High School's New Face 2008

High School's New Face was again an incredible experience for participants. National presenters such as Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, Giselle Martin-Kneip, Dennis Sparks, Tony Wagner and Ken Kay just to mention those most known to educators and our teachers. The conference once again inspired us to continue to bring our high school, our instruction and our students into the 21st Century.

We know that engaging students in meaningful learning is the key to improving student achievement. We also know that students will do better in school if they feel that they have a connection with their teachers. Students need to feel that the adults around them genuinely care about them. We want to find what students are interested in and make a connection to the content/subject being taught. Our Thoughtful Classroom initiative is helping us to personalize learning much more than in the past. Lessons are being designed that meet the needs of individual learning styles of students and teachers are thoughtful about designing lessons and activities that have something for each type of learner in the class. We want to find more ways to make that personal connection with students. Conversations we will be engaged in during the coming school year.

Our students are constantly engaged with media, technology, text messaging and socializing. Images flash in front of them on computer screens and information is a click away. "Sit and Get" type lectures will no longer capture the heart and minds of students. Lessons need to be creative, hands-on and engaging. More and more students are reporting that our teachers are doing 'something' different. Students are engaged. At the same time, students are being asked to change, and take more responsibility for their own learning. They are being asked to collaborate with each other, create projects instead of writing essays and make presentations as part of their learning to become proficient at public speaking and communicating their ideas and knowledge. I highlight these changes with some sense of pride that at Iroquois, we are on the right track.

A focus of High School's New Face was the need to teach 21st Century Skills. I have written about these skills before in a post about a report Tough Choices, Tough Times. They include skills in collaboration and teamwork, creativity and innovation, and communications skills including reading, writing and speaking. These are a few of the skills our business community tells us that workers in the 21st Century must be proficient in. Added to the list include critical thinking and problem-solving. These are skills employers need their workforce to possess. The skills related to the "product" a business is involved in is something the businesses/companies can teach. As we move forward, we need to emphasize these 21st Century Skills with our students. I believe that many of these skills are being taught as a result of our Thoughtful Education focus. We may not however, identify these skills for students. We need to talk about them and incorporate them into outcomes for students.

Proficiency in Information and Computer Technology is another area we have been integrating with instruction. We are quickly approaching the point where access to technology will no longer be the issue. Many students come to school well versed in the Internet and how to access information. But, are they able to determine if the information they find is from a credible source? Are they able to gather information and share it in a concise and efficient manner? Can they take the information they find and put it into their own words? We also know that the Internet can be a place where predators lurk, information posted can never be retrieved and just as written work is protected by copyright, so is information posted on the web. Students need to be educated to make the best use of the power of the world wide web. We are discussing how we can provide this learning to students. A group of teachers will be meeting in the next few weeks to discuss technology standards and benchmarks, Internet safety and how best we can teach this essential information to our students.

This is an exciting time in education. While accountability is at an all-time high, the environment (and our economy) is demanding that we do things differently than what has been done in previous decades. In a future post, I will discuss the need for 21st Century Skills and the imperative coming from our business community.

We took a great team to this year's conference. I would like to thank Ross Esslinger, Anne Obersheimer, Sean Lauber and Catherine Stojanovich for taking time out during summer to join in the learning and inspiration tha High School's New Face provides to our region.

