demonstrate their thinking by creating a product/project that does not have a final product in mind, but a clear set of expectations at the onset. Many times, I see teachers asking questions and having a predetermined answer in their head and when a student does not provide it, the student is told that they are wrong. What does this do to the student? How does this help the student improve, learn, grow?
So I ask the question to you...what letter always comes after q?
Instead of telling my son that he was wrong, I am thankful that praised him for his thinking.
In response to my title, many (the 18 of you reading this -- BTW THANKS!!!) will be saying duh.
In case you are not familiar with the tool, http://www.Wordle.net creates word clouds based on text input into the website. It will take your text and make words that are repeated larger. You can then alter the formatting and color to make it visually appealing to you.
While it is true that some students will write a "naughty" word into the website, just to see it in large print and then giggle, I have used wordle to being a qualitative analysis from interview participants in a research project. The larger words allowed me to begin to identify some themes that were emerging and common among the participants.
Not everyone has the enjoyment of qualitative analysis, like I did, so how can teachers use this?
You can use it to compare and contrast pieces of text. Take a look at the examples below, what do you see as the major themes within the speeches from Tuesday night?
Want to engage students in a classic novel? Find the full text online and make a wordle of it... http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/5983848/Chapter_1_of_The_Great_Gatsby Based on this wordle, students might begin the reading with some questions and engage them in the reading by seeking out the answers to their own questions!
Students can take their own essay texts to begin a peer review process. Does the wordle that gets created represent the main ideas of their essay?
Each of these wordles took less than 5 minutes to make and save to the gallery. When using as a class activity, make sure that you create a unique username so it can be found in the gallery. One caveat: The gallery is public and students might run across some of the naughty wordles mentioned above.
Have fun with is and have students create with it!
The really scary thing is that I have been keeping up on the blogging. Hopefully, I will keep it going past my usually week long sprint.
From my great people in my PLN on Twitter, some illusions and neuroscience ghosts to help in your classes for Halloween.
What I like best in the illusions is the geometry connection to the sarcophagus illusion. This one provides students a chance to explore the measurements of the geometry of a parallelogram. I think that more constructions need to be done in geometry classes to get a tangible feel for the shapes and solids. Main reason why I remember that a cone has 1/3 of the volume of a column with the same height and base is because we actually measured it!
The attractions to the neuroscience ghosts is, again, the fact that students must do something. This should encourage students to ask questions! The bigger challenge is to prevent the teacher from providing the answers. We should encourage more questions!
One of the big trends in education is the idea of the flipped classroom. This concept switches the prescribed times when students work and when students "receive" information. Someone who is running with this is Brian Bennett (http://www.brianbennett.org or @bennetscience on Twitter) This is a fascinating concept that seems to be a natural progression from the school of analog thought that teachers would have students leave their textbooks at home because that is where the teacher is not, thus allowing students access to an educated resource away from school.
As we try to not only engage students in meaningful educational activities, teachers needs to be engaged in the discovery process and to change their methods of instruction. As you have probably personally experience, change is never easy and there is a process that people must go through to bring the changed state into their everyday existence. There are multiple examples of this process:
Even my paper for grad school combining LoTi with Kubler-Ross' Stages of Greif (which has an eerie congruity)
As teachers attempt to make changes in their instructional methods, some people will jump right into the pool of change, while others will only dip their big toe in. It is important to only give people a push when they are ready for it (OK, maybe sometimes we can push a little earlier if they have good support surrounding them). It is this that I want to explore. Instead of jumping right into flipping a class, why not try a few activities. It can be as simple as taking Prensky's idea of doing something old in a new way.
Case in point: there are many digital representations of the periodic table of elements. One that caught my eye is this one. It is not the colors that caught my eye, but the fact that the 2nd sheet of the Excel file contains ALL of the data (and more) that is in the periodic table. If we utilize this periodic table in class, we can not only have students develop a better understanding of chemistry, but of 21st century skills and skills that can even (*GASP*) help them on standardized test, by having students manipulate the data to have Excel create the graphs.
