Gradually, Then Suddenly: How Tech has Changed Teaching in Higher Ed - Brian Kibby

Some students stop paying attention in 4th grade. If that happens, we often lose them for life. That doesn't mean they are going to be a degenerate, that means they likely won't reach their full potential. Welcome to the Army Private Kibby!

So why do SOME faculty do great things with technology and others don't? (Holy Crap! Did these people know that I was coming to this conference? This is tailor made for me!!) So Brian initially starts talking about "coming from a place of 'Yes" vs. coming from a place of 'No'." Sounds a lot like tribal leadership to me! He continues to discuss Positional Authority. Not cool. Stop doing it.

He shares a personal story about a teacher who is intimidated by the idea of a bunch of independent learners (using technology) basically putting teachers out of a job. How many of us have felt intimidated by that idea? It's not that we are going to be out of job. It is that we are going to have to change the way we teach. We need to embrace those (adaptive) technologies and move students to a deeper level of learning. We shift from a "save the people who are naturals at our subject" to "everyone is able to learn more than what they already know." Show advances in learning for everyone.

So how do we do this?

1. Start by saying "Yes" instead of always saying "No." 
2. Find a buddy. Someone who will help you with new things you want to learn. (We were doing this at Putnam City like 5 years ago! Nice validation of personal methods!) 
3. Are you market-driven? If not, you should be. The market of education is changing. If you don't adapt, you won't stay relevant. Nor will you be preparing students to be relevant. 
4. Just because you try something once, don't discount it. Check with your buddy. How can you adapt? 

The crux of the matter is to "try stuff." Brian says within 24 months we will be all digital (or should be).

Comment from the audience - Don't just use a buddy. As an admin, consider how to integrate a "technology boot camp" and provide some $$ for that. This could (has in other places) turn into something MUCH bigger than working with your own faculty.

Teaching Philosophy Distilled

The following quote is a great distillation of my teaching philosophy:

Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing prepackaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write reflectively about it, relate it to past experiences, and apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves.

It comes from an article I read on the TLT website.

Creating an online syllabus

I'm working on a class to get a certification for online learning - course design. As a result, I'm working on an online class and I needed to create/tweak a syllabus. I've been studying some different resources for online syllabi:

1. The Syllabus


2. Creating an Effective Online Syllabus


3. Online Course Design: 13 Strategies for Teaching in a Web-based Environment


4. Developing Your Online Syllabus

I've collected my thoughts while looking at best practices for creating an online syllabus:

One of the interesting differences between K-12 and higher ed is the importance of a syllabus. I think this mostly has to do with 3 factors: (1) the amount of time you have students on a weekly basis, (2) the fact that you only have higher ed students for half of the year and (3) students in higher ed also have more responsiblity to do independent learning as far as the content of the course goes.

In K-12, students get a lot more handholding than they do in higher ed. We need to give explicit information concerning the text (students have to find their own text, it’s not provided), students need to know where to go for help (tutoring, disability services, etc. - they don’t have a guidance counselor or special ed case worker to guide them) and the list could go on.
Inviting a colleague to see your syllabus is an interesting thought. Usually, this doesn’t happen on our campus unless there’s a problem, i.e. grade appeal. Having recently been in K-12, there isn’t the culture of sharing that is (more) expected in higher ed. Many (even on my higher ed campus) are unwilling share and show what they are doing. Without getting too philosophical, I think this is what’s wrong with education. We’ve cultured an atmosphere of secrecy instead of a collegial peer learning network. I definitely see the value in encouraging peer review on syllabi. If for no other reason than to get another set of eyes on it to “keep the university out of trouble”. For instance, if I forgot to include our disability statement, that could be a real problem in many cases.

As an adjunct instructor in Physical Geography, I really appreciate the analogy of the syllabus as a road map. Not only to see where we are going, but what kinds of challenges/experiences will the learner encounter along the way? Do I have to buy my own gas or is there a built-in system of help available?

I know many students have a problem with organization. Most classes use the first day of school as a day to cover the syllabus. This probably seems like drudgery to many students. What kind of strategy can we use to increase the usefullness of the syllabus and recapture that first day of class? Here’s my idea: why not create a screencast of the instructor going over the syllabus and require students to watch that and take a quiz over it? Just a thought. We need to sell this syllabus as a tool, rather than a requirement. I do really like the idea of giving a schedule to show explicit scaffolding of concepts so students can understand, I need to learn A before I can get to B. It’s a process of sequenced steps, not a bunch of individual activities. It’s got to be sold as an overview, not simply a list.

For students, the contract is likely the most important piece. They want to know “how they are going to get (earn - hopefully) their A (B, C, D, whatever). Explicit instructions on how to earn what points for what activity. Certainly the expectations from the instructor may be the most significant piece in this section. What can they expect time-wise from me? Do I keep up on grading? Do I start and end class on time? If I am contacted, what expectation is there for a response? What is the best way to contact me?

 

What's Coming in Ed Tech

I have some very strong feelings about what is coming down the road for us in education. Here are my thoughts:

 

Future Trends & Issues in Education Technology on Prezi

my name is jody and I am a constructionist

In chapter 1 of the book “Situating Constructionism,” (Papert & Harel, 1991), the authors drove my thoughts to students and what kind of instruction they were receiving in our classroom. I began to wonder, “Were my students programmers of their own education or were they programmees of my idea of what their education should be?” For that matter, which one should they be? While I would love to say they started at a point and began to drive their own instruction based on what they learned, I will admit there was a significant component of each semester in which I was the “driver of the train” and all of my students were on simply passengers. Isaac Newton once said, “I was like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” My hope is to become the kind of teacher who will allow every student to find the smoothest shells and prettiest pebbles. (I purposely rearranged the quote to include alliteration; clearly he was not a writer!)

Papert & Harel (1991) allude to an experiment (done by Harel) which gives “statistically hard evidence that constructionist activity—which integrates math with art and design and where the children make the software—enhances the effectiveness of instruction given by a teacher in the same topic.” This gives me a bit of heartburn because I do not know what factors they gauge the “effectiveness of instruction.” The context would indicate student’s engagement as the primary factor. However, can we allow that to be the only factor? Is that even what the author meant? Maybe I am just grasping at straws, but I really need a bit more information.

One of my favorite quotes of the chapter:

“The presence of computers begins to go beyond first impact when it alters the nature of the learning process; for example, if it shifts the balance between transfer of knowledge to students (whether via book, teacher, or tutorial program is essentially irrelevant) and the production of knowledge by students.” Papert & Harel (1991) (emphasis added)

Now they are simply pandering to me. This is the one of my core beliefs about education reform. Teachers have to begin to move from a class of knowledge transfer to knowledge production;  an effective means to do that is through the integration of technology. Wikis are a great example of this kind of reform. iBooks Author will also allow students to publish their artifacts for a much broader audience; one that is beyond the four walls of their classroom. I appreciate that Papert & Harel mentioned computational thinking as a mindset. I wrote a blog post about computational thinking in another class. It is encouraging when reformists make the same kinds of connections to other disciplines, since they expect students to do the same.

The most significant piece of the discussion of Logo and “microworlds” (Sawyer, et. al) was the fact that it was born of one idea, from one person. He saw a radical new way for students to learn and built it into an entire movement in education.

These “learning places” are not quite autonomous, but I get the impression they really are virtual locations/ communities where students can drive their own learning, find their own relevance, create mashups of different subjects, and create thoughts and ideas which previously did not exist. Students walk away from “school” (I don’t think they ever really stop learning if we are doing it right) with an artifact, a picture of what they have learned, something far more valuable than a grade, to show others the kind of thinking he or she is capable of doing.

This artifact component of constructionist learning really resonates within my framework of education. If I see a student’s grades, I can certainly make an inference about the kind of success they might be able to have in a class. However, if that same student brings me a computer simulation they have written, or a kinetic sculpture they have created to show a mathematical principle, or some other original creation, I am able to make my own assessment of their learning and skills. If I see on their transcript that they have all A’s, what does that really mean? In an era of grade inflation, when many students (and parents) expect that he or she will have A’s in every class, what do student’s grades really imply? If we truly want to evaluate a student, we need to see that the student is capable of producing at a certain level. We would like to know that he or she can master, or have already mastered, a specific skill. The student needs to show he or she can make connections between other subjects (this one is near and dear to my heart). I imagine you can see that I am a proponent of some kind of portfolio for students. A place for students to “put” these artifacts, which show what they have learned over time. How can a student’s learning/growth truly be measured if there is not some baseline with which it can be compared? While I do not have the answer to the “where & how” question of portfolios, I do know if my own kids were not let high school early college, I would create a portfolio and start putting their student work on it. Likely, it would be a wiki and the student would have edit rights.

