How to keep up?

I have unfortunately had to have some surgery that has put me in the position of having too much time on my hands. With that comes plenty of time to think about 'stuff'. Having the personality that I do, while I can ponder my next vacation, reminisce about events of the past year, and even count my blessings, it doesn't take long before my thoughts come back around to my work. It is a huge part of my life and dedicate an enormous amount of time to work and work-related activities.

When I think about my role as a leader and educator, I am constantly asking myself, how can we do it better? How do we engage students more in their learning? How do I share what we are doing as a school community and gather ideas from others trying to do the same? While there is always research to read as well as a plethora of subscriptions related to education, there is so much more information readily available through blogs and wikis. These media also give the opportunity to ask questions, comment and expand ideas with an immediacy that you cannot achieve reading printed material. So now I spend as much time, probably more reading blogs and wikis and participating in social networks.

I use an aggregator to organize the blogs, wikis and social networks I want to monitor and have a few I automatically go to. There are several I contribute to. I've have often said and written that my learning has grown exponentially and I have gather great ideas to "borrow". While I have never been one to sleep for the suggested 8 hours per night, I do most of my reading and writing in the wee hours of the morn'. The challenge is in keeping up. Do I post? Do I read? Do I contribute? The obvious answer for me is that I want to do it all. I feel that as a leader, I need to be a role model. As our teachers learn to participte in Web 2.0 technology and most recently particpate and share information in a social network, I feel that I should contribute in some way on a regular basis. When that happens, I believe that teachers will see that it is valued and can be a successful and efficient way to share and gather information. I have principals that are now posting agendas for faculty meetings along with minutes to Ning. Social networking is something our students do on a regular basis be it MySpace or Facebook. There are incredible learning opportunities using social networks and we now have several teachers integrating them in their courses. Students blog and read blogs. They have heard and read that our soon to be president, used blogging as part of a comprehensive and awesome campaign. Technology is the way of the world and we can't escape it. We do an injustice if we don't recognize this and at least expose our students to these tools.

With our economic challenges we seek to find less expensive materials to use in school as budgets get tighter. Free is always nice! There are incredible learning tools available on the web at no or little cost to schools. While I don't support sitting a child in front of a computer all day, it does have its place in learning and students are excited and motivated to engage in on-line learning. Not only can students engage in exploration or practice, many tools on the web can track a student's performance so a teacher can monitor if in fact, learning is taking place. I feel that I have some role in investigating and sharing these tools with our teachers.

Then, there is my professional growth and personal commitment to sharing what I have learned with others. I have two blogs that I author and one that I am supposed to contribute to on a regular basis. Which leads to the question, "How DO I KEEP UP?". I wish there was one platform that would serve all my needs. Actually, there is......a wiki. The difficulty is that not everyone is ready to navigate a wiki. Giving people a URL to locate a blog or social network seems to be what the mainstream is capable of. Heck, for many, they continue to 'lurk' and have not taken the leap to comment or contribute to a discussion or forum. In time, it will come. For now, I need to find a way to juggle.

For the answer, I need to hear from my readers. There are so many people that I envy such a Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, Will Richardson and Chris Lehman. I also realize that these folks present and blog professionally. I on the other hand, run a school district with a $39 million budget and all the responsibilities that go along with it. To be successful on the web, I know you need to speak to an audience, have something worthwhile to read and need to post regularly. Thus the question that would help me tremendously. What is it that folks would like to read about, learn about and/or engage in dialogue about? Obviously, I see exciting things happen in our schools and classrooms on a regular basis. When I do, I share those experiences and will continue to do so. But is there more? Sometimes you need to take a step back and get feedback. This is that time. If you have been following and continue to be interested in exchanging ideas about how we can make our schools more engaging for students and better prepare students for their future, please let me know.

I look forward to hearing from you!

On-Line Professional Learning Communities

This week I had the pleasure of attending a training facilitated by the incredibly talented Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Will Richardson: Western New York Powerful Learning Practices. In the context of Web 2.0 technology, at Iroquois Central School, we are advocating for the use of technology as an instructional tool that has the power to prepare students for the 21st Century. One way we are doing this is the development of an on-line platform to develop a professional learning community across our district. The purpose of this learning community is to share best practices in our schools and how we educate 21st Century Learners. This platform has no boundaries i.e., grade level, subject matter. The vehicle is a Wiki. There are resources related to our district’s initiatives for the year, lessons that teachers can develop, expand upon and share.