Another example that got me thinking is an open source game from MIT called "A Slower Speed of Light" which helps put relativistic principles in a format that might be easier to understand.
For those who have been reading (and I thank you for doing so), look at an activity that you have done for the past 3 years...how can you flip it to make it something new and engaging? Leave a comment or mention it to me on Twitter (@misterabrams). Once you have flipped a few activities, it may not seem so scary to go waist deep into the change pool. :)
To begin, I would like to wish all Illinois Principals (and principals and school leaders everywhere) a Happy Principal Appreciation Day! http://vimeo.com/51167361 This is a video from the Illinois Principal Association which is a great organization for any school administrator.
After attending the ISTE Leadership Forum, I had the opportunity to drive from Indianapolis, IN to Springfield, IL for the "first annual" Race to the Top (RT3) state meeting. During the meeting, I had the opportunity to reconnect with some central IL colleagues from the early part of my teaching career and meet other educators whose districts are participating in this initiative. When you look at the 4 main goals of the state for RT3 they all seem to sound good:
Adopting more rigorous standards and assessments
Recruiting, evaluating, and retaining highly effective teachers and principals
Building data systems that measure student success
Building state capacity for support
During the meeting, the state had asked a few administrators from around the state the discuss their district's progress in meeting the deadlines. One administrator from central Illinois got up and spoke very candidly about his district's process.
He said, "The name Race to the Top is horrible. If a program is meant to increase the rigor and quality of instruction for all students to increase student achievement, the philosophy of a 'race' indicates that districts are in direct competition with one another and there will be some winners and some losers". He went on to say that words matter, in naming an initiative and in the directions for implementation.
I completely agree with him in his message and feel embarrassed that I did not make this connection before. The focus of this initiative should promote equity.
I had made a similar comment concerning NCLB in the state of Illinois. In Illinois, our test for high school students includes the ACT...a test designed to leave children behind.
In a separate issue, I had received a request today to provide words of insight to new department chairs. I looked back on my time as a DC and thought about my mistakes that I made and the thought of 'words matter' really rings true. The advice I ended up providing was:
As a DC try to make all of your actions fit within these two
lenses: Is it good for kids and will this enable the department to encourage
all students to succeed.
If that is your direction, it is hard to go wrong.
With so many initiatives, policy changes, and mandates, I think that some people opt for the path of least resisitance as opposed to what is best for kids and encouraging ALL students to succeed.
In this day of immediate feedback, many people speaking in only bullet points, and a sometimes a speak first-think later mentality, we need to remember that our words do matter.
Happy Mole Day to everyone! If you do not remember from your high school or college chemistry class, the mole is a quantity in chemistry used to get matter that is atomically small (or smaller) into a group large enough to measure. The quantity is Avogadro's number (6.02*10^23). If you want to learn about the celebration, go to http://www.moleday.org.
Today was the last day of the ISTE inaugural leadership forum. I would like to refer back to my post from 2 days ago and repeat how intelligent people correctly call the first occurrence of an event that will happen annually is inaugural, as there is no such thing as the "1st annual". This is particularly peculiar because I am now in Springfield, IL for the 1st Annual Race to the Top Conference, hosted by the Illinois State Board of Education.
As I digress back to the title of this post, here are 6.02 (in honor of Mole Day) musings about today's events at the Leadership Forum.
The NMC Horizon Report for 2012 (K-12)identifies six technologies to watch in the present to the next 5 years. They include mobile computing and apps, tablet computers, game based learning, personalized learning environments, augmented realities, and natural user interfaces. Some very exciting things on the horizon when we bring these into education.
The importance of coaches is becoming more evident in this era of high stakes testing and evaluation of teachers. Admin need to support the role of coaches in the classroom. A good coach instructional modeling idea I got from the conference was the first class, the coach models the lesson. The second class, the coach co-teaches the lesson. The third class the coach supports the instruction of the primary teacher. Finally, the fourth lesson, the coach observes.
An easy way encourage a collaborative process in your classroom is to change the physical space of the room. It is a feature that we easily overlook that can be an obstacle to encouraging conversation.