Last year I got to witness the U.K. version of Project-Based-Learning (PBL). I had a day to observe at OldMacher Academy in Aberdeen, Scotland. I attended a science class with some 6th or 7th grade U.S. equivalent students. They were working within a PBL context and their driving question was something like “How can we send a person to another planet?” Honestly, I had a bit of issue with the question, simply because it was one that had already been answered. However, I suspect it was appropriate for this age group. Their driving question had many different areas in which they needed to learn content: Newtonian mechanics, planetary astronomy, chemistry, ethics (we can go, but should we?), human biology, relationships, and the list could go on and on. In reality, I have no doubt a driving question such as this one could take an entire year for students to answer. Even then, there would still be “meat left on the bone”. It has such a far-reaching context, I’m not sure it could even be answered in a single school year.

While I was observing the students at OldMacher, I saw 7th graders (or 8th) engaged in the learning process, asking questions, and making discoveries that were relevant to the topic at hand. I did not observe students who were bored or misbehaving. I do not mean to imply that PBL makes teaching/learning all roses, stars, and unicorns. The teacher was was working even harder than the students. She had no time to visit with me because she was busy asking her own guiding questions and giving gentle nudges, in context, as needed.

No doubt, I had an effect on the class as well. After all, the observer effect is one of the basic tenets in physics. As you observe an object, you change it’s state, simply by observing it. It is entirely possible students were on their behavior because I was in the room. Nevertheless, students, by all appearances, were learning and doing so with some independence and self-direction.

My point in all of this can really be summed up in one sentence: If the Constructionist candidate were running for the Office of Education Reform, I would vote for him or her. Not only would I vote for the candidate, I would knock on doors to campaign for this person. I would tell my friends about the merits of this view of education (I kind of already do this). I would volunteer to work in the campaign. I would do whatever I could to get the Constructionist candidate elected. After the reading last week and this week, I find that I am not a constructivist; instead, I need to register to vote as a constructionist.

The Demonization of Wikipedia

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="269" caption="Wikipedia isn't quite as bad as everyone makes it out to be."][/caption]

No doubt you have been on Wikipedia or at least seen it at the top of your search results. As a teacher, I did not allow students to use Wikipedia as a primary source, but I did encourage them to use the site. There are many uses and contrary to what most teachers say, it does not need to be avoided. Wikipedia has been demonized in education. Whether or not that has a good reason is open for debate, but the mindset needs to be changed.

Two years ago, I spent about six weeks working with a couple of physics researchers at Oklahoma State. When Dr. Rizatdinova wanted me to learn something, she always pulled up Wikipedia first. Was this ignorance? Or does she recognize that Wikipedia is, on average, more accurate than print sources? I suspect it is the latter. She has a PhD in High Energy Physics from Moscow University, so I can only imagine she has a pretty clear understanding of how to find correct information on the internet.

Back in 2009, I had a realization: Putnam City High School did not have a Wikipedia page. I thought to myself, "How can this be?" At that point, I realized I had two choices, I could continue to be a consumer of knowledge (and allow my students to do so) or I could model for my students what being a producer of knowledge looks like. I chose the latter. I did a minimal amount of research about the history of Putnam City High School and started a Wikipedia page. This was one of only two edits I made to the page. I only mention that because it has some (not a lot) of information on it, most of which was put there by others. There are actually people who enjoy building pages and some of them found our page! My second edit was to correct the mascot. I could have noticed the error and pointed it out to others, further casting the site in a bad light. However, I decided it would be better to make the page better.

A couple of weeks after I created the page, I went back to the page and there was a note at the top saying, "This page does not meet Wikipedia's quality standards, you can help by adding citations and information." What? They have "quality standards"? They actually want you to add citations? To show where your information comes from? That sounds a lot like the kind of thing we teach students when writing papers. I suspect Wikipedia could be used as a tool to teach writing, instead of being talked about like the plague.

Over the last two weeks, I have talked (probably too much) about Wikipedia over the course of some professional development I have done about technology. One was at Deer Creek Schools and the other at Yukon Public Schools. I spent some time talking about how students should no longer look at the web as a place to simply get information. They should also look at it as a place to construct their own knowledge base and add to the overall knowledge about a topic. This is (at least part of) the purpose of Wikipedia.

Oklahoma recently adopted the English/Language Arts and Mathematics Common Core State Standards. These standards mandate that students should "Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate..." Wikipedia would be a fantastic place to do that. By the way, this was cut and pasted from the grade 3-5 standards.

Imagine starting a Wikipedia page for your school (neither Yukon nor Deer Creek have pages for any of their schools at the time of this writing). You could have students develop interview questions, contact members of the community, video the interviews, post them to the school district's webpage, and then link to the video interviews as primary sources for your Wikipedia article(s). Would students think differently about their writing if they had that kind of ownership? Would they write differently with that kind of audience?

I recognize that Wikipedia can be used incorrectly. As teachers, should we continue letting students use it incorrectly? Or should we be proactive in our approach? I hope you will reconsider how you present Wikipedia to your students. Like most things on the web, it can be used to learn something.

I challenged the teachers from both Yukon and Deer Creed to build Wikipedia pages for their schools. I'll be interested to see if they pick up the gauntlet. What about you? Does your district have a page? Does your school? Is there some other way to integrate Wikipedia into your teaching? I would love to hear your ideas.

**I posted this today because Wikipedia is blacked out to protest the US Government's efforts to censor information on the internet through SOPA and PIPA. Both of these bills (like most) have a good intent. The controversy comes in from the way in which they are doing the "policing".**

Here we go again

I have no idea if anyone actually gets anything out of what I'm writing, but it's time to start learning again, which means writing/reflection. I've taken about 6 months off from school, but I'm back in class taking it to the next level. This time it's Trends and Issues in Educational Technology.

For class, I've been reading The Cambridge Handbook of The Learning Sciences (R. Keith Sawyer, Ed. 2005). I've just started, but the first part of the book is fantastic!

It begins with a bit of educational history, starting with the early years of Public Education in America and the concept of instructionism. While I write this, my computer says that instuctionism is not a word, but you are all familiar with the concept because it's how you were taught in school. There was a lot of wrote memorization and factual learning, but not a lot of critical thinking or application. It did a good job of preparing students for the "industrialized economy of the early 20th century" (Sawyer, 2005). However, in today's knowledge economy, this won't work any longer. Students cannot continue to be taught fact after fact. They cannot continue to be taught the same way they were 100 years ago, because the world is not the same place as it was 100 years ago.  We have to teach students how to think. Thinking is a skill. In order to teach it, students must be put in the position of practicing that skill. The only way they will get better is to practice.

Before picking up this book (on my new Kindle), I'd never heard of the Learning Sciences. I guess I had a vague understanding of what they were/are, but didn't know them by that name. However, beginning in the 1970's and ending in the 1990's, scientists and researchers began to word towards a consensus on the way in which students need to learn to be successful in today's society. Those are:

• It is important for students to gain a deep conceptual understanding. Many of you can probably recite Newton's 2nd law of Motion, but could you apply it to a situation?


• In addition to teaching better, some focus needs to be on students learning better. Great teachers are so important, but if the student (or teacher) doesn't have some grasp on how they learn, it may not do much good. Passive learning is no longer acceptable. Students must take control of their learning and begin to construct their own body of knowledge. (I know, Piaget has been saying this since the 60's!)


• Schools must create an environment where learning can occur. Facts are okay, but teachers and schools need to put students in situations that encourage thinking deeply about concepts and there must be some real world application.


• Successful learning comes as a result of building on the learner's prior knowledge.  Again, no passive learning. Students come in with prior understanding (or misunderstanding) and often only learn enough to pass a test, but their learning in no way affects the way in which they interact with their world.