As we know in any business (education not to be excluded as a ‘business’) relationships are the key to success. Through these on-line learning communities, relationships are developed. People begin to identify credible individuals that provide trusted information. These on-line platforms have the ability to ask a person questions and make comments about their work or contributions. As practitioners, we will model exactly the skills we want students to be learning: Collaboration, Literacy, and becoming Global Learners with no boundaries. Your location is no longer a barrier. Whether across town, in another state or another part of the world, there are talented individuals that have a lot to offer educators.

We share bookmarks on line with tools such as del.icio.us. The link will take you to my account. The bookmarks you find are articles and resources on a variety of topics that interest me and that I have used in my learning related transforming how we prepare students for the 21st Century. In my account, I have followers and people that I follow. We each have access to each other’s bookmarks. My learning and resources is then expanded exponentially. In the busy life of a superintendent, time is precious. I would love to spend hours researching a topic. But why should I? I can connect with these people and see if they have bookmarked resources that have topics similar to what I am looking for. If this isn’t collaboration, I don’t know what is. Dare I share for the “digital novice” that MySpace is nothing more than a social bookmarking tool?

I blog. I began blogging the minute I learned who to. Blogs are communication tools. I can instantaneously post current information. Then people read my blog. Some leave comments, others just read it. I never imagined the power blogging until I added clustrmaps, a program that tracks where in the world people are reading my blog. It also tracks how many people are reading my blog. The incredible power of this is not only the shocking reality that there are people all over the world interested in reading what I have to say but that everyone of these people are potential people for me to learn from. And I have. When it comes to literacy, I have read more in the past 18 months than I have read in the previous 3 years. I read a lot. My job demands it. I read research, professional journals and magazines, newspapers. I know add blogs to my reading. Can you imagine how much reading our children can do on the web? What if your child could “publish” on the web, send the link to their parents, cousins or grandparents who can see their work on the internet? How excited and motivated would they be to write? What about their classmates that blog? Would children be interested in reading blogs of their friends? They read their profiles on MySpace of FaceBook don’t they? If this type of reading and writing were expanded, would they increase the amount of material they read? Would they not become critical readers? If a peer published something with erroneous information or misspelling, would they not comment? Would they then question where that peer’s blog is a credible source of information? What if this form of reading and writing was shared with students from another country? Not only are students becoming more literate, they are becoming global learners.

This blog as well as a blog I have cross-blogged this post with Leaderstalk.org. Leadertalk is a blog of educators that share their experiences and resources to help leaders across the country learn from each other. In some ways, this blog is functioning as an on-line Professional Learning Community. I have so much to learn, but not enough hours in the day. After critically determining which blogs provide the information I need and want, I bookmark these blogs and view them several times per week. If this isn’t powerful, I don’t know what is.

I will continue to blog as a means of “spreading the word”. It has been cited by many authors that we are preparing our students for jobs not yet invented. The questions we all need to be asking ourselves include:
• Do we want our children to function in a global society?
• Should “learning” include a global perspective?
• Do we want our children to collaborate with other students around the world?
• As professionals, aren’t we to be models for our administrators, teachers and students?
• Can we not all learn something from someone else?

If you answer yes to all these questions, spend some time on the read/write web. Follow some of the links on this blog and see what is out there. As an instructional leader I will continue to support the use of the read/write web, on-line collaboration for administrators, teachers and students. I will continue to support changes in how students are taught and learn so that they can develop the skills needed in the 21st Century.

Is it really almost October?