Great teaching is great teaching. Technology will enhance great teaching. Technology is not assist poor teaching practices.
Change takes relationships, relationships take conversations, conversations take time.
When trying to create and implement a vision for technology, your first impulse is to grab the early adopters, but it is important to flip your thinking. Bring those who would be reluctant into the fold first to reduce their anxiety.
.02 Five steps to create change: Model the way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others to act, and encourage the heart.
Big lesson from Fullan and Quinn from the closing -- Premature excitement is fragile. Lone innovators are not contagious, but rather annoying. Inspire others to be exited!
On day 2 of the ISTE Leadership Forum, we had a little bit of everything. The bad wasn't all bad and the ugly wasn't all ugly, but that doesn't make for a good title.
We will start with the ugly. I went to a panel discussion on Learning and Teaching:Powered by data use. I was really looking forward to this discussion because of my new position as Coordinator of Assessment, Data, and Grants. Unfortunately, this panel discussion consisted of little more than data talk in the ether without true plans of implementation. As stated in the opening keynote yesterday, vision without a plan is just a hallucination. Some of the good parts of the discussion were the disparity of autopsy vs. diagnostic data. This idea fits in with my idea of where I would like to take the usefulness of my position. There was a decent point made about the speed at which data can be collect and analyzed because of the collection being done in real time. The best message discussed was the role of the data coach to improve the communication between teachers and leaders. That makes the difference between assessment of learning and assessment for learning. What made this session ugly was the fact that is was a covert Pearson sales pitch with a panel including a Pearson employee and her former boss from CPS who is now a consultant. At least with the required industry meet-ups, you knew what you were getting into...I did have good conversations with some educators from Bloomington, Indiana who shared some of their data solutions and plans for implementation with me.
The bad was the I have an iPad, now what session. The initial description did not state that this session was for people who did not know how to turn on an iPad...as I learned in the session, you cannot turn it on with wine and soft jazz music! There was a good side conversation that hijacked the session on Airplay and Apple TV. Some very neat things that can be done! I got some beginner information that I can share with people new to the iPad, so that will be a benefit. There were some resources for evaluating apps in order to avoid the Carmen SanDiego Effect. (The CSDE is how in the early 80s teachers would do anything to include the game in their classes, even though it was not grade appropriate nor fitting with the curriculum.) Best comment was first use tends to become the entrenched use...don't fall prey to the razzle dazzle and prevent teachers from trying to twist their curriculum to make Angry Birds fit.
The good was very good! This was a panel discussion about the role and benefit of instructional coaches. Multiple things that I have studied before were reiterated and discussed in greater detail. This panel consisted of a tech director, a superintendent, and an instructional coach trainer. Big things from this discussion included how coaching has a spill over effect. The coach and collaborating teacher set the model for the school and others will see the benefit and want to be included. This build capacity of the building. Another big thing to remember is that the coach MUST be separated from the evaluation. This ensures the ability to make mistakes and learn from them without getting "ding-ed" on an eval. The coach cannot come in as the expert. They are coming in as a collaborator in learning and a questioner of the teacher to help them discover their own path toward better instruction. Most importantly is the role of the administrator in the coaching process: support!
I am looking forward to the last day of the conference for it will be good. I then get to drive from Indy to Springfield for a RT3 meeting...we might see bad and ugly again.
Students have the ability today to create profound artifacts of learning.
Students should have the opportunity to reflect on and direct their learning.
"We NEED kids to be better than we are".
The three major design influences for schools were factories, prisons, and churches.
We cannot replace schools with Wall Street. High-stakes, one-shot testing does not meet the original vision of schools. Schools need to represent our Democratic ideals, not those of capitalism.
Rube Goldberg has a larger influence in schools than imagined. Why do we keep trying to build a better multiple choice test or filmstrip?
We have several challenges facing us to change schools:
Leaders need to change the way teachers talk and model this talk. Students should never be the implied object of education.