• Reflection is important. That's why I write here. It's not so anyone can read. It's so I can process. This blog is a place for me to actively analyze my state of knowledge. What did I know before and what do I know now? How are those different? How will what I've learned impact me? Will it? If not, why not?

**bold sections: The Cambridge Handbook of The Learning Sciences, (R. Keith Sawyer, Ed. 2005).

Next week, I'm doing my "final" professional development session with public school teachers. I say final only because it's the last commitment I made while a State Dept. of Ed. employee. I'm supposed to talk about Problem-Based Learning. The early part of this book, while not explicitly so, talks about Problem-Based Learning.

Students need to engage in inquiry, beginning with a driving question and proposing a hypothesis/solution. They need to use complex representations to communicate and collaborate. They also need to use models, represented in some visual format. That's basically what my presentation is, in 3 sentences. If you are a Yukon Public School teacher, don't bother coming to listen. You just got the nutshell version!

Finally, there is a situativity perspective. This means that knowledge is not static. Knowledge is a process. I think of it as a sieve. When you interact with the information, you change what is there and it changes you, as well. It goes beyond simple knowledge acquisition and moves into a fundamental change in the way in which learners collaborate. This change comes as a result of the collaboration.

Bring it on. This is going to be a great class.

In case you are wondering what's going on here, here's a little intro video I made of myself for class.

My Final Duty

Putnam City has a tradition in which the previous Teacher of the Year speaks to the district faculty on opening day. Ive got to say, I was really looking forward to this. There's something very exhilarating about standing up in front of a captive audience of about 1200 professionals and telling them what's on your mind. I think my experience at IgniteOKC gave me a taste of public speaking and I like it! I'm not saying I'm good at it, but I enjoy it. When you have people clapping (even if you told them to) or laughing or even cheering, it gets the adrenaline going. It was a great experience.

I talked about the Common Core and I'm afraid I stole some (or a lot) of the superintendent's thunder. I felt pretty bad about that, but much better when several people asked if they could have a copy of my speech. So here you go: (it's long - as usual) I just cut and pasted from my notes, so please forgive any grammar and punctuation errors. I write just like I talk.

By the way, I sitting in Logan Airport in Boston, on my way home from a STEM plan learning lab. I'll debrief on that in another post. It was an enlightening experience in so many ways.



I’d like to start out by saying thank you to Mr. Hurst and the rest of the administration for the opportunity to speak to you all today. I was honored to be chosen as your Teacher of the Year for 2011. Being selected as a State Teacher of the Year finalist made my decision to take the Science Director job a very difficult one. In fact, I can easily say it was one of the most difficult decisions ever. I’m so proud to be a part of the Putnam City Schools family and I wanted so badly to represent each of you at the state level. Thank you so much for the opportunity to do so and I’m sorry I had to drop out of the competition because of this new responsibility.

Now if you’ve never spoken to a group this large, know that it can make you a bit nervous. I’ll just say that if I say something you agree with or that resonates with you, or even if I just mention your school, to let me know you are listening, you can clap or say something like woo-hoo!

15 years ago, I applied to be a bus driver in Putnam City Schools. I was hired and drove off and on for 10 years until I finally finished my undergraduate degree at SNU in 2007. During those years, I came into contact with what I believe to be the greatest faculty in the State of Oklahoma. As a bus driver, you certainly get a different perspective of the students and faculty. My time as a bus driver allowed me to learn what caring about students means and I learned that from you guys. One of the schools I drove out of was Tulakes Elementary (anyone here from there?) Every day the teachers would bring the students to the bus. They would get on the bus with the students and they showed me what an example of a caring teacher looked like. If a student was having a bad day or if they knew of some particular difficulty at home, the teachers made sure I knew about it. I have no doubt that this type of thing continues across the district in other schools and on other buses.  Little did I know back then, that I would get the privilege to join the faculty of Putnam City, a fantastic group of educators and that I would be afforded the opportunity to teach the best students in the state.

Speaking of great students, my own kids, Jessica and JC, have been in Putnam City their entire lives and I’d like to publicly thank each of you who influenced them during their time here. When I first started driving a bus, I applied for a transfer into the district so Jess could begin Kindergarten at Overholser Elementary. About that time, we moved into the district and the kids attended Rollingwood, Capps, and most recently, Putnam City High School. Jess graduated last year and JC will be a Senior this year. We were purposeful about purchasing a home in the district so our kids could attend school in Putnam City because we believed then, and still do, that the district offers the best academic and extra-curricular opportunities in Oklahoma. Because of the relationships I’ve built and the quality of education my children have received, I will always consider Putnam City Schools my home.

For those of you who are new to Putnam City this year, I want you to know that this is a special place. If I were to go into all the reasons for making such a broad statement, we would be here all day and I doubt any of you want that. (that is an appropriate place for applause) I’ll just say that there is a sense of family among the teachers in each building that I’ve not experienced in any other workplace. I’m thankful for the community that teachers and administrators work hard to build. If you don’t feel that in your building, I hope you do whatever it takes to treat your colleagues as family (or in some cases, better than family). It creates an environment of support and makes Putnam City a great place for students to learn.

The faculty members in this district have challenged me to grow and the members of the administration have given me opportunities to facilitate that growth. I have been fortunate to have leaders who allowed me the chance to try new things in my classroom. This led to an enriching teaching experience for me and hopefully a positive learning environment for my students. I hope the administrators in the district will continue to allow teachers to innovate in the classroom. Principals, if you aren’t already doing that, I’d challenge you to give your teachers some slack and see just what kind of excitement they can generate in their classes.

As I have begun to transition into the job of Science Director at the State Department of Education, I am beginning to realize that the change we’ve all been looking for in education is here. I doubt you’ve been able to read any journal or website without hearing about the Common Core State Standards Initiative. I’m not here to tell you that the Common Core standards are the saviour of education, but I do think they are common ground with which we can all start to increase the rigor and relevancy of our classes. If you don’t know about the Common Core, you should get informed. You can find information on the State Department of Education’s website or at corestandards.org. I thought I might share just a little of my understanding of the Standards (I’m talking to you as a teacher as a teacher, not as the State Science Director, give me a little slack, I’ve only been on the job for 3 weeks!)

The major components of the Common Core are this:

Include more reading and writing of informational texts in all content areas. - This isn’t really anything new. We’ve been talking about having students read and write for quite a while. Yes, you CAN have students in an English class learning to read and interpret a historical document. In fact, that is just the kind of thing the core standards encourage you to do. Literacy is everyone’s job. Think about it, if a student cannot read or write at grade level, how can they interact with the rest of their education? I guarantee you can connect literacy strategies to every single subject area in every single grade. If not, you are probably doing it wrong.

Provide opportunities for students to practice the 3 modes of rhetorical writing (narrative, argument, and informational) I can tell you from experience, when students enter college, they are going to have to do each of these three kinds of writing, probably in their first composition class. It doesn’t mean they have to be able to do them perfectly, but they should have already been exposed to this kind of writing, at a minimum. This isn’t just at the secondary level, either. Elementary students should be practicing their writing skills. How about having them write out the directions on how to accomplish a task and then let another student follow those directions?  

Require students to supply evidence and/or reasoning to justify their position. This can be mathematical reasoning, evidence from a text when analyzing literature, or scientific evidence from observation or experimentation. It doesn’t really matter what the topic is, but students must be able to give a reason for why they think a certain way or believe something. In this case, the process by which a student arrives at an answer is just as important as what their answer is. This may mean that you put students in a position in which there is either more than one right answer, or (heaven forbid) a situation in which you, as the teacher, do not know the right answer.
Expose students to grade-appropriate texts (which may be more complex than they have been in the past). The core standards are very explicit in giving examples of the kinds of texts students should be reading and at what level they should do so. Notice I said examples, I didn’t say mandates.

Use student work from each grade level to show proficiency (This is clearly a situation in which a series of GoogleDocs would work great as an e-portfolio!) This is a big part of the Common Core: being able to show that students are proficient at a particular skill. Just as the students should be able to give evidence of their reasoning, you as teachers should be able to give reasoning that supports your assertion that students are proficient in a particular area. We must be purposeful in causing opportunities for students to create artifacts that will demonstrate proficiency.

Teach using real world examples.  I’ll talk more about this shortly. I’m really passionate about this one, and I’ll tell you why in just a minute.

