Cool video - great message about "learning today"

From @paulawhite on Twitter - from the The Day of National Blogging for Real Education Reform

Link to 11/22 Ed Blogs - Impressive list

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you to the wonderful educators, leaders, community members, parents, students, friends and family for all of the wonderful work conducted on behalf of school-children. We all must continue to work together to ensure (insure) a strong and well-prepared citizenry.

For my school community, I posted a brief Animoto video/podcast:

Superintendent-Thanksgiving

Educational Reform ... Nov. 22 - EduBlogging across the Nation ...

Educational Reform - changing the way(s) in which we always do things in public schools...

After 18  years as a proud public educator (teacher, asst. principal, principal, asst. supt. and superintendent now), I have had many wonderful opportunities to see, support, create, help create, and sustain change initiatives in order that educational opportunities for children were made better. As early as in 1995, I experimented with U.S. History Workshop where students were given voice and choice - with guidance, support, and direction - as they learned about U.S. History. Ten years later when I was fortunate to publish my doctoral dissertation, I again discovered, through scientifically validated research methods, that student voice plays a statistically significant role in student learning. In every setting, my mission/vision/aim/guiding force/foundational philosophy is that students need their voice in order that their learning is maximized. Student voice in all grades, in all settings, in all environments. With guidance, structure, order, and facilitated learning environments, student learning and student satisfaction increases.

Educational Reform - start asking, listening, considering, embracing, and adapting to STUDENT VOICE.

A quick Top 10 list of what "needs to change":

1. school year calendar ...set for and aligned with "harvest" in many instances ... since 19th Century
2. school "bell schedule" - first of all, get rid of bells, second ... why so rigid with organization
3. school "grade/age" configuration
4. deficit grading and judging and behavioral grades
5. sage on stage concept
6. organizationally oriented toward adults ... the children are the main learners ... what about them?
7. one size fits all for schools/communities ... what about library-school partnerships?
8. pay to play ... if you're living in a wealthy area, good for you, your schools get more money ... fair? Nope
9. increased pay just for hanging around ... sorry - this concept never sat well with me ... let's revitalize the pay structure for adults
10. state or national standards? state or national assessment? - whatever it is ... let's get consistent so if we measure, we measure growth and learning, and if we are held accountable, let's make it apples to apples comparisons so "it" starts to make sense!

References mentioned:


Published in the 1996-97 issue of “The Councilor” (the official publication of the Illinois Council for the Social Studies), Volume 56, pages 11-25, title: “Planning Powerful and Engaging Social Studies: The U.S. History Workshop for Students”

Published in 2005, UMI, Effective Instruction in Middle School Social Studies (Doctoral Dissertation)

Link to a post from IL ASA regarding e-books

Are textbooks going to be obsolete?

Cool Graphic via Twitter feed ... from http://www.usi.edu/distance/bdt.htm

From another's blog - from a link on Twitter ... worth sharing/reading

From:

http://www.techlearning.com/article/8670

Bloom's Taxonomy Blooms Digitally  By Andrew Churches, April 1, 2008  print  rss from Educators' eZine Introduction and Background: Bloom's Taxonomy In the 1950's Benjamin Bloom developed his taxonomy of cognitive objectives, Bloom's Taxonomy. This categorized and ordered thinking skills and objectives. His taxonomy follows the thinking process. You can not understand a concept if you do not first remember it, similarly you can not apply knowledge and concepts if you do not understand them. It is a continuum from Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) to Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). Bloom labels each category with a gerund. Bloom's Revised Taxonomy In the 1990's, a former student of Bloom, Lorin Anderson, revised Bloom's Taxonomy and published this- Bloom's Revised Taxonomy in 2001.Key to this is the use of verbs rather than nouns for each of the categories and a rearrangement of the sequence within the taxonomy. They are arranged below in increasing order, from low to high. Bloom's Revised Taxonomy Sub Categories Each of the categories or taxonomic elements has a number of key verbs associated with it Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) Remembering - Recognising, listing, describing, identifying, retrieving, naming, locating, finding Understanding - Interpreting, Summarising, inferring, paraphrasing, classifying, comparing, explaining, exemplifying Applying - Implementing, carrying out, using, executing Analysing - Comparing, organising, deconstructing, Attributing, outlining, finding, structuring, integrating Evaluating - Checking, hypothesising, critiquing, Experimenting, judging, testing, Detecting, Monitoring Creating - designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing, devising, making Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) The elements cover many of the activities and objectives but they do not address the new objectives presented by the emergence and integration of Information and Communication Technologies into the classroom and the lives of our students. Bloom's digital taxonomy map Key: Elements coloured in black are recognised and existing verbs, Elements coloured in blue are new digital verbs. Remembering This element of the taxonomy does infer the retrieval of material. This is a key element given the growth in knowledge and information. The digital additions and their explanations are as follows: Bullet pointing – This is analogous to listing but in a digital format. Highlighting – This is a key element of most productivity suites; encouraging students to pick out and highlight key words and phrases is a technique for recall. Bookmarking or favorite-ing – this is where the students mark for later use web sites, resources and files. Students can then organise these. Social networking – this is where people develop networks of friends and associates. It forges and creates links between different people. Like social bookmarks (see below) a social network can form a key element of collaborating and networking. Social bookmarking – this is an online version of local bookmarking or favorites, It is more advanced because you can draw on others' bookmarks and tags. While higher order thinking skills like collaborating and sharing, can and do make use of these skills, this is its simplest form - a simple list of sites saved to an online format rather than locally to the machine. Searching or "Googling" - Search engines are now key elements of students' research. At its simplest the student is just entering a key word or phrase into the basic entry pane of the search engine. This skill does not refine the search beyond the key word or term. Key Terms - Remembering: Recognizing, listing, describing, identifying, retrieving, naming, locating, finding, Bullet pointing, highlighting, bookmarking, social networking, Social bookmarking, favorite-ing/local bookmarking, Searching, Googling. Understanding The digital additions and their explanations are as follows: Advanced and Boolean Searching – This is a progression from the previous category. Students require a greater depth of understanding to be able to create, modify and refine searches to suit their search needs. Blog Journaling – This is the simplest of the uses for a blog, where a student simply "talks" "writes" or "types" a daily- or task-specific journal. This shows a basic understanding of the activity reported upon. The blog can be used to develop higher level thinking when used for discussion and collaboration. Twittering – The Twitter site's fundamental question is "what are you doing?" This can be, in its most simplistic form, a one or two word answer, but when developed this is a tool that lends itself to developing understanding and potentially starting collaboration. Categorizing – digital classification - organizing and classifying files, web sites and materials using folders etc. Commenting and annotating – a variety of tools exist that allow the user to comment and annotate on web pages, .pdf files and other documents. The user is developing understanding by simply commenting on the pages. This is analogous with writing notes on hand outs, but is potentially more powerful as you can link and index these. Subscribing – Subscription takes bookmarking in its various forms and simplistic reading one level further. The act of subscription by itself does not show or develop understanding but often the process of reading and revisiting the subscribed-to feeds leads to greater understanding. Key Terms - Understanding: Interpreting, Summarizing, inferring, paraphrasing, classifying, comparing, explaining, exemplifying, Advanced searching, Boolean searching, blog journaling, twittering, categorising and tagging, commenting, annotating, subscribing. Applying The digital additions and their justifications are as follows: Running and operating – This is the action of initiating a program or operating and manipulating hardware and applications to obtain a basic goal or objective. Playing – The increasing emergence of games as a mode of education leads to the inclusion of this term in the list. Students who successfully play or operate a game are showing understanding of process and task and application of skills. Uploading and Sharing - uploading materials to websites and the sharing of materials via sites like flickr etc. This is a simple form of collaboration, a higher order thinking skill. Hacking – hacking in its simpler forms is applying a simple set of rules to achieve a goal or objective. Editing – With most media, editing is a process or a procedure that the editor employs. Key Terms - Applying: Implementing, carrying out, using, executing, running, loading, playing, operating, hacking, uploading, sharing, editing. Analysing The digital additions and their explanations are as follows: Mashing – mash ups are the integration of several data sources into a single resource. Mashing data currently is a complex process but as more options and sites evolve this will become an increasingly easy and accessible means of analysis. Linking – this is establishing and building links within and outside of documents and web pages. Reverse-engineering – this is analogous with deconstruction. It is also related to cracking often with out the negative implications associated with this. Cracking – cracking requires the cracker to understand and operate the application or system being cracked, analyse its strengths and weaknesses and then exploit these. Validating – With the wealth of information available to students combined with the lack of authentication of data, students of today and tomorrow must be able to validate the veracity of their information sources. To do this they must be able to analyse the data sources and make judgements based on these. Tagging – This is organising, structuring and attributing online data, meta-tagging web pages etc. Students need to be able understand and analyse the content of the pages to be able to tag it. Key Terms - Analysing: Comparing, organising, deconstructing, Attributing, outlining, finding, structuring, integrating, Mashing, linking, reverse-engineering, cracking, mind-mapping, validating, tagging. Evaluating The digital additions and their explanations are as follows: Blog/vlog commenting and reflecting – Constructive criticism and reflective practice are often facilitated by the use of blogs and video blogs. Students commenting and replying to postings have to evaluate the material in context and reply. Posting – posting comments to blogs, discussion boards, threaded discussions. These are increasingly common elements of students' daily practice. Good postings like good comments, are not simple one-line answers but rather are structured and constructed to evaluate the topic or concept. Moderating – This is high level evaluation; the moderator must be able to evaluate a posting or comment from a variety of perspectives, assessing its worth, value and appropriateness. Collaborating and networking – Collaboration is an increasing feature of education. In a world increasingly focused on communication, collaboration leading to collective intelligence is a key aspect. Effective collaboration involves evaluating the strengths and abilities of the participants and evaluating the contribution they make. Networking is a feature of collaboration, contacting and communicating with relevant person via a network of associates. Testing (Alpha and Beta) – Testing of applications, processes and procedures is a key element in the development of any tool. To be an effective tester you must have the ability to analyze the purpose of the tool or process, what its correct function should be and what its current function is. Key Terms – Evaluating: Checking, hypothesising, critiquing, experimenting, judging, testing, detecting, monitoring, (Blog/vlog) commenting, reviewing, posting, moderating, collaborating, networking, reflecting, (Alpha & beta) testing. Creating The digital additions and their explanations are as follows: Programming – Whether it is creating their own applications, programming macros or developing games or multimedia applications within structured environments, students are routinely creating their own programs to suit their needs and goals. Filming, animating, videocasting, podcasting, mixing and remixing – these relate to the increasing availability of multimedia and multimedia editing tools. Students frequently capture, create, mix and remix content to produce unique products. Directing and producing – to directing or producing a product, performance or production is a highly creative process. It requires the student to have vision, understand the components and meld these into a coherent product. Publishing – whether via the web or from home computers, publishing in text, media or digital formats is increasing. Again this requires a huge overview of not only the content being published, but the process and product. Related to this concept are also Video blogging – the production of video blogs, blogging and alsowiki-ing - creating, adding to and modify content in wikis. Creating or building Mash ups would also fit here. Key Terms – Creating: designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing, devising, making, programming, filming, animating, Blogging, Video blogging, mixing, remixing, wiki-ing, publishing, videocasting, podcasting, directing/producing, creating or building mash ups. Bibliography Churches, A. 2007, Educational Origami, Bloom's and ICT Tools Anderson, L.W., and D. Krathwohl (Eds.) (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching and Assessing: a Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Longman, New York. Acknowledgements: For assistance, discussion and often punctuation:Miguel Guhlin, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, Alan Knightbridge, Sue Cattell, Raewyn Casey, Marg McLeod, Doug DeKock Email: Andrew Churches