It is incredible to me that we have almost finished the first month of school. The problem with blogging is that one should really stay current. So much has happened over the past few weeks, I just haven't had a moment to write. After being so pumped by yet another inspiring conference of High School's New Face, ideas and conversations began to flow and planning for the year took over my thoughts. As with any change, I do believe that it all begins with relationships. They need to be developed and fostered. In a good relationship, there is so much to be gained. Relationships that are less than positive tend to stall progress.
As I looked to begin the school year, I spend many hours thinking about and planning an opening day speech. A privilege Superintendents get to do each year. I spend weeks lamenting over what the topic should be, how to touch my audience and inspire folks to be excited about another year. Typically I make a connection to our district's mission, goals and initiatives. This year was different. It is the beginning of my fifth year at Iroquois. I have shared my personal vision, read stories to make a few shed a tear, shared poetry and yes, our direction for the coming year. This year, I was stuck. I kept coming back to the common factor of relationships. I was also concerned that for a time during our opening day rituals, I have a varied audience. Teachers, custodians, grounds crew, bus drivers and mechanic. Technology specialists, teacher aides and assistants. All the great people that make our school the great place it is. What could I say that would touch them all. That something was so simple yet we never do it enough. That something was to show gratitude. A recognition that it does "take the whole village" and that each of us in the room take a part in educating our students and molding our future leaders of the world. My opening "speech" was to have each group of people stand, hear the contribution they make in the education of our children and have the rest our staff applaud them. The feedback and appreciation has been incredible. It has done more to inspire, make people feel needed and that they make a difference than any other words even my best speech could communicate. If there is a theme, it is "gratitude". With so many changes that are happening in education and the many changes I hope to see this year, the whole experience can be enriched by a simple "thank you". For sharing an idea, for listening after a particularly stressful day, for getting that jammed paper out of the printer....Thank you! With that as a foundation, there is nothing we can't do. My thanks come from having the opportunity to work in a school district that has enormous support from faculty, parents, community members and our board of education. I never take it for granted.
As opening day passed, students arrived. They experienced change immediately. Teachers were excited at the prospect of another year. Technology was improving by leaps and bound. Our campus is on the way to being wireless. Over 360 laptops on mobile carts with printers and a projector arrived over the summer. The issue of "access" is slowly becoming a non-issue. We have a teacher on special assignment that is respected and knowledgeable ready to help our teachers integrate technology with some of the best instructional practices. We are going to have an on-line platform where all teachers can share and gain information about of instructional initiatives. Thank you Pat Aroune! Professional development will focus on the work of Silver and Strong (Thoughtful Education), the integration of technology and literacy. We hope to look at learning styles and how that influences instructional practices. We'll look to see how we can personalize the educational experience of our students and make school more meaningful for each and every student. The Thoughtful Education components will help us engage our learners and teach them critical skills necessary for learning.
In order for all these initiatives to be implemented, teachers need time. Time to learn and time to plan. Tomorrow is the first of our early release days for just that purpose. As I look at the agenda for the afternoon, it is amazing how much is going on. We have a new web provider and each teacher has the ability to create their own web pages. They need to be trained in web design and posting to those pages. We have conversations that will take place at the intermediate level about literature and spelling . Our primary teachers will be looking at our elementary science curriculum that was revised this summer as well as a new spelling approach to enhance our literacy initiative. Our high school teachers will focus on the Thoughtful Education initiative. Each teacher will come having taken their own learning style inventory. This will be used as a springboard to how their style influences their teaching. Lastly, our counselors and related service providers will begin training in Life Space Intervention: techniques to better address students with behavioral difficulties. I cannot think of a more productive way to spend an afternoon.
We have certainly "hit the ground running" and I am proud to be a part of all the changes.

Day 1 of the Connecting Cohort with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach at High Schools New Face Conference

For those of you that are new to Web 2.0, you may not have heard of Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach. She is incredibly knowledgeable and writes extensively about the integration of technology and Web 2.0 tools. Sheryl is professor at William and Mary College. Sheryl is committed to 21st Century learners and how to help educators move to 21st Century “teaching”. I discovered her blog and instantly we were connected. The fact that I was a superintendent interesting and using Web 2.0 in my daily work as well as attempting to have our high school teachers integrate the tools she included me as a “virtual mentor” for a pre-service course she teaches to college students on the way to becoming teachers. I was able to engage with her students, be a resource for ideas and issues they experienced as they were student teaching. We’ve had many interactions since then although we met face-to-face for the first time yesterday. Sheryl invited me to call in using SKYPE about my use of Web 2.0 at a conference she presented at in New Zealand this spring. It is incredible the contacts you make in the virtual world. Just by looking at the map on my blogroll (http:changinghighschools.blogspot.com), you can see how many people from every corner of the world have visited by blog. Often these people will comment on my blog, call me by SKYPE or e-mailed me to set up a time for an interview that would be recorded into the podcast.

Each participant was given an iPod Shuffle for the conference. This was a donation from Apple. The Shuffle can also be used as a 1 gig hard-drive. You need to have iTunes loaded on the computer you will use your Shuffle. Shuffles don’t like to use more than one computer. iTunes on a school computer is “safe”. iTunes has parental controls that can be set to make sure students don’t get exposed to the “radio” or other locations undesirable for students.