Integrate technology into instruction. Yes, the Common Core is very explicit on this one. The students Quote “use technology and digital media strategically and capably.” end quote. And they are not just using technology just to be using it. They quote “employ technology thoughtfully to enhance their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language use.” end quote Ha! Some of you thought technology would decrease their language skills! Try having your students summarize a story or a semester-long project into 140 characters or less (maybe using twitter or polleverywhere). You will see some students writing more creatively and being more excited about what they are doing than ever before. Innovation like this will require training for students and teachers, I recognize that. In fact, it will probably require you as educators to begin doing some independent research into the use of technology in your classroom. I won’t lie. It’s not going to be easy. But then nothing worth doing ever is. If you need help with technology, I know of several people in the Putnam City technology department who are more than willing to help, you just need to ask. I’ve also heard there are some new instructional coaches who will be able to provide you with some much needed innovation assistance, as well.

Enough of what the Common Core is. Let me tell you what it is not.

The standards are NOT a national curriculum. They do not tell you how to teach your content. You should rely on your own professionalism, your district curriculum directors, and the collective wisdom and experience of your colleagues to help guide you in this area.

PThe Standards are not a comprehensive guide as to what should be taught, they are the minimum of what students should know and be able to do. However, those minimum guidelines are pretty explicit. For example, if you have students who cannot use the words their, there, and they’re correctly, they haven’t shown proficiency for what they should be able to do by the end of the 4th grade. Yes, I did choose that one because its a pet-peeve of mine.

The Standards do NOT include interventions for students below grade level and English Language Learners. However, PLCs can provide assistance with below-grade level interventions and I’m sure the ELL teachers are happy to help, as well. You have resources, but you have to ask for help!
Finally, the Standards do not define every single thing students need in order to be college and career ready. Teachers, districts, and states have some leeway on considerations as to what else is needed for students.

After stepping into the shallow end of the pool with the Standards I can tell you this: As an educator, there’s nothing in the Common Core I have seen that we shouldn’t already be doing.

My wife teaches at a local university, so you can imagine that we spend a significant amount of time talking about students, about teaching, and about our own learning. There is one thing she talks alot about that is a common struggle for many students arriving at college: the ability to think critically. The skill of analyzing a text or a situation and being able to cite specific evidence to support their position is something with which many students struggle. That’s a significant part of what Common Core is about: critical thinking. At the college level, students can still learn new content, but if they come in without the ability to think critically, they have a significantly smaller chance of academic success, no matter what their major is. Additionally, when students enter a workplace, they can learn how to run a cash register, but the ability to deal with a new situation requires problem-solving!

As a science teacher, I get really excited when I read anything that says students should be able to quote “evaluate the argument... including the validity of the reasoning... and sufficiency of the evidence”! end quote.  I heard someone on NPR the other day talking about gas wells and how they have a new method of getting more gas out of those old wells. If you were my family, I’d explain exactly how they do that, but suffice to say, there is a large group of people who are concerned about the contamination of ground water because of this new practice. The group is pushing for full disclosure of chemical levels in ground water before and after the drilling process. The host said, and I quote “The public needs some evidence so they will know the practice is safe.” end quote.  Really? How many average people in this country would be willing or capable of looking at evidence and drawing a reasonable conclusion? I suspect the average person would be willing to let some reporter interpret the evidence and tell them what to think. Consider that when you would rather let your students memorize facts instead of putting them into critical thinking situations.

I give this example because another significant part of the Common Core is relevance. I told you earlier I would get back to “Teach Using Real Life Examples”  As teachers, we owe it to our students to show that what they are required to learn is going to be useful later in life (or at least in a later class). In my physics classes, you cannot imagine the excitement on students’ faces when we would take some algebra or trig function and leverage that to actually learn about the position of an object or some force being applied! If you can’t make your subject relevant to students, you should reconsider what you are teaching. I’m not saying its easy to make your class relevant to students’ lives (unless you teach physics), I’m just saying you owe it to them to be explicit in that relevancy. This is especially important as students get into late elementary and middle school and begin to wonder, “What am I even doing in school anyway? What’s the point of all of this?” If we wait until students begin their high school years to introduce the relevance of learning, school may be so irrelevant by that point, they won’t be inclined to listen.

I’m so proud of each of you and I know this year is going to be better than the last. I hope if there is anything I can do to help you, (especially in science) that you will contact me. I’ll be looking forward to hearing about the exciting things going on in Putnam City. I hope you have a great year and I appreciate you giving me the chance to speak today.

my sharpening stone

[caption id="attachment_620" align="alignright" width="187" caption="image courtesy of flickr user David Davies"][/caption]

When I was a kid, my dad had a whetstone and he used it to keep his kitchen and pocket knives quite sharp. I was always fascinated by the ease with which he seemed to be able to put a very fine edge on my pocket knife after I had tried to chop a tree down or some other ridiculous task. He clearly had learned the way a whetstone and a knife are meant to interact. He understood the amount of pressure needed to make the knife sharpest. He also knew the correct angle to hold the knife against the whetstone to make a long-lasting edge.

I'll be honest, even at 42 years old, I still have not mastered the use of a stone for sharpening knives. I've tried and tried, but I cannot seem to get the method down. I've not given up, but my little v-shaped knife sharpener does the trick for me, at least for now.

During a recent road trip, sans kids, @mishelleyb and I were vehemently discussing teaching methods and technology integration. We both got a frustrated at times and maybe even a little upset. Now if you know @mishelleyb, you know she is someone who is not afraid to share her opinion. Additionally, she always has evidence to back up her claims and she shares that as well.

During the course of our discussion, I said "Technology is Just a Tool." I further stated that there was nothing I could think of that would indicate that student learning has been or can be increased by using technology. My platform for education reform is "Increased Student Engagement" and I connected tech as a tool for that purpose. She just about lost it. I thought we were going to have to pull over and result to fisticuffs. She was incredulous that the Oklahoma Technology Teacher of the Year would make such a statement. (In retrospect, I'm surprised I said it, too.) Incredulous is the only word I can think of to describe her reaction.

She began to ask me questions about the purpose of our wiki project. She expertly helped me realize (or remember) that I use wikis as a form of problem solving. I require students to analyze resources and evaluate whether they should be used for their research. But more specifically, I finally articulated that students learn to embed and format on the wiki using wiki code. I don't teach them wiki code. So they have to work things out on their own and do some independent learning to get their page to look the way it should. They also collaborate with one another to find answers.

Through our discussion, I realized that as someone who may be required to speak to and for other teachers, she was helping me to sharpen the edge of my position. She was being a whetstone and helping me to sharpen what I had to say. We discuss issues and methods pertaining to education on a regular basis. I always come away from these discussions more firm in my ideas and clear in my thinking. That is not to say that she tells me what to think, she simply asks the right questions to guide my processing of ideas.

When you use a whetstone, it actually takes part of the knife away in the process of sharpening. Discussions with Michelle occasionally do the same. Faulty ideas and unnecessary thoughts generally get whittled away through logical, critical thinking.

My strong desire for each of you is that no matter whether your discussions are about education, religion, relationships, or life in general, I hope you find a sharpening stone for your ideas. As life-long learners, we make each other better. We sharpen each others thoughts and positions. Do not shy away from heated discussions with colleagues, instead, seek them out but remember to be willing to hear what the other person has to say.

In fact, I'll get political for a second and say that calling for the removal of someone with different ideas than your own is counter-productive, not to mention the example it sets for others. Shouldn't we have a respectful discourse and look for common ground to make things better? If you simply focus on your differences, how will we affect change? All we do is stir the pot.

I suppose my journey towards knowledge nirvana is much like my prowess with a sharpening stone, I need a lot more practice and I have a lot left to learn.

ISTE Day 1 and 2

I've been here at ISTE 2011, in Philadelphia, for a couple of days now. It's been quite an interesting journey. I love following the tweets at #ISTE11. There is an overload of information with which to keep up.

We started the day yesterday by just hanging at the hotel and not really getting out until after noon. We took a very short walk to Penn's Landing and had a Taste of Philly, part of the events leading up to the 4th of July.

We got over to the Convention Center and checked in just in time to hear the opening keynote speaker. He was a molecular biologist named Dr. John Medina. A molecular biologist? Yes. He was really great. A very dynamic speaker, in fact. He talked specifically about how the brain process information, a terrific topic for a room (gigantic room) full of teachers interested in how to be more effective. I guess I'll have to read his book, Brain Rules.

