www.visuwords.com

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Cheers

Teacher Professional Development: LESSON STUDY

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

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

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

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

The original article may be found HERE

Cheers

Virtual Field Trips

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

Cheers

Interesting Documentary re: Living With Asperger's Syndrome

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

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

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

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



Cheers!

Thoughts on Grading at the JH Level

The Only Place We Should See % and Grade Together

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

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

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

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

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

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

and

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

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


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

Last One For Today

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

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

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

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

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

1900s (original available here)

1930s (original available here)

1950s (original available here)

1970s (original available here)

1980s (original available here)

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

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

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

Cheers

Digital Indigestion and R.O.L.

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

 

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

 

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

 

Cheers!

It's About Time

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

 

ONLINE/VIRTUAL SCHOOLING

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

 

DID YOU KNOW 4.0

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

 

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

 

Cheers!

The Second Marshmallow

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

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

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

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

Cheers

Marshmallows and Maturity

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

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

Enjoy:

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

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

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

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

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

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

My guess is it comes down to our systems.

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

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

Cheers

Phwew!

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

 

Cheers

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers

Innovation in Education

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

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

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

Cheers

A NEW STRUCTURE FOR LEARNING...

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

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

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

Cheers

I Just Had to Say...

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

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

Cheers

Something Just For Fun?

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

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

Cheers

The Future of Technology in Education...

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

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

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

Cheers

21st Century Learning...

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

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

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

Cheers

Digital Story Telling

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

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

Cheers