Adam Frey is a great resource. 100,000 free wikispaces are available for wikis without any advertising on it.

Sheryl has set up a wiki for the conference.
http://21stcenturylearning.wikispaces.com/

If you go to "Resources" you can find a link for wikispaces and many other tools.

Sheryl spoke about our changing world and how we are going to prepare student. Some key bytes:

Knowledge is divergent, not linear

Have you used the new WWW? The new WWW: Whatever, Wherever, Whenever.

iPod + podcasting= Anytime Learning

What about kids using iPods in School?

What about using cell phones?

“This is not business as usual, it’s business as unusual!”

What do you need to know when most of recorded knowledge is a mouse click away?

How do we prepare students for the jobs that don’t exist yet...using technologies that have not been invented yet…?

What does it due to the body of knowledge when everyone is a producer and knowledge isn’t static anymore?

How do we balance safety and access in order to allow the use of Web 2.0 technology.

Are you ready for the 21st Century? IT’S HERE!! We’re 7 years into it!

Web 3.0 is here. Take Web 2.0 and the technical aspects and learn from an Avatar such as in Second Life.

It is estimated that 1.5 exabytes of unique information will be generated this year.

What is 21st Century Learning? (It is so much more than technology)Some say;
The ability to establish ambiguity
Being your own reference librarian
Being able to network with people that have the resources you need


4 Areas that include 21st Century Learning
Digital Age Literacy
Inventive Thinking
Effective Communication
High Productivity

We need to give students a skill set so they are marketable and not competing with jobs that are outsourced?

There are 4 other Iroquois folks here at the conference attending other cohorts. Pat Aroune is here in the connecting cohort. Mr. Kenney, Mr. Esslinger and Mr. Lysiak are also here. I'm anxious to hear what they have learned in their first session.

High Schools New Face Conference 2007

It was just about one year ago that Western New York educators came together for High Schools New Face Conference in Ellicottville, New York. It was at this conference that I was first introduced to Web 2.0 technology from Will Richardson. The conference energized me and the team I brought from Iroquois and changed the way I thought about technology and how we educate or students. The world of blogging, wikis, on-line collaboration and social bookmarking changed how I use technology, gather and share information.
Tuesday, July 17th, educators from around the region will come together again to expand upon the ideas and information shared last year and for some, it will be there first time. It is sure to be a memorable experience for all. There will be four cohorts this year: Personalizing, Engaging, Connecting and Leading 21st Century Learners. This year, I will have the pleasure of co-facilitating sessions with Bonnie Smith designed to bring the leaders in the region together. The sessions will help leaders focus on the 21st Century learner, determine what new information that would like to acquire at this year's conference and develop an action plan they can return to their schools with and begin to make change. The sesions will also provide time for colleagues to network with others in the region.
Many new blogs will be created by the participants. Dealing with a variety of topics. A blog has been posted for the Leaders Cohort. It can be viewed at hsnf.wordpress.com
As a result of last year's conference, many teachers began to look at technology in a different way and how we have traditionally educated our students. The tools used made learning more interesting, more active on the part of students and broadened the depth of knowledge students were exposed to. I never anticipated the level of interest on the part of our faculty or how many teachers began to use the web in different ways. A grass-roots effort truly blossomed. I anxiously await the conversations and planning for making a significant difference in how our students view high school and learning.

A New Blog to Watch: Dangerously Irrelevant

On one of those late nights, I came across a reference for a survey that was seeking information regarding educational leadership. It is through this blog that I actually made SKYPE contact with the author- Scott McCleod. As Scott points out, there are "a bizillion blogs about teaching" and the use of technology. What is lacking in the field, are true discussions about change and leadership. Something as you know I have been on a soapbox about lately. People are reading but the "conversations" are lacking. Scott is making an attempt to change that. At first, by 'inviting' people he has come across through blogs and wikis and asking those people to 'invite' others that may be interested in the same topic. Scott's current teaching role is as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Policy and Administration at the University of Minnesota and Director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE). You can find Scott's blog at: http://www.scottmcleod.typepad.com/dangerouslyirrelevant/