Before I knew it, 7am arrived and I had to be up, have some breakfast, and get to the convention center by 0830 to hear Dayna Laur talk about "Meeting the Common Core: Rigorous, Relevant, Project-Based Learning." The presenters talked at length about this site, the Buck Institute for Learning. I was afraid it was going to be about how we needed to pay for their stuff, but it wasn't. In fact they talked about some free resources we can use for PBL stuff, in addition to the fact that all of their stuff if free. I am working to move my class more toward a PBL model. I think my students would all benefit from the model as they are mostly honors students who "just want the answer." This particular demographic is one that has been taught to value the "right answer" above the method by which that answer was ascertained. In PBL, the goal is to have students show their mastery of skills instead of arriving at a pre-determined answer. In fact, in a good problem-solving environment, the teacher won't know the answer since it hasn't been solved yet! A great strategy they talked about was one in which a class is connected (via Skype) to a professional in the field (pertaining to the problem) to give critique and expertise throughout the process.

I then moved on to "Technology to Improve Staff Morale" with Rushton Hurley, a Japanese-language teacher from California. He had some great tips for sharing technology and moving into a true collaborative model with colleagues. The "take-away" for me from that session was to try and share something with my colleagues and let them come ask questions if they want to move beyond just an introduction. My vision for this is to share a 2 minute tech tip during faculty meetings. I can start it and then see if I can get my colleagues to start doing it as they find something they like and feel is "share-worthy." I'll then become the facilitator. I could even begin to video these and post them to "Tech Tools for Teachers."

During lunch, I got to go to the OTA Affiliate booth and sit for an hour to "pay" for my trip here. I am here as a result of being named Technology Teacher of the Year by the OTA. However, it comes with a price. I have to work our booth for two full hours. I say that with a smile on my face, because I would gladly work that booth for an entire day or two to get to come. I met several folks stopping by to say hello. I got to tell them about the OTA meetup at the The Field House from 1630 to 1800 on Tuesday evening. It will be lots of fun, so if you are around, stop in and say hello.

After lunch I had some free time so I went down and sat in the blogger's cafe and tried to process some of what I had learned.  As I was doing this, I began to realize that this conference would benefit so many people who are not here. For someone like me who has been to technology conferences before, I am able to get a few ideas to use tools I already have to be better, but there are people who aren't here who would be much more willing to use this stuff in their classes after hearing success stories. If you are reading this and have never been to ISTE, go ahead and plan to go to San Diego next year. It's overwhelming and one of the best things a technology adopter can do to get out of their comfort zone. During this time, I also got spend some time with @mishelleyb since we both had a little time with no sessions, this was clearly one of the best parts of the day.

The last session I attended was #teach with #tweet. These 3 guys (@joebender, @crafty184, and @brueckj23) shared how they have used twitter in elementary/secondary/higher ed classrooms. They had some great ideas and I was able to think and process about how I would like to integrate it into both my high school physics and university geography classes. I got to attend the session with a colleague from SNU and we talked about online classes over the summer. I'm stoked to collaborate with her (and @mishelleyb) while I teach online during the upcoming summer session. I'm a little nervous, but it should be fun! I almost forgot, there was also a flash mob during this time. A little crazy.

Finally, the kids came in from the hotel and we walked over to the Reading Market. @mishelleyb had been wanting to go and sample the Amish stuff in there and we were all pretty excited about the eats we had heard about. If you want to see what we experienced, click here. We had a great culinary adventure. It seems that much of our travel is driven (no pun intended) by food. We are a foodie family and have some of our best times around the dinner table, whether ours or some restaurant.

The fact is these two days have been a tremendous amount of fun, work, and learning. I'm sure many people think "Who in the world wants to go to Nerd Camp for 4 days? Especially with your own kids and wife?" I do! These trips are some of the most rewarding of my life, both professionally and personally.

computational thinking: a digital skill for everyone

I grabbed the first periodical I could find for this article review. I wish I could say I headed directly to a journal I knew I could connect to the learning objectives for our course, Long Range Planning. I ended up finding Computational Thinking: A Digital Skill for Everyone, (Barr, Harrison, & Conery, 2011). Since my focus of education is technology integration, I am very interested in objective number 4, “Understanding the Characteristics of a 21^st Century School.”

The article summarizes Computational Thinking as a way of “solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behavior by drawing on the concepts fundamental to computer science,” and refers to an article by Jeanette Wing from 2006 in the Communications of the Association of Computing Machinery. The ideas in this article are even more interesting to me because I am fascinated by the idea of computer-human interface and how we interact with machines. But I digress.

If there is going to be a fundamental in the way we do business in education, our spaces are going to have to be conducive to some informal thinking in the ways described in this article. Students will have to have spaces in which they can think, draw, sketch, collaborate, and analyze. Many of the problems described in this article are open-ended and very difficult to solve. In fact, some of these problems may not have known solutions. This means students will have to have the ability and confidence to deal with complex problems, be persistent in finding a reasonable solution, be able to tolerate ambiguity, and the capability to communicate their solutions and ideas to other students. This may be over the web through web 2.0 tools such as Skype, GoogleChat, or through a wiki. This means they will need a space with wired or wireless access, whiteboards for face-to-face collaboration and tables on which they can spread out their work.

Nothing in this article alludes to a classroom in which students sit in rows, face the front, and have information delivered from a lectern; the article talks about skill development, specifically collaboration, communication, and analysis. When I read about this kind of work with students, visions of a casual, informal space come to mind. Students are free to work, research, experiment, and communicate in the same space. There is not a separate lab in which they work and a separate room for lecture. Students would also need a small space for presentations. Maybe something with a few chairs situated around a Smartboard on which their information could be projected and used for brainstorming activities. This ideal classroom would encourage decision-making. It would allow teachers to differentiate learning, and encourage analytical thinking.

A change in education is going to require a re-design of where students work. They will expect to have information “talked-down” to them if we continue to have rows of desks facing the front. Multi-use spaces should be considered if we are going to expect students to use multiple skills. Actually what I have just described is my ideal classroom. I have moved away from the rows this year. I am resistant to that change (or any change) because my personality loves rows, but it was a conscious decision to begin to move towards a student-centered classroom. Our classroom now has 7 small groups of desks arranged facing each other instead of rows facing a Smartboard. As I tell my students, you cannot eat an elephant in one bite, you have to take tiny bites. My re-arrangement was a very small bite. A classroom as described above would be the entire herd of elephants!

It's nice to think about what you would have in your ideal classroom. What would you do?

References

Barr, D., Harrison, J., and Conery, L. (2011, March/April). Computational Thinking: A Digital Age Skill for Everyone. Learning and Leading with Technology, 38 (6), pp. 20-23.

Wing, J., (2006) Computational Thinking. Communication of the ACM. 49, pp. 33–35.

the learning doesn't stop

I spent my Spring Break running around London with a group of folks from @mishelleyb's Brit Lit class at SNU. We had a worldwind tour of the UK. I think we squeezed about 3 weeks worth of stuff into 6 very short days (or long depending on when you asked me about it).  We saw everything from Stonehenge, to Hampton Court, to Buckingham Palace, to Canterbury, to Dover, and Stratford (word to my Bard!). Some of our group even ran over to Paris one day while I strolled the grounds of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich and our tour guide even arranged a private tour of the Royal Society for me. Yes, I got to see Newton's Telescope (although I'm thankful I took a picture because there was so much to take in I barely remember it!)

Once our time in London was over, @mishelleyb and I extended our time there by going on up to the land of my ancestors, the Scottish Highlands. Who knew I've been pronouncing my name wrong my whole life? The bow part of my name is like the part of the ship!

Anyway, I got to spend about 3 hours at a school where a friend of mine is doing a Fulbright Exchange this year. It's called OldMachar Academy and is a public Scottish Secondary School in Aberdeen, Scotland. What an amazing experience! I was struck by the differences in our system of education and theirs. I'm not saying one is better than the other, but there are definitely some differences.