We need to ask questions that we do not know that answers to. That is the link between inquiry and care. In the same vane, we need to care about students, not care for them.
Technology should be used to optimize person to person time. It should unite and connect...not isolate.
Administrators, in particular, should understand this and remove themselves from their office for an entire day each week. Remember why we got into education in the first place. (See Brian Lewis quote)
Schools need to be great places of passion: For teachers in guiding the learning and for students being an active participant in the learning.
Students need to be synthesizers of information. Were current educators trained how to make this happen for students?
Schools cannot be depositors of information. Learning needs to matter to students.
True change happens when leadership develops a vision, models that vision for all, and sustains that vision with systems and structures. If you lead by majority rule, it is the best way to build 49% opposition.
Leaders need to stop trying to fix the broken...we need to evolve.
And above all, be one school. Don't have a 1 set of rules for students, one for teachers, one for parents, etc.
If the keynote is any indication, all administrators need to attend this conference as a team to remember what schools can be.
Is it wrong that I have been in education for 14 years and still get excited at the prospect of a snow day?
It used to be the prospect of sleeping in or going back to sleep. Teasing my wife that she still had to go into work. Possible dropping the kids off at daycare and getting a nice quiet day at home...
Of course, now, with the new position, the idea of a snow day takes on a whole new meaning. Phone calls at 3 am from our building foreman giving me updates on snow removal and salting, any leaks in the building, which of his guys called off. Then dealing with initiating phone trees and ensuring that everyone is notified. Then dealing with the people who did not provide their contact information and they send off a nasty gram email because they did not get called and showed up at school and found it was closed.
But now, the snow is happening at the end of the day and we have to deal with cancelling activities, clearing the building, notifying parents, making sure that all students leave safely and orderly. We have cancelled the basketball games, getting everyone out and I get to pick up my kids and take what should be a quick 30 minute trip home and make it into an hour and a half.
I guess what goes around comes around...be safe and warm!
Change is a challenge...that must be why they share so many letters.
I am starting to feeling like I am getting my sea legs in my new office, position, and school. Our IT guys got me a desktop computer. The phone jack for my desk is now operational. I am starting to learn people's names and quirks, as they are me. All in all, not so bad for week number 2 after starting in semester 2.
The "funny" thing is that I just went through the computer set up about 4 weeks ago in my old office. I was using a machine with what could not have been more than a Pentium 2 processor and after enough begging and pleading, I was given a new machine....after my assistant principal got one...and she didn't ask! But, all that is bygones. I spent the after noon at my old office getting all of the programs reinstalled on my computer, going back and forth with IT about my permissions, printer set-ups, scanners, downloads, etc. Finally got the computer running the way I like it and then I was given the new position at a new school. GREAT OPPORTUNITY, no doubt about that. Since I am staying in the same district, I asked if I would be able to merely move my computer to my new building and office. Since I have spent the morning setting up my new, new computer, that answer was no.
Now, with the newly working phone jack, I no longer have to do a 12 yard dash every time my phone rings. In my old position my phone did not ring that much. Now, it rings constantly and 90 times out of 100, it is because the person on the other end is not happy with something I or someone else did. That is the job and that is part of the change and challenge.
Coming into the new school at the beginning of the 2nd semester is the biggest challenge. Sure my office now has boxes all over the place, papers strewn, half-completed projects from my predecessor that need immediate attention from all sorts of people, but that is part of the fun. The hard part is learning who all of those people are. I feel fortunate that there are some people that I know and know me. There are others who want to tell me how things get done and the way that "we have always done them". It is a tough balance between tradition and stagnation.
I am thinking that my reading in Bolman & Deal will come in handy as I navigate through the 4 frames to maximize the working structures that are in place, fully realize the potential in the human resources, CAREFULLY navigate the political waters, and honor the strong symbols of a good school. But like I said, I am just getting my sea legs. Let's hope that outcome is much better that that Italian cruise ship.