Scott is celebrating his blog's 6 month birthday. Congratulations Scott!! His latest blog ironically was 'dangerously relevant' to me. I find myself in the same place. I have begun several blogs. I use one as an RSS aggregator feed but only post occasionally. This is the blog I post to most often. As I have noted that during those late night blogging sessions, I come across more information than I think my brain can handle. There is also the issue of what is important or relevant to the work I am trying to accomplish. Those of us having conversations about students blogging ask the same question. That is where the critical thinking/analysis piece comes in. In hopes of not offending Scott, but actually a compliment, I would like to share today's post. I feel compelled to share his main points as it will address many of the questions we are asking as we introduce Web 2.0 to our students. I am sure that many of the points will be applicable to students.
Here's how Scott chooses what he reads:

1. I rarely read blogs that are focused on classroom instruction. Not because they don't have interesting things to say, but because there simply are too many of them and because my focus is leadership. I started blogging at Dangerously Irrelevant because I wanted to try out blogging and because I felt there was a leadership orientation that often was missing from what I read in the education blogosphere. I have come to the pleasant realization that there are more leadership types out there than I originally believed, and I tend to read them and others that are dealing with school-, district-, state-, or federal-level leadership and policy issues.
2. I stick with blogs that regularly cause me to think. We blog for different reasons. I'm attracted to those bloggers that are regularly wrestling with ideas and issues. I don't care if they're re-hashing old stuff; for them that stuff may be new and they may cause me to rethink something. I'm interested in the thoughtful, reflective interplay of personality with problem. If someone causes my brain to say "Huh!" or "Wow, that was good." or "I'm not sure I quite get that. Let me think on that a while." on a regular basis, he or she has a dedicated spot in my aggregator.
3. I gravitate toward bloggers who create resources that are helpful and add value. Many of us blog. Few of us create resources that can be used by others. I am grateful for those who do.
4. I appreciate cleverness and passion. If you are witty, write distinctively or passionately, make me laugh, or are good for a memorable quote now and then, I'm yours.
5. I like bloggers who aren't afraid to challenge the status quo. Some of educators' most-cherished beliefs and practices are up for reconsideration in this new technological era. I like bloggers who are willing and interested in at least rethinking, if not always revising, what we're doing.
6. I follow interesting comments. One of the best ways I find new voices is by clicking on the names of folks who have left an interesting comment on my own blog or someone else's. I'll peruse their blogs and, if I like what I see, I'll add them to the area in my aggregator that's reserved for folks I'm trying out. After a month or two, I'll either move them to a more permanent area or replace them with someone new.
7. I track links from those I trust. If a blogger I respect links to someone, I'll usually follow the trail. If that person is reading you, chances are I might like you too.
8. I don't filter by ideology, but I rarely read bloggers who are grumpy. I try to expose myself to different perspectives and viewpoints, but I don't have time to waste on people who have a tendency to complain or bring down others. I believe in the old saw that one should 'criticize ideas, not people.' If bloggers frequently use personally-insulting language, denigrate others, and/or grouse about stuff, I'm not going to read them much. I try really hard to stick with those folks when I think their content is good, but in the end their delivery gets in the way of their message.

Scott, thank you for provoking even more thought and discussion. I do believe that educational leaders are the key in promoting and leading the use of technology. It is their voice I (we) wish to hear.

O.K....This post has been a long time coming

First, I must say that I am extremely proud of the changes happening at Iroquois. While I a would like to see change happen in several areas, I realize this post is an idealistic view of the world.....I believe that in daily practice I force myself to be "reaslistic", but deep down, I am idealistic and these thoughts are a reflection of..............my 'inner self'.

I address you all frustrated. Frustrated with our system, tired of hearing rhetoric but seeing no action, and disappointed that as leaders of education in New York State we have taken so long to come to this point.

We have made an impact over the past 10 years. We have been successful in doing what has been expected of us. All students are provided a public education. Children that are white, children of color, rich, poor, abled and physically challenged, all have access to school. We have our students meeting “the standards” based on what can be measured as well as what we have been asked to measure. Students are performing better on subject specific assessments. In New York State, more students are obtaining a Regents Diploma and more students are graduating than ever before. We were criticized for a lack of accountability, now we are accountable.

Educational change has largely been a result of a political agenda and national reports that received much attention. First there was “A Nation at Risk” in 1989 which resulted in the COMPACT for Learning in New York State, now by “The Commission on Education and the Economy”. All this information has been made public by the media, become political platforms and tied together with a price tag. Each year the expectation is that we “measure better”…..and we do. I applaud our efforts. We have a job to do- one that we have been hired to do and we work day after day to accomplish that job.