Technology Apps - Just do it - no training per se ... new paradigm

I recently attended a Technology for Administrators workshop. The presenter was outstanding, the content was timely and engaging. The format and process made sense! The purpose was to educate educational leaders (mostly school superintendents) on the what, how, etc. of and for today's digital student learning. With inspired and motivated leaders, others in the school system are likely to have more confidence in trying new instructional methods with students. What struck me during the many discussions and small group break-outs, was the concept of "training" ... at one point, I spoke up and explained that many of these technology applications, Web 2.0 apps, if you will, do not require training - they require use.

I am often reminded of the "need for training" as an expectation and/or a barrier toward implementation and acceptance of new educational and instructional opportunities. What sets technology apart from traditional instructional applications, is that in most cases, the technology simply needs to be used ... there is not a "sit and get" type of "training" that is going to yield the type of usage that the students today need, demand, and understand.

I'm saying that "training" is a bad thing - I'm not saying that "training" is un-necessary, what I am saying is that one's notion of training from an old school model, does not fit in today's model of training. Today's model of training looks more like Vygotsky and other constructivist theorists would describe ... doing, scaffolding, sharing, discovering, users creating their own knowledge.

For schools to change - for school systems to change - for INSTRUCTION to change - so must our concept of training. To steal a catchy phrase from a big company ... we simply need to "just do it" and the "training" might just become a learning experience!