Day 2 and 3 of High Schools New Face

O.K., I'll admit it. I'm getting old! Day 2 was so full of information and the evenings went into the wee hours of the morn. I was exhausted! My head was also swimming with so many ideas heard throughout the day, I was concentrating more on how I could bring these ideas to Iroquois that blogging took a back seat. Day 2 was as information (and overwhelming) as Day 1 with Sheryl. The volume of new information and tools was incredible. Several people that attended last year's conference were concerned that they might not be exposed to too many new ideas....Wrong!! Sheryl had the unique ability to continue to stretch those that attended last year and may have been more experienced with Web 2.0 tools. Most interesting for me were the on-line tools available to develop and sustain a learning community as well as the on-line collaboration tools. I have had some experience with these tools but never used them to their full capacity.
At lunch we were entertained with several songs performed by Iroquois' own select concert choir. Mr. Gastle as usually made sure that these gifted students were well prepared and the talent our students display is nothing short of amazing. As usual, they made me feel so proud to be serving such an outstanding district.
The evening entertainment was yet another example that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. If you have not heard "Flame", go out and but a CD. This group certainly knew how put on a performance and warm the hearts of everyone there. The band has 9 members. You may be asking what makes them so unique. Each individual is challenged in some way: physically, cognitively or both. I hope to bring these very talented people to our school. They are an inspiration for everyone who has a dream but thinks they have too many obstacles to achieve them. The members of Flame certainly prove that determination along with the right skills makes the seemingly impossible, possible.
The morning of Day 3 concluded our time with Sheryl, learning more tools and actually using them. An on-line community was formed for attendees on Tappedin and is sure to keep those interested in continuing their learning and collaboration connected. The afternoon gave us an opportunity to work with the team from our school to develop an action plan for implementation at our district. We also had the opportunity to meet as a region to discuss how the momentum and initiatives could be sustained as well as what our BOCES can do to support our efforts.
Once again, the Joint Management Team organized a phenomenal conference. The energy and excitement I heard from so many individuals gives real hope to those of us that know teaching and learning in the 21st Century will be different than that of previous generations.

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.

What learning should be about..................

Yesterday I had the pleasure of seeing a lesson demonstrated by 2 very talented social studies teachers at Springville-Griffith Institute. These teachers were doing exactly what I want to see teachers do.......engaging students in their learning. They chose to demonstrate 2 lessons. The first was using students to address the concerns of Hurricane Katrina. "Students" sat on a panel....the president's cabinet. One student represented the Department of the Interior, another Homeland Security, another the Department of Education and of course there was The President Of the United States. The President had 3 Billion Dollars to give out. Each department head had to make a case for why their department deserved the money in an effort to rebuild New Orleans. What a fabulous way for children to learn. They were actually "learning" about government but a current issue was used. Students created multi-media presentations used to make their case.
Another lesson was related to World War II and the holocaust. The students were able to learn about the war and the holocaust in many ways. Reading, interviewing World War II Veterans (at times their own grandparents or great-grandparents) and recording those interviews to be copied onto DVD for each veteran's family to receive. They also made a connection to current events which their school has focused on: the continuing genocide that occurs everyday in Dafur. Students then drew upon their knowledge of the holocaust and were able to make a parallel between the horrible genocide in concentration camps and those that go on in Dafur. The students in this school then created a Club for Dafur and held a variety of fund raisers. They were learning every step of the way and their learning was active, engaging and no textbook was seen.
I believe that this is exactly the kind of learning we want our children engaged in. Kudo's to the principal, assistant principal and superintendent Dr. Peters for creating the atmosphere where teachers can be excited about engaging students and making little use of textbooks and only as a reference when needed.

Michigan's Merit Curriculum

Last week Michigan's Governor passed into law Michigan's Merit Curriculum. It is the state's attempt to make their high school requirements more rigorous. While New York State has high standards and now the Regents With Distinction Diploma, something stands out about Michigan's new curriculum. What caught my attention is a requirement that all students take 1 credit in online/computer technology. While we are integrating technology into our coursework and students can take courses as an elective, we have yet to make the next leap to make it a graduation requirement. Needless to say, this is something I would strongly advocate for. Not only would this make our curriculum requirements that much closer to what is relevant in schools today, it would be the impetus for all schools to address the need for students to be technologically literate in the 21st century.
Most schools do have keyboarding and have students exposed or required to use word processing or powerpoint. Obviously, I'm taking more sophisticated than that- social bookmarking, online collaboration, video-conferencing, blogging, wikis, etc... Almost all of which is FREE. We all would like computers for every student and more computer labs. Hopefully that will happen. All schools have 'some technology' available to students which could and should exposed them to Web 2.0 technologies. Michigan is taking that leap.
In New York, the Regents have identified technology as an area to address in their P-16 initiative. I do hope that results in requiring students some basic requirement for 21st century technological literacy.
If you want to read more about Michigan's first leap, the link below will take you there.

http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140--152784--,00.html

Connectivism: What's it all about?