Today was a bit of a tough day. I had a good day at my new campus and spent the second half of the day cleaning out my office in my old campus. While I do not have computer in my new office yet, I do not get the chance to do my digital learning during the day. So, I came home today from my first week in my new position and had a chance to read contributions to my learning from my PLN. Vicki Davis shared this video on Google+:
If you watch the video, the contestant admits that it is challenging to "do math sitting here [in the hot seat]". Having been on a televised game show myself, I can be sympathetic to the "hot seat" phenomenon. Having said that, it reminds me of the high pressure situation that we put our students in late April for our NCLB mandated test, the Prairie State Achievement Exam.
For those of you not familiar with the Illinois test, it is a two day test comprised of the ACT (day 1) and the Work Keys plus and Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) developed Science assessment. The scores from these two days of testing are mysteriously calculated into cuts scores to determine if juniors in high school meet or exceed state standards. Amazingly, Illinois uses a test (the ACT) for NCLB that is DESIGNED to sort students and leave some behind. But I digress...we can discuss standardized assessment at a later date.
It seems that NCLB gives schools 1 chance to "hit it big", like on a game show. The trouble is that as schools have to play the game to get students ready make it through the test the mathematics for this question is reduced to a trivia fact. There is no thought about Pythagoras and the 3-4-5 triangle that could generate a great discussion about mathematics and numeracy. I hope that as the CCSS take effect and change mathematics teaching in the early grades, there will be deeper understanding of the mathematics and we can change the game show created by NCLB.
Will high school math classes change form Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2/Trig to Math 1, 2, 3 and 4 with thoroughly integrated topics? Will students come into high school with better understanding of the fundamentals of math to spur deeper understanding in high school? Will there be better assessments that come with PARC?
We will have to wait and see. Until then...BIG BUCKS, NO WHAMMIES!
As I am getting to know the staff at my new building, it is fortunate that there are some people that I know. One of these people is very friendly. As I was in her office, I noticed a stack of final exams and textbook samples. Jokingly, I said to her that with my new position, I do not have to worry about those things anymore and my life got much simpler with my new job. As I was having a good laugh near her expense, she said “Bob, I have 1 word for you…copiers”. And that is when something hit the fan.
For anyone who has ever worked in a school, you know that the one thing that breaks the most is the photocopier. Machines purchased for the school are typically smaller than what is needed and cannot process the volume or sheer abuse that faculty can dish out. People will try to copy pictures that are mostly dark and wonder why the fuser will overheat from too much toner trying to be processed. Staples jam in the machine. Colored paper is in the wrong drawer and a sheet of green or pink will randomly be inserted into your test. Staff members will begin a copy job and when the machine jams, leave it for the next person. The list goes on and on…and right on to my desk.
We have two machines in the copy room (and a few others, but those are not for general consumption). One machine in the copy room is for anyone to use; the other is strictly for our copy person. We are fortunate to have part-time person in the copy room. Her job is to process copy jobs for the teaching staff. This is meant to increase efficient use of time by the teachers so they do not have to wait for copies. All a teacher has to do is drop off the master and then pick up the final product the next day. The part-time person also has access to her own machine so this will hopefully reduce the havoc wreaked on the machines. She has had training and can handle most minor hiccups that others would leave for “someone else” to fix.
This system is a well oiled machine that has been in place for a number of years…long before I arrived. At the start of the semester the principal received a few emails about “problems” in the copy room and asked me to look into it. I found the copy room, met the copy lady, asked some questions and found that the problem was with our network printers and that issue had been resolved (I can talk about that one at a later date). After I met who I needed to meet and saw what I needed to saw, I sent out a carefully crafted email thanking everyone for my warm welcome and explain how copies should continue to run.
Then the emails came to me, directly. I guess I was asking for it by describing policies and procedures. Teachers asked if the 2nd machine would have the lock removed to they could use it all day. Teachers grumbled that they like to make their copies their way and need to make sure it is done correctly. Teachers just wanted to moan that machines are ALWAYS broken. I listened and carefully responded. Then watched the replies to my reply come in and respond carefully again. Some people stopped by the office…not to say hi or welcome, but to discuss the copiers.
One question…can I go back to exams and textbooks?
