Dear President Obama and Nation:

Here we are well into the 21^st century, and through the “Race To The Top” legislation we are about to spend more good money after bad tweaking a centuries old model for education instead of doing the real work of looking at where we are and where we have come from. What other models are there that have a track record of success? Should we look at what schools could be and perhaps should be, and doing what’s best for our students and our country? Should we be trying as many models as we can to learn what works NOW instead of what worked before and during the industrial revolution?

It seems to me we owe it to our children, and the future of our country to ask the tough questions and do our best to develop the best education system possible, instead of patching up a system that has been in place since the American Revolution.

Are the assessments we are using the best? Are they actually very poor? Just what we have so let’s use those? If they are not the best, why are we racing to get to their top? Why not develop quality assessments first, that actual people that are education experts agree are appropriate? Same with the standards. Do the standards actually make sense? I mean really … do you/we know? Should we look at the standards from the countries that score the highest in the world and learn from them? Maybe before we spend 5 billion dollars “racing to the top” we should spend some time and money making sure the race has the best goal possible? Otherwise how will we know if we are really “at the top?”

“Data driven” decisions can be very powerful. If good, meaningful data is used that is based on well crafted, sensical standards that are grounded on what is actually important and achievable by students (All students? Most students? Some students?). Can all students do as well as all other students in every subject? If not, do the standards reflect that? Does making every child take a college prep curriculum regardless of their abilities in certain subjects best? It seems it is exclusionary at best and purposely setting schools and children up for failure at worst.

If our schools are basically still following a design from well over 100 years ago, is it time to re-visit that design? It seems like we have done that in business, health and every other field. Would you want to go to a hospital designed 100 years ago that has been been barley updated? Wouldn’t now be a good time to do that before we hold people accountable and spend billions of dollars?

Stating that we understand that children of poverty lacking proper nutrition, healthcare and support are destined for failure in school. And therefore we are attempting to pass healthcare legislation, without tying the access to healthcare, nutrition and support to when we can hold schools and teachers accountable, is at best disingenuous. If students are destined for failure without those pieces, and they are not in place yet, how can we legitimately hold schools and teachers accountable?

What percentage of the “blame” for America’s educational failings is the teachers’ and schools’ fault? 100%? 90%? 80% … 10% ? Do we really know? What else contributes to our educational failings? Are we holding them accountable too? Or are we addressing issues that hold students back? Are we taking these other contributing factors into account before we hold schools, teachers and students accountable? Wouldn’t that make sense?

Is one of the issues that holds our schools back that maybe there is little to no consensus on what schools are for anymore?

Why is it that in national polls schools are thought to be doing poorly, but when parents are asked about their child’s school the polls come out on the positive side? Does that demonstrate the results of negative media coverage shaping a general belief that schools are doing poorly but my own experience is that my children’s school is doing OK?

If one of the guiding principles behind “Race To The Top” is “innovating our schools,” wouldn’t it be key to promote REAL innovation? Currently RTTT only supports a certain very narrow range of school model that relies on only standardized test scores to drive and assess student learning and success (and again are those test valid? The best tests?). Is that REAL innovation? Is it a model with a long term consistent record of achievement for ALL students? Do these schools that we are using as models accept and take as many students with special education needs and behavior issues as the public schools they are being compared to? If not, then how is that a proven track record? Again, shouldn’t we be looking at all kinds of models that perhaps lead us to many successful models?

Why is it that those that are pushing the specific charter school model don’t send their own children to the schools they promote as being superior models of educational achievement? Is sending children to a school that severely narrows the curriculum for its students really better for them? Who says so? Are they really correct? Have we effectively discussed and studied the ramifications of that policy? How many would send their own children to those schools? Or are these schools only good enough for THOSE students? Isn’t that a form of apartheid?

I’m just asking.

Learning is messy!

Now that I am in Philadelphia for the Educon 2.2 Conference and able to focus more on my session, I thought I’d get a bit of a jumpstart on refining the conversation. I’m going to take very little time to “present” and use the vast bulk of time to have everyone brainstorm and develop a shared vision(s)  … at least as much of one as can be done in a bit more than an hour.

The title for the session is “Elementary School In The 21st Century, How Does The Pedagogy Change? What Does That School Look Like?”

We have limited time so what should be our focus? Here is a list to get started, any additions deletions you can suggest in comments would be appreciated!

It’s been three years since this photo was taken. The great news is that everyone in this photo is doing well! Click on the photo to see the 5 minute video the students made that has now been accessed over 500,000 times. This experience changed the lives of our whole class (and many around the world from the emails and comments we’ve received).

Here is a link to my original post about what happened that day.

Here is a link to the debut of the video on this blog. Peoples’ comments here are the best part. : )

Here is a link to a video Skype had professionally produced 6 months or so later.

Learning is messy!

Alternate Title: “An Educators Guide to Why You Want A Personal Learning Network”

Realize you already have a PLN … those teachers and colleagues that you plan with, share with, gripe with, support and count on. You know which member(s) of your PLN might help with an idea for any issue or specific subject you are planning for … who is the “art” expert, or creative writing idea person … who might know a picture book that fits this theme … how do I talk to my principal or a parent about this issue and so on.

Teachers at my school (and probably yours) occasionally email to everyone on staff to inquire if they’ve seen a certain video or book or science kit or whatever. That’s a PLN. So your PLN is the people on your staff, or used to be on your staff, acquaintances you met along the way at meetings or classes you’ve taken, or at conferences or committees you were part of, even relatives and friends outside of your school or “work” circle. Think how many times they’ve come through for you.

How many of them would you call after 9pm if you had a non-actual-life/death-emergency question about a lesson or parent or … (see list above) ? How about after 11pm? 2am? I bet the the list goes from very short to zero. Even if you were working on a $50,000 grant that has to be emailed or faxed by 7am tomorrow and you need some information about some research or technology or what computer applications to include on the list, or books to order to get the grant done or you might not make the deadline … I mean no one will die … who would you call at 2am even for that? How long is that list?

What if at 10pm or 2am, you could get on Twitter and ask your question and immediately tie in to all the people in your PLN that live in the eastern hemisphere where it is tomorrow already? Friends you’ve never met in person (well some maybe). And what if they start sending you the answer, or links to where you can find out. One or more of them start a Twitter conversation about your issue … maybe it moves to email or Skype (Maximum 140 characters at a time on Twitter is too confining sometimes).

Does that happen? Absolutely! I’m not exaggerating … on average, at least several times a day (and usually way more than that) I get answers, or learn about an idea or something that impacts my teaching or life in general from Twitter or Plurk (similar to Twitter) or my blog, that I might follow up on a web site or Delicious or Diigo or Skype or Flickr or a Ning or any number of other places. And that PLN never sleeps. And the more you use it … uh, well … the more you use it. It’s the most
incredible, valuable teaching / life in general resource I have ever experienced. I don’t mean to beat you over the head … but it is life changing valuable … THAT valuable.

The downside? You won’t “get it” until you experience it. And you can’t experience it, until you build it. You can build your online PLN at whatever pace you want to. It’s eternally patient … it’s there