As educational leaders we are all life-long learners and high achievers. We want to do the best and we navigate the obstacles and challenges in order to achieve. However, one perspective may be that what we have allowed ourselves to achieve what we believe (or have become convinced) is “our job”. I have to ask though, are we happy at “the job” we are doing? Do we do what we do because we believe it is the right thing? Or, have we become just like the student that is at least moderately motivated, wants to please his parents or a respected teacher and has figured out the system…. to play the game and produce results that satisfy the requirements? I am increasingly coming to the realization that I may be one of “those” students. I have “figured out the system”.

As a superintendent I am fortunate to have the resources to make sure that my teachers are presented with best practices for reading and math which are essential to build the foundation for other learning, that my teachers are provided the necessary training to instruct in best practices, that my teachers are given the opportunity to align their curriculum to the NYS standards, that my teachers are given the opportunity to map out their curriculum and that my teachers are given the time to create parallel assessments to assess the progress our students are making so that those who struggle may receive extra help so that they learn the material that will help them perform better on our state assessments.

A mouthful isn’t it? Am I cynical? Generally, that is the last characteristic people would use to describe me. Until very recently, I believed that this was the right approach and that I am working in ideal conditions.

Not all of my colleagues can say that. Not because they don’t know how to do any of these things but because there isn’t equity in the system. Because we’re so persistent in “making the grade” we don’t have time to breathe. Not everyone has the resources (money) to do these things and so do the best they can with what they have.

Precious time is spent fighting over limited resources, convincing boards of education and parents that we need those resources to help our teachers help our students succeed. We lobby legislators to give more money to schools with the sincere belief that more resources will make a difference. I too have spent years doing the same thing. Does money help? Of course it does but it is not the only factor that will make a difference in student achievement. In fact, statisticians have time and again demonstrated that schools that spend the most money do not necessarily have the best results in terms of academic achievement.

So, what is my frustration?

1. I do believe we have wasted millions of dollars. While we all know of collaboration and we do collaborate to a point, over 700 districts (an approximate number of school districts in New York State) spent money to unveil the standards to our teachers. Over 700 districts spent time and money revising the curriculum to meet the standards. Over 700 districts attempted to find districts doing better than them in order to discover the “best practice” in hopes that they can adopt similar practices so their students could perform as well as their neighboring district. We are in the job of educating students. I dream of a system that could have done the work for school districts and allow the practitioners to spend time on developing creative, motivating and differentiated lessons to teach our students. It is almost as though as are all having to invent the wheel and we have succeeded. Most of us have that ‘wheel’ now and most of them look pretty much the same.
2. I am disappointed in myself and I’m disappointed in our system. We have yet again allowed a political agenda to dictate what it is we do on a daily basis. NCLB and IDEA are good ideas. What their intentions are in principle, none of us would argue. However, it is in the detail of the legislation that has been allowed to overshadow those great ideas (developed in many cases by people with very little experience in education demanding proof of results and justification for giving funds) and the fact that we have allowed a system that not only doesn’t reinforce our work, but punishes us if we fail to follow the pack. We are educators. We are leaders. We know better. If it is all about ‘playing the game’, why don’t we teach our students what it is they need to learn and just give “the tests” to fulfill the mandates? I often wonder how students would perform on the assessments if we took such an approach. The problem? While we have “standards” depending upon your personal beliefs, your position in society, or an economist or CEO of a major business, we would all struggle with agreement on what it is that students need to learn. It is just now after Tom Friedman’s “The World is Flat” and years of criticism by the business community that we are ready to have those conversations. Did it take a book with a doom and gloom perspective on the slow disintegration of the strongest country in the world because our students will be unequipped to work in a global economy to get people to act?
3. We talk about content. We talk about performance. We talk about “best practices”. What about learning? What about what ‘it’ is we want children to learn? Do we want them to know that Columbus discovered America in 1492? Do we want them to know that water freezes at O degrees Celsius? Do we want them to know that the square root of 36 is 6? Maybe. Why? Is life a jeopardy game? Before we put an ice tray in our freezer do we take the temperature to make sure it is 0 degrees or lower? Has anyone every interviewed for a job and been asked what year Columbus discovered America? When we’re at the mall and there’s a sale, are their signs that read, “The sale price is the square root of price marked”? We may very well want our children to know these facts but when was the last time we had a conversation about why we teach these facts. Do all teachers know why we teach these facts? Right…..because it’s in the curriculum! When are we going to have a real conversation about what it is our children need to learn? What are we doing about it? We are told that one of the most important skills aside from reading and writing is critical thinking. How well are we teaching students to be critical thinkers? Do we really know? I say no. No, because we haven’t found a statistically reliable way to test critical thinking. Since we can’t measure it and because it is rarely if ever assessed, we don’t spend very much time on it. The real problem. Ask 20 people, even educators what critical thinking skills are and I would bet you would get as many answers. We are at a crossroads where we need to have a conversation, an initiative that takes a good hard look at what it is we want our students to know and what is this thing called “critical thinking”.
4. Reform. We all want to reform school. We want to create learning environments conducive to learning. We want to have more technology available to our students. We want to have more time on instruction. What are we reforming? How our buildings look? That each student has access to a computer in school? That we adopt block scheduling to increase the length of classes. Is that reform? Or are we just changing the side of the rubric cube that has all the green squares? What have we reformed? What is school reform? Is the goal of reform to get all schools to look the same? The movement and increasing popularity of Charter schools would validate the contrary. Oh, I forgot…. to perform equally as well on state assessments. We need to go beyond the desire to change schools and define what reform really is. What do we want or need to truly ‘reform’ our schools. At the risk of sounding cynical again, I certainly hope that as we look for the answer, we aren’t all working in another high-speed race to create that same wheel again!
5. Teaching, instruction, educating. All verbs and all by definition an act that one delivers to others. What of the other side? The learning side. Is it more important to ‘teach’ or more important ‘to learn’? Who should be doing most of the work, the teacher, or the learner? What about the value of self-discovery? Are we more likely to sustain learning after coming to conclusions on our own or if we are spoon-fed information? I truly believe that teaching is an art. A craft that one develops and refines over time. An artist creates and generally one person is the creator. The creator certainly appreciates their creation but what of ‘the work of art’. The ‘work of art’ can be appreciated by hundreds, thousands, even millions of people over generations and even millennia. What if our teachers were to change their focus? Yes, have goals but rather than give the information to students, have teachers become facilitators of learning. The students doing the discovery. Come to think of it, hasn’t this concept been used before? Hundreds of preschools and kindergartens actually swore by this concept. It was called the Montessori approach. I don’t think the intention was that the concept disappeared after kindergarten. However, I may be ignorant but I don’t ever recall a conversation about using the Montessori approach with high school students. My question? Why not?
6. Technology. The internet can be more effectively use, especially as a motivating vehicle for students to gain information, share information, create learning communities and in the end, have a more active role in their learning. Web 2.0 is what is now being referred to as ‘the next generation’ of the internet. The read/write web is by far taking the use of the internet to levels that not only we have not realized yet but will continue to evolve at rates beyond our comprehension. ABC, CNN, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have all gone to web-based applications. The information is presented in a webblog (commonly referred to as a blog) and are now syndicated and sent to on-line ‘subscribers’ everyday around the world. Information is relayed often times faster than what one would wait to see on the six o’clock news and most certainly faster than the next day’s newspaper. The web is active 24 hours/day, 7 days a week. News stations (once they hopefully validate their source) often obtain their information (news) via blogs. When the Tsunami hit, immediate images and information came to the world via blogs. Politicians running for office not only establish websites concurrently with announcing their candidacy, progressive politicians are communicating via blogs.

As with anything on the internet there are positive web sites and those that are less savory. We can educate and address the concerns about students viewing information on the internet but we cannot, nor should we ignore it. Billions of dollars in business is conducted over the internet each day. Products are purchased and sold on E-Bay or Amazon.Com. Video today such as video-Conferencing is used to bring together businessmen, entrepreneurs and bankers from all corners of the world. What if students were brought together in the same manner? In some schools they are. It has been announced that MIT within the next year will have every course offered at the university available on-line, for free! Whether you will earn a degree for free is unlikely but in terms of personal or professional growth the potential by just having a computer with internet connection is incredible. Technology can no longer be ignored and if used to its potential, those with access will most certainly have an edge for learning and success in a global economy versus those that do not.

7. The deterioration of family. This is not going to be a perspective of why things were better in “Mayberry” or when “June and Ward Cleaver” were mirror depictions of the American family. This will not even be an argument about the divorce rate and the need for 2 parent households. I don’t care if a child comes from a family a single parent home or a family with same-sex parents. What I care about is that we do make every effort to communicate and expect parents to parent. Monitor the amount of television watching, ask everyday what they learned in school, read in front of their children and tell them to read. Finally, take responsibility for their child’s behavior. Appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Most times, school personnel spend more time dealing with discipline than any other issue. While I won’t make assumptions regarding the percentage of parents that support school officials but it seems there is an increasing number of parents that blame the school for how they handled a situation and the child’s behavior becomes secondary.

There used to exist an ultimate respect for teachers, schools and administrators. The opposite of what I see today was the norm. “They” were to be respected and “they” were right unless proven otherwise with unquestionable evidence. That rarely happens in American schools today. Now, it is the student that is right and the school that has the burden of proving that a child has broken the rules or been disrespectful or has disrupted the learning environment. Many colleagues will tell you that it is less than 5% of the students that engage in inappropriate behavior on a consistent basis but that it is the same 5% that consumes more than half of their day. If schools need to be lead and are often criticized for a lack of ‘leadership’ as it relates to teacher performance and student achievement, how can leaders lead if the window of opportunity to lead is automatically cut in half? Parents and their involvement are essential for student achievement. Research has proven it.

Whew! I finally got it out…..well, at least most of my frustrations as they relate to schools and where we are. One might be asking themselves why I bother to be involved in education if I am that frustrated on so many levels. The reasons are simple. I believe in education. I believe that in a free, democratic society the opportunity to be educated exists for every individual. I believe that the profession of teaching is one of the most rewarding professions one can be a part of next to saving a person’s life. I also believe that we know the most about teaching and learning that we have ever know before as a society. From how the brain functions (or doesn’t) to successful pedagogy. We also know about change and the human spirit and how difficult change can be. How long change can take. How resistive people can be to change. However, we also know about successful change and the climate, factors and conditions that help foster successful change. Talented business leaders have known and used this information for years. As educators we have read and learned how to bring about change. Why change may be perceived and handled differently in education than in business. Many leaders in education have actually made change using successful principles.

I’m constantly told by friends and colleagues when I talk about my beliefs, desires and frustrations that “change takes time”. We don’t have time to wait!! Every year that we wait for change is another class of students that graduate and are expected to be successful in post-secondary schooling or careers. Every year that we wait another group of excited kindergarteners enter our school systems held back in their potential by waiting for the change process to take hold. I’m tired of waiting! I want change and I want it now. Successful corporations would not continue to be successful if their supervisors awaited change. If the competition starts selling the same product, the corporation gathers its resources to either make their product faster, better and less expensive than their competitor or the corporation goes bankrupt. The alternative to bankruptcy is to move on. Find another product that is needed in the market and make ‘it’ the best that money can buy and start selling it. We wonder why Charter Schools are increasing. This is a free country and parents can now send their child to public school, charter school or the unthinkable………..home school. Those of us in public school have their competition. The question is, what are we going to do about it? Take another 10 years to change schools, what and how we teach? Or, do we institute substantial, research-based change now? In my opinion, the answer is obvious. We must change and for the sake of our children and our children’s children, we do it now! The only question that still exists is how??

Are you ready to have the serious conversations necessary to change? None of what I’ve written is new. I don’t pretend to have all the answers. I do believe that I have the ability to think out of the box and network with professionals from a variety of disciplines that can help make the change. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change you want to be”. Are you ready for change? I am.

Alex shares his blog

Alex is a student in Mr. Zybala's class. In an effort to show elementary students the power of blogging, I was invited to teach Mr. Zybala's class how to start a blog. Alex has just shared his blog with me. He is very excited and would love for people to check out his blog and leave him comments.
As you can see from the title of his blog, Alex really likes Lego's. I took a vacation with my family to Disney this past summer and took pictures of a lego display. I thought Alex would enjoy seeing some of the pictures so I told him I would post them and dedicate them to him.
http://legoman.learnerblogs.org

Here you go Alex..........these are for you. The little girl with the lego dogs is my daughter Madelyn. She will be five years old next month.

For those of you that read my blog, please check out Alex's blog cited above.