For instance, OldMachar has students who are middle-school age to high-school all in the same building. This could be a good thing, depending on the climate of the school. Students might be able to learn how to act in a more mature way if they have older students around to "show them the way". On the other hand, if students who are older are prone to shenanigans, then that might not be setting much of an example for those 1st years. (btw, just for perspective, go back and watch Harry Potter and you will get an idea of how their ages are tiered - 1st years, 2nd years, etc.)

Another major difference I noticed was these students study for a comprehensive exam which constitutes a major part (if not all) of their grade at the end of the year. Everything, including whether or not they go to college and what they would major in, rides on these end of year tests. You cannot enroll in the next level of a class without the recommendation of a teacher and a satisfactory grade on that test. That may not sound remarkably different, but it seems to me that there is an immense amount of pressure on them to succeed on a single test, rather than the leveled testing we do here (to "earn" a grade).

I did think the students were more motivated than our students (and less apathetic) but I think that might have been a misconception based on some conversations I had with a few of the teachers.

I did come back with even less patience for apathetic students, so kids, if you are reading this, watch out!

While we were in Oxford (checking out local haunts like The Bird and The Baby), I learned about how education used to be (might still be) around that part of the world. Apparently, there used to be a time when student would attend SOME lecture, DO something (labs, etc.) and then they did a lot of independent learning. That might be in the form of sitting in a Pub or Tavern sipping a pint and smoking a pipe while discussing the chosen topic. I love this style of learning! The discussion part, not necessarily the pints and pipes. Students engaged in a discussion based on their research and had to support their ideas with evidence. This reminds me a lot of what Mr. Rupert Baker, the Library Manager at the Royal Society,  told me about the early days of that particular institution. It seemed that learning occurred often outside the walls of the classroom. I suppose my question is this: Why did we get away from that style of education? I mean, its seems that I have heard rumblings of people innovating in their classrooms while doing things exactly as I have described.

[caption id="attachment_572" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Newton's First Telescope"][/caption]

I recognize that there has to be some lecture, there has to be some structure and basic knowledge, but why don't we have students doing some independent learning?

One final thing and I'll be done. At OldMachar, they have written a new problem-based learning curriculum and are instituting it with their first years this year. Here's what that looks like: the science curriculum is based solely around the guiding question of "What if there were some reason for us to leave Earth (natural disaster, etc.)? What would we need to know?" That smacks of the same kind of thing I heard at the Oklahoma Technology Association Conference about Apple's Challenge Based Learning. So I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same? I mean, I flew 5000 miles across the globe to observe a school and they are innovating the same way our own corporations are encouraging us to innovate!

I believe there are going to be some major changes in my classroom next year (again). When people say "Oh, teaching! It's SO easy! You just do the same thing over and over, right? Uh, no. This is my 4th year and I'll be starting over next year. What do YOU do? Do you teach the same lessons year after year? Or do you tweak and modify to fit the students that are NOW walking into your classroom? The kids are changing. Are you?

Finally, I thought I'd share my favorite picture of the entire trip.

[caption id="attachment_573" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Stonehenge from my iPhone"][/caption]

5 lessons for educators from Mr. Rogers

I was stumbling around the interwebs the other day and found a blog post with 5 lessons marketers could learn from Mr. Rogers.

Rogers was a PBS staple when I was a child. I wasn't a dedicated watcher, but on the occasions I did see the show, I enjoyed it. I always learned something from the show and it was a great exercise in imagination. Even though Fred Rogers passed away in 2003, I think the 895 episodes he made still have a lot to teach us about how to be a great educator, but only if you are willing to use your imagination.

1. Relationship-building beats content and pedagogy every time. Mr. Rogers never spoke above his audience. He didn't "teach" at you; he talked to his audience and we learned in the process. He did things in a friendly, conversational style and he always talked to his television audience as if they were right there in the room. It seemed that no matter what Mr. Rogers was doing he always had the time to stop and talk to his neighbors, whether on they were the television neighbor or a person in his studio.


2. Be willing to acknowledge that kids can be better at something than you are. Mr. Rogers had a lot of friends and was never afraid to stop what he was doing to admire someone else doing a good job. I recently saw a video of Mr. Rogers doing a bit of break-dancing. He freely admitted to Jermaine that he would never be able to dance as well as Jermaine did. Often, teachers think they have to be the expert on everything since they are the adult in the classroom. However, if we are willing to be transparent with students and let them see that we are human, with our own gifts, the relationships we build with students(see #1) can go much deeper.


3. Be consistent with who you are and what students can expect from you. There is likely only a small population of Americans who have never seen the opening scene of Rogers' show. He opened every show exactly the same way. Even as a 41 year old adult, there is still something comforting about hearing him sing that song, change into the zip-up cardigan, put on his comfy shoes, and welcome me to the neighborhood. I am constantly amazed that he could time everything so that he would be tying the last shoelace when the song ended. Teachers who are consistent (different than stagnant) will be more successful at causing learning to occur. Plan and procedures must be put into place so that students know what they should be doing at any given time. Otherwise, a huge amount of time can be wasted. This can also be applicable to teacher personalities. Students cannot focus on learning if they are fearful of some kind of outburst of wrath from the teacher when the class is not acting "as they should". Remember teachers, we are adults and are charged to act in a professional manner when things don't go as we had planned.


4. Inquiry is a great way to learn about content and about people. Mr. Rogers was always willing to answer a question. He never shied away from questions, whether it was from a viewer or from the US Senate (defending the value of public broadcasting). He used questions to engage people in conversation. He asked people about their interests, objects they were carrying, where they were going, and what they had been doing. He got to know people simply by engaging them with questions. In these times of high-stakes testing, it can be hard to have time to answer students' questions and to get to know them through simple questioning. Maybe social media would be a way to engage in asynchronous dialogue? Just a thought.


5. Be positive. Mr. Rogers always encouraged people to do their best in whatever they did. I'll be the first to admit that our education system has its faults. I'm sure most people have an opinion about that subject and could talk about that all day. However, if teachers see a problem, maybe they should work on fixing the problem instead of moaning about it all the time. Often, this means working within the existing system instead of actually changing it. If you are part of the system, and the system is not working as it should, I think the only thing to be said is, "How can I work within the system to help my students succeed?" Anything beyond that is just whining. Either change the system, or work within it to get the results you are seeking.

Mr. Rogers' show could be a bit awkward at times. However, I think that awkwardness shows that Mr. Rogers was just an ordinary guy. He was real. He wanted to engage the viewer. He didn't have a lot of fluff. No computer animation (that I know of). He encouraged viewers to use their imagination in the "Neighborhood of Make-Believe." When was the last time you asked students to imagine something?

the power of the pln

Last week we had a snow day. I got to stay home and catch up on some class related things. It seems I do a lot of catching up, lately. But more importantly, I didn't have to drive to Tulsa to teach Earth's Natural Disasters. I got to stay warm and cozy at home while they got about 3 or 4 inches of snow. The program director gave me permission to give an online assignment. That task was easily accomplished through Moodle and Turnitin.com.

As a result, I tweeted about the amazingness of online education and the ability to have the freedom to adapt to changing conditions (weather) and still get students engaged in the learning process. I casually mentioned "I could teach all of my classes online". I firmly believe that I could, using only a GoogleSite, GoogleDocs, Facebook, and a good internet connection. Since Twitter is a conversation, some of my tweeps responded to my comment and we started talking about the idea of starting an online school (of sorts).

I realize Oklahoma has an online school, so our idea is nothing new. In fact, I'm not even sure this idea will be anything other than an idea (nothing like setting your sights high, Jody!). None of us has any idea about what I am now calling an "online consortium" is even going to look like. It may be remediation, tutoring, or even a study guide. Then again, it may become a powerhouse of online education curriculum that gets venture capital funding and gives the Oklahoma Virtual High School a run for its money!

The coolest part of this whole thing is that I am able to share/discuss/think ideas instantly with other educators. Only a couple of those involved in this conversation are even in Oklahoma City. There are technology directors, classroom teachers, State Dept. of Ed. directors, and a superintendent. We even had someone from St. Louis who is interested in seeing what develops!

I was simply struck by the ease with which the idea developed. All of these people started talking about an unknown idea/project simply because I shared how much I enjoy online learning and a Twitter friend commented back. And to think, most people I talk to about Twitter think it is simply a place to put "status updates". I remember thinking as a Twitter noob, "What is Twitter good for? We've got Facebook for status updates! This is dumb." However, I can report to you that my PLN is far larger than I could have ever imagined if I had not begun to use Twitter.

Through Twitter, I have made connections with people in other countries, teachers in other districts, teachers within my own district, technology directors throughout my state, State Department of Education personnel, and community members who care about education, just to name a few. I have had tweeps purchase books for my classroom to augment my curriculum. I have been invited to present at an international conference because someone saw a tweet I made about using their product in my classroom.

So, if you are a non-Twitter user (or a limited user trying to find your way), give it a shot at broadening the scope of your Peer Learning Network (or Peer Learning Community). My district holds required PLC meetings every week and they are great for working within my building. But, when I want to get some ideas that go beyond the walls of Putnam City High School (or even beyond the boundaries of my state), when I want to innovate, when I want to find some new ideas, when I want to do something other than talk about how to handle that student, I use Twitter for my conversation. I bounce ideas off of other Twitter users. I read what other people are reading. I read what other people are writing and I look for something I think might work in my own classroom.

There are some people in my district (and maybe elsewhere) who think I'm some kind of awesome teacher. This is not the case. I owe all of my perceived awesome-ness to the ideas of my peers. So for those of  you in my PLN who want to know whether or not you are making a difference in education, whether or not you are an agent of change in education, rest assured you are! I can testify that my students' education is enriched because of the ideas and innovation of my Peer Learning Network. You guys are all magnificent and each of you makes me better at what I do.

2010 in review

2010 was a really good year in the Science Classroom. We integrated technology even more than before and I grew a lot in my practice.

We spent quite a bit of time working on the textbook over at the Science Classroom Wiki. Students produced some great products and we even got some AP students to peer edit. I think this was a really good opportunity for all students to learn from each other.

Students created some presentations as a part of learning and they can be found here. This was one of my first forays into GoogleDocs and we haven't looked back since. This blossomed into a more recent adventure wherein students created the lecture notes we used in class. Students have taken the integration of GoogleDocs in our classroom to a new level, they have started using them in other classes, they share documents with me instead of turning papers in, they collaborate together on note-taking, and the list goes on and on.

Spending time in GoogleDocs in the classroom resulted in the creation of a presentation I gave to the Oklahoma Science Teachers Association called Google Will Change Your Life. (I'll also be giving this presentation to the Oklahoma Technology Association at their annual conference). I gave a presentation about Wikis, Blogs, and Discussion Boards with one of my colleagues to OTA back in February. Giving presentations has been an enriching experience and I've made a ton of contacts as a result. It has certainly increased the number of people in my Peer Learning Network.

Putnam City High changed over from a 4 block day to a 7 period day and there have been some pains involved (as usual) with the change. I personally have really enjoyed it but it has taken some getting used to. Students have had to learn how to get to class on time in spite of the fact that they now have nearly twice as many opportunities to be late. Teachers (especially those of us in science) have had to redo our curriculum while keeping labs as a part of our classes. This has certainly been a challenge. For whatever reason, it has been easier for me to add labs.

At the beginning of this school year, I decided it might be a good idea to toss my Lesson Plan book into the trash (figuratively not literally, Janie if you are reading this, don't freak out) and start putting my curriculum online. I created a Google Site and started organizing my curriculum to include every component required on our Lesson Plan forms. I really like having it online since I can access it from any computer that has an internet connection and requires no programs. I've even started including a link to each of my assessments since they have all been given online and are self-graded as a Google Form. Students have reacted positively to online tests and really like the timely-ness of the feedback I can give since they are graded before they walk out of the room. The online curriculum will be what everyone is doing in the near future, so I just thought I'd be a trend-setter and set the bar instead of trying to reach it!

I've been working on my Master's in Education and that has affected a lot of what I do in the classroom and has certainly changed my outlook on who I am as an educator and the confidence or lack of it that I have in myself. Everything I have learned through this program has been seen through the eyes of technology. This degree program has caused me to consider going beyond the Master's and look at a terminal degree. That's something I never thought I would do and certainly not something I thought I was capable of doing. Of course, I suppose that outcome remains to be seen since I haven't picked a school (or program)!

Finally, I just registered the domain jodybowie.com to make it easier for my students to access our classroom website. I think students will be more likely to use the site if they can access it easily. I'm working hard to make our website useful to students. One of my goals for this next year is to begin doing video capture of my lectures and embedding this for students who either miss class or need extra time to study.

So, this past year has been a year of growth for me. Has everything been positive? Probably not. Have I been more effective in my practice. I hope so. Have I solved all of the problems in my classroom? Definitely not. However, I think I have learned to engage students more effectively and that's certainly a big part of the battle. What kinds of things have you tried this year? What kinds of things will you be trying in the coming year? I've learned this year I don't have the answers to being the perfect teacher, but I have learned that if I ever stop trying to learn something new, I'll definitely never be the perfect teacher.

I think 2011 is going to have even more opportunity for growth. I surely hope so.

Top 5 ways for me to be different

An excerpt from my journal. I'm trying to process and change the way I do things, this is for me:

In my opinion, a major part of this process is to give students ownership of their education. Students need choices in education, but first they need to be taught to make responsible decisions. When I first started teaching, I would get frustrated if students didn’t “get it” the first time around. When I am explicitly telling them information and they don’t “get it”, how can I expect them to pick up on the implicit lessons I’m trying to teach (like social democracy and decision making)? I’ve learned that students need to be taught numerous times, especially when we are learning life skills. I mean who cares if they don’t understand why the Earth has seasons (fall, spring, winter, summer)? Who cares if they don’t understand why when they flip a switch the light comes on? Okay, I care. But really, who cares? Will they not be successful in life without the knowledge they should get in my class? No. But if they don’t pick up on the life skills I’m trying to pass on to them, then we really have a problem! It no longer is an individual student problem; it becomes a systemic problem because education begins to fail society.

This is (in my opinion) the problem with our world. We have a generation of former students who see education as irrelevant to their everyday lives. All of the testing in the world won’t fix this problem. As I discuss these issues with other educators, I always end with a final question to them: Are we just going to sit around and complain about it? Or are we going to do something about it?

Our school has done challenge day the last few years and they have a saying: “Be the Change”. It comes from a quote by Mahatma Ghandi: “Be the change you want to see in the world.” So, is the education system broke? Yes. Are students apathetic about learning? Yes. But what are we going to do about it? I’ll tell you what I’m going to do about it (because I can only control my actions, not anyone else’s):
1.    I am going to be the best teacher I can be. If this means I need to learn something new, I will; professional development is not just a requirement, it is a duty!
2.    I am going to build relationships with my students that instill trust and give them the opportunity to take risks in our learning environment. If this means I need to open myself up to students to show that I deal with issues in my life (get out of my comfort zone), okay! Show me the way out of my box!
3.    I am going to reflect on my practice and always work at being better. If this means I have to take time from my leisure activities to make my practice better, then let it be so!
4.    I am going to constantly look for new ways to make my curriculum relevant to student’s lives. If this means I have to learn new technology, I will! Students use tech outside the classroom to communicate, why should they be required to “disconnect” when they come into class?
5.    I am going to focus on speaking positively of my students. This means even though I get frustrated with the current state of my building, I will maintain a positive attitude so that I don’t bring others down. I will find anonymous outlets for my frustration (think an anonymous blog here).

Life as I know it

Right now, life as I know it is about to get incredibly busy. Is this a problem? No, I don't think so. Life as I know it is getting busy because I have purposely chosen to do things that are important to me. They are activities about which I am passionate. No surprise that they all revolve around education.

I'm working on my syllabus for Physics for the upcoming year and thinking about my kids (yes, my own children) being my students for the upcoming year. One of those two will be a Senior here at Putnam City HS. (How many people have the opportunity to spend every single school day of their child's Senior year with them? Hooray!) I initially was thinking, "I've got to make this the best year ever", just for Jess' and JC's sake. But then I realized, why should this year be special for them? I want this year to be the best, but really I want it to be the best year for ALL of my students. I hope to build deeper relationships, get to know my content at a deeper level, and motivate students like never before. School starts on Thursday of next week. But, between now and then, it's going to be crazy.

I've already started teaching at SNU as an adjunct professor in their Bridge program. I'm driving to Tulsa once a week, on Monday nights, to teach Earth's Natural Disasters. I have another class, by the same name, here at the Bethany campus that starts a week from this Monday. Teaching adults is definitely a new experience for me and I am really enjoying it. I have been able to pass on my passion for Science through this experience and hopefully, it's just the beginning! (I'll be learning to be an Instructor in Astronomy and Geomorphology during the month of December).

I'm continuing in my Master's program in Curriculum and Instruction and that one night a week keeps me busy every weekend with lots of writing, reading, and thinking about my classes. This really is the reason I'm a bit stressed about the next school year. I have so many ideas and new things to try that I've been learning over the summer that it's going to be like starting from scratch. In some ways its exciting to think about a brand-new group of students with whom I can share my passion for Physics. In other ways, I feel a bit overwhelmed.

I'm going to try to take 6 hours as a "traditional graduate" student in some "by arrangement" classes to make up for my decision not to do National Board Certification. I need the hours to finish the Master's. That won't happen until the Spring, but I'm trying to get it all "lined out" so we are on track to walk at graduation in May and be done with degree #2.

I've been asked to teach several professional development classes between now and next Thursday. I'm doing an in-house webpage class, talking about assessing students through technology integration, and I'm trying to work on integrating our school calendar into all teacher webpages. It's really a lot of fun to be given a problem and asked to solve it using technology integration. I am learning that is something at which I can be successful. I have some really great colleagues that I am able to collaborate with on projects and that makes it a wonderful experience.

Science. Technology. Education. Those are three things I can get excited about! When someone asks me to share about any of those? How can I refuse? Even if it means I am (possibly) over-extending myself, I can't say no.

I have learned so much about myself over the last 5 years. My education at SNU and my experience teaching Physics at Putnam City has been the most rewarding vocational time of my life. Have I made mistakes? Sure! Will I still make mistakes this year? More than likely. Will I learn something new every single day? I sure hope so. If you see me in the halls and I seem a bit distracted, please don't take it personally. Just know that I am thinking about the next opportunity to share my passion.

the final assessment project

We did a short video as our final project for assessment. I've learned a lot and the following is what I wrote to accompany my video (it's at the bottom of the page).

Before:

Last semester, while working on our classroom wiki, I used this rubric. I also gave this sheet as instructions. That was pretty much it. I didn’t assess to learn, I only assessed for learning at the end of the project. I knew this was not the best thing to do. I knew it was not correct practice, but I was not really sure what else to do or what to change.

After:

After taking the module on Assessment, I have put a significant amount of thought into what I am doing in my classes, particularly on my wiki project. I realized I was not assessing students formatively and giving feedback in a manner, which would be productive for them. I was only doing a summative assessment and students had no chance to adequately prepare for this final assessment.

Students will now begin with the same sheet for instructions and they will be given instructions on a wiki: what it is, how we plan to use it, how to edit, and the purpose of editing. The instruction sheet is now posted to my website and is easily viewable by students at any time as a reference page. They will also be taught about the use of delicious.com (a bookmark sharing site) and will learn how to appropriately share their research sources with the instructor through Delicious, the bookmarking/networking website.

After their initial wiki page is set up (and weekly thereafter), students will use a formative assessment rubric to self-assess each week. They will also be required to blog about their research for the week. We will use the “discussion tab” within the wiki to accomplish this simple formative assessment. Students should write reflectively about their topic and the process of research. I will use this rubric to assess their reflections. In addition to self-assessment, I will do a weekly formative assessment using a similar rubric to the one the students are using. We will conference together so students can get weekly feedback on their writing and research.

Finally, after students have had an opportunity to correct the weekly conference issues, a summative assessment of their overall page will be done using this rubric.

My realization in this class has been something I teach in my own classes: “You cannot eat the elephant all in one bite.” This mantra certainly applies to assessment. It is unfair to expect students to be able to be successful on any assessment if they have not be getting little bits of assessment (with feedback) all along the way. I cannot expect students to be successful in their learning, nor expect them to even take responsibility, if I have not been giving them the tools for that success.

Assessment, Session 5

The next to last session of the final module in Semester number 2. Then only one more semester!

The time has really flown by and my thoughts on my education have certainly changed over the last year, even over the last few months, the direction of my educational plans has changed. This is due in large part to the infinite wisdom of our legislators. Their actions have driven me to make some decisions I had previously thought undecideable. They decided that the National Board Certification for Teachers isn't important enough to fund. Meaning, they ceased funding the scholarship for the application process ($2500) and they suspended the yearly stipend for at least the next two years. Because of this, I have reconsidered my decision to sit for the National Board process. I know, that sounds like I was only doing it for the money, but that's not the case! I am reconsidering because of the timing of the process. The intent was for me to do it next year. SNU awards 6 hours of Master's level credit for mentoring during the application of National Boards. This would be the last six hours I would need for my degree in Curriculum and Instruction. However, since our legislators cut our funding, I would be doing the National Board process over the next six months, a full year early. If I apply this year, I would be eligible for reimbursement of the application fee and would be eligible for the stipend, if certified.

But, because I wouldn't be going through the mentoring process I would have to find six other graduate level hours to substitute for the mentoring hours, as mentioned earlier. The timing is the problem. If one wants to get into a doctoral program, one must have a Master's degree (usually) in hand. Because of stuff at @mishelleyb's place of employment, the time for her to do her doctoral program has arrived. This just so happens to coincide with me finishing my Master's. We got the bright idea to do a program together and found one that suits both of our needs, which begins in the Fall of 2011. Before I can be accepted into a program, I must have the degree conferred for my Master's. This means, I would be doing Nat'l Boards, while being a part of the lives of two fantastic teenage children, while taking 6 graduate hours online, while finishing the MACI program modules, while teaching full-time, and finally, while teaching some adjunct hours in SNU's bridge program (which I committed to before the Nat'l Board stuff came up). Can you see my dilemma?

Anyway, I'm supposed to be reflecting on class. Last night was a night for group project presentations. We worked on a selected response assessment (a pretest) for 8th grade mathematics vocabulary. We chose selected response simply because we were the "experts" on this subject. It was the chapter we had researched and done extra study on. It also lent itself well to our preferred use of technology, the Clickers! We chose clickers because they are able to give quick feedback to students. Questions in the assessment would be tagged with the particular concept and could give students (and teachers) a quick view of which concepts/words students needed more help on. Teachers can even print out a spreadsheet with the answers, notes, and concepts listed so students would have a visual representation of which areas they need extra study.

I've been impressed with this class, simply because it has been the class which has made the most connection with me for my personal practice in the classroom. I have realized that I have been cheating my students and myself by not putting enough work into my assessments. Sometimes, especially when you other obligations, its easy to just put together a bunch of questions out of the textbook test-bank and throw a test at the kids. This does them a disservice. Other than assigning a grade, student get no real feedback on their learning. They have nothing other than a report card grade to show for their efforts. This is especially true if students have not gotten any buy-in into the class already. They have absolutely no motivation to further their learning. Particularly so if they are not being successful in the class. By the way, I'm constantly thinking about how this is going to play out in August when I begin teaching adults, as well. I suspect somethings will be the same, but I also think much will be different.

We also conferenced a little bit, since one of our chapters deals with this practice. I was simply an observer for this activity since I had an alternate assignment. I never cease to be amazed that folks depend so much on me for technology ideas/practice when it seems to me that these skills should simply come naturally to people. I've been struggling with this issue for quite a while and I'm still not sure how to take the "attention". I don't always have a great self-image so when people give me compliments or depend on me to accomplish something, I'm not always sure how to take that. I do know this: when I started teaching 3 years ago (holy cow!) I didn't really set out with any kind of goals in mind. I didn't think I'd go back to school, I didn't set out to be on the "cutting edge of technology" in my district. I didn't think I'd be teaching technology classes to the best teachers in the world. I did simply follow my passions. Science and technology. Those two things are what I am interested in and teaching them to others comes naturally.

Who knows the plans that are in store for you? I certainly didn't think I am where I thought I would be. In the words of the great Douglas Adams, "I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." Teaching is definitely one of my gifts. Although its hard sometimes to think of what I do as work (doubt you could tell by all of my complaining). I'm so thankful to be given many opportunities to simply share things about which I am passionate. If you have anything to do with those opportunities, Thank You!