If we are to look at what is being written and discussed about reforming schools in general, connectivism is something you are likely to come across. And so, after reading several blogs about a conference in New Zealand, I found that the entire conference was dedicated to this concept of connectivism. Naturally, I needed to read more in order to understand it.

Connectivism is a learning theory for the digital age. Learning has changed over the last several decades. The theories of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism provide an effect view of learning in many environments. They fall short, however, when learning moves into informal, networked, technology-enabled arena. Some principles of connectivism:

• The integration of cognition and emotions in meaning-making is important. Thinking and emotions influence each other. A theory of learning that only considers one dimension excludes a large part of how learning happens.
• Learning has an end goal - namely the increased ability to "do something". This increased competence might be in a practical sense (i.e. developing the ability to use a new software tool or learning how to skate) or in the ability to function more effectively in a knowledge era (self-awareness, personal information management, etc.). The "whole of learning" is not only gaining skill and understanding - actuation is a needed element. Principles of motivation and rapid decision making often determine whether or not a learner will actuate known principles.
• Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources. A learner can exponentially improve their own learning by plugging into an existing network.
• Learning may reside in non-human appliances. Learning (in the sense that something is known, but not necessarily actuated) can rest in a community, a network, or a database.
• The capacity to know more is more critical that what is currently known. Knowing where to find information is more important than knowing information.
• Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate learning. Connection making provides far greater returns on effort than simply seeking to understand a single concept.
• Learning and knowledge rest in diversity of opinions.
• Learning happens in many different ways. Courses, email, communities, conversations, web search, email lists, reading blogs, etc. Courses are not the primary conduit for learning.
• Different approaches and personal skills are needed to learn effectively in today's society. For example, the ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
• Organizational and personal learning are integrated tasks. Personal knowledge is comprised of a network, which feeds into organizations and institutions, which in turn feed back into the network and continue to provide learning for the individual. Connectivism attempts to provide an understanding of how both learners and organizations learn.
• Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning.
• Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate impacting the decision.
• Learning is a knowledge creation process...not only knowledge consumption. Learning tools and design methodologies should seek to capitalize on this trait of learning.

The concept makes so much sense as we begin to introduce the tools of Web 2.0 in schools. The notion of not necessarily having unlimited and sometimes irrelevant information may not be as important as know where and how to access knowledge about a particular topic seems much more appropriate in a world that is ever changing and that with the internet, access to information is limitless. This idea of a flat world and needing to educate students how to collaborate in such an environment is exactly what we are doing when we teach students about blogs, wikis, social bookmarking and on-line collaboration tools such as SKYPE and VYWE.

Now that I know what "connectivism" is, my interest in learning as much as possible about the theory has been peaked.

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Silence is deafening

For some time now I have been blogging in an attempt to expose educators and leaders in education to the possibilities that exist if one were to change how we teach using the read/write web. Many people that I know have praised and encouraged me for the support I give to this initiative. Occasionally I will receive an e-mail from someone I don't know and we exchange some thoughts. The real conversation that I am hoping for has not been occurring through this blog. I can see from cluster maps that many people are in fact reading the blog......but they're silent. Why? I have always been a risk taker and I think that the teachers and administrators know that to me, no idea is a bad idea. That taking risks is something I encourage and admire. Is there something about putting ideas in "print" that scares people?

It's time for a challenge. Time for the dialogue to really begin without fear of criticism or retribution. What is is that people are thinking when we talk about changing our high schools and instruction? We are all aware and I think believe as educators that there needs to be more relevance and rigor (coined by Bill Daggett). How do we do it? IF you had the autonomy to change what you teach in your respective course, what would you change? What "content" are you teaching that you feel has little relevance to your subject area? In other words, what would you stop teaching? What would you replace it with? Why are you teaching it to begin with?

If we are to make fundamental changes we need to have the conversation. At the same time, I will continue to maintain the the read/write web has so much to offer our students. The amount of information they can be exposed to exceeds anything we can do in a 50 minute period. They need to read critically and determine if the information is reliable, useful, applicable to their learning. We also know that to be successful in life, in work, individuals need to be 'team players', collaborators......the read/write web offers many opportunities.

Lets see your thoughts. Never mind thinking 'out of the box'.......throw the box away!