TO change - well ....change!

Interesting video shared by a friend in education

Cool new technologies at my school

In one form or another, via classroom implementation, through professional development activities, the teachers and students in my school are experimenting with, implementing, and researching many instructional technology tools every day. 

A list of tools includes, but is not limited to the following:

Google Apps For Education (Gmail, Google Earth, Apps, etc.)
Prezi
Edmodo
Voice Thread
Mobi Elearning Reader
E-beam reader
Inspiration
Microsoft Office Suite
Various web subscriptions like britannica online
Using a server for file storage and sharing
Gaggle net email
Animoto
You Tube
LiveScribe Smart Pen
Document Cameras
Promethean Boards (Interactive White Boards)
Blogs, Wiki's, Web pages

And more ...

I am really energized by the engaging educational experiences the students at my school benefit from on a daily basis.

http://careersoutthere.com ... it's a great source for career videos ... check out a recent video

http://careersoutthere.comCareers Out There...it's a great source for career videos...check out a recent video!

Leadership Quotes

Believe in Me - Poem - Inspirational/Educational

Slowing down to move fast

The change process has many steps ... much research and many articles and books write about and describe the steps in the process. In "real life" and in practice, changes increase the tension in the proverbial rubber band. The astute leader knows to pull/stretch/push to a point before breaking the band ... In my current experiences, many changes have been presented, implemented, planned, and "digested" ... now it is time to let the momentum continue, the changes set in, and allow for some breathing room. My aim is to reduce the pressure on the rubber band, hold steady with what seeds have been planted, and move from change to support. Support for new directions, support for new attitudes, support for new experiences, and support for new approaches. What is quite affirming is the degree of acceptance, the high degree of acceptance for the current reality. This new reality differs greatly from the reality once known at my school. This reality allows for learning support in the classrooms. This reality allows for innovative approaches to instruction. This reality is wonderful, rewarding, and affirming to be part of.

I am slowing down for now - in an effort to support a fast moving start! Thank you to the brave and courageous learning facilitators with whom I spend high quality time every day!

Useful iPad guide for principals from another blogger

Link to essential-ipad-guide.pdf

Change can flow smoothly with the right people

The faculty at the school where I am working are really supportive of new ideas and change. Yes, the change process is challenging, and there are a lot of unknown variables, but, post-90 days ... we are still changing, and we are still progressing, and we are still making a huge difference in the educational lives of children.

This year we started with an overview and understanding about some overall change plans including new leadership, new technology hardware and assessment. We also started with personal 1-1 meetings with the new superintendent and all teachers. These meetings allowed for clarity about mission, purpose, vision, expectations, fears, hopes, and plans. All in all, the faculty have been WONDERFUL with the new changes.

There has been a renewed energy and focus on curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Student behavior is outstanding and the school-wide focus on PBIS appears to be a success! The Board of Education has been incredibly supportive and progressive in its support of new leadership approaches and initiatives. The MAP testing has gone smoothly (thanks in a large part to the fantastic leadership of the principal, the un-ending and selfless work of the tech guru, Jim G., and a great deal of support from Daniel as well). Teachers are learning and implementing instruction with the new Interactive White Boards. Regular, job-embedded, sustained training has, is, and will continue to take place. New report cards are in the works as a direct result of teacher input about current reporting procedures.

Twenty-five percent of the staff are engaged in a voluntary on-line learning community "in - house", another twenty percent of the staff are engaged in a voluntary development and growth journey with the superintendent. Everyone is working very hard and very intentionally on behalf of students! Staff are enrolling in courses and professional development opportunities. All in all, it's a great learning community! Student achievement continues to be a source of pride at the school, the recent ISAT results (state assessment from last spring) show great results and great learning.

Each day and each week, we make collective progress toward the future. We are experimenting with Web 2.0 technologies, Voice Thread, Prezi, for example, and we are engaging students each and every day in the learning process.

I'm looking forward to keeping the community updated on our many areas of success and progress as we continue our 170 year tradition of Educating the Minds of Tomorrow.

Quick movie about time ... its value

http://therealizemovie.com/

Pennoyer's PBIS in the news!

Program accentuates the positive through supports, interventions

Comments

October 7, 2010 

By DEBORAH BAYLISS dbayliss@pioneerlocal.com

Teachers and administrators at a local elementary school are using innovative ways to help students stay on track toward academic success as well as develop good citizenship skills.

The state-funded program is called Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS).

» Click to enlarge image

Pennoyer fourth-graders Monica Knurek and Nicole Blachowski laugh Sept. 16 during lunch at the school in Norridge. Pennoyer Elementary School is implementing the state-funded Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports program to help students with academics and citizenship.
(Brian O'Mahoney/Staff Photographer)

» Click to enlarge image

Pennoyer seventh-graders James Lopez and Victor Iskra talk Sept. 16 during lunch at the school in Norridge.
(Brian O'Mahoney/Staff Photographer)

» Click to enlarge image

Pennoyer third-grade teacher Sarah Adkins talks Sept. 16 with a student during lunch at the school in Norridge.
(Brian O'Mahoney/Staff Photographer)

Administrators at Pennoyer Elementary School, 5200 N. Cumberland Ave., said they find the program proactive and like that it establishes behavioral supports and social cultures needed for student success.

"This is our first year participating in the program," school Superintendent Michael Lubelfeld said. "We're participating because it's research-based and has proven success."

PBIS has a database component that tracks problems such as bullying, tardiness and non-completion of homework.

"We do not have a high incidence of bullying at the school," Lubelfeld said. "But when it does occur we provide counseling and find out what causes the student to bully. We also provide counseling for the student who was bullied and try and provide the child with the tools to protect him or herself."

Lubelfeld said the school, which serves 417 students, also reaches out to families in bullying situations or when homework is consistently not completed and have come across instances in the home that have called for intervention on the student's behalf.

Another component of the program rewards students for doing the right thing as a way to encourage others to follow the example of good citizenship.

Pennoyer uses what the school calls the "Hawk High 5s," where students receive high-fives from a teacher after the teacher observes a student demonstrating positive behavior around the school.

"Within the first two weeks, we had 384 high-fives with the goal of 500 to earn a schoolwide reward of an extra 15 minutes of recess," said school social worker Pam Stutzman.

Students can also win small prizes through raffles each week.

Professional Development - If you build it ... they will come! Reflections

OK - I'm now past the "90 day mark" as a suburban school superintendent. As a one-school district, the superintendent wears "many hats": executive leadership, personnel/HR, business/operations, communications, technology, building/grounds, you name it!  I work with an exemplary principal, one who has led the school for the past 14 years. She is fantastic, she is a wonderful leader, and she is the lead on student services, curriculum & instruction, and all school matters. She is a true partner!

During the July board meeting, we participated in team building/visioning with a Field Services Director from the IL Association of School Boards. The Board was asked to "dream" ... among other dreams for the school district, the Board indicated they wanted increased technology for students and staff, they wanted increased professional development opportunities for teachers, forward thinking and 21st Century curriculum, instruction, assessment, technology, and communications.

With that mandate, and the shared visioning experiences and desires with the principal, we set the plan into motion ... In some of the earlier blog postings, I have shared graphics (PREZI), and posts about the macro-professional development plans for the year.  I'm thrilled that more than 25% of the teachers have signed up for the Edmodo project - already we have a district Edmodo account and a district Voice Thread account. In addition, nearly 25% of the teachers have signed up for the in-depth interview/study coaching project as well.

Another extremely positive sign is the openness and welcoming attitude all teachers have shown with drop-in walk through observations, and a regular sharing of professional development opportunities. Today I shared an email from the West 40 (local Regional Office of Education - ROE/Intermediate Service Center - ISC) identifying a "web 2.0" opportunity with each participant getting a free "tool" for participating.

The point is not that teachers are signing up for workshops, the point is that the energy in the school is palatable and it is due in part to the Board's leadership, the administrative support of this leadership, and the faculty's openness to change, growth, progress, and learning.

Truly, if you build it they will come (an old adage) is proving to be a true adage in my real life experiences.

More on transitions

I find myself caught between websites, blogs, PLN's, social media experiences ... etc. ...

I'm now going to focus energy on a blog for "work" ... as opposed to a blog for a blog's sake ... I have learned tons since I entered the blogosphere last year ... now I value Twitter and the value of the PLN (Professional Learning Network), I have a new position in a new school district, and my energy and efforts are moving from general growth to coaching, guiding and leading a new system.

For now, I will focus on writing and posting to my "work site":

www.pennoyersuperintendent.lifeyo.com

I may return to the blogspot ... I may not ... I am in transition, trying to find my way ...

My New Web Presence and Effort - Including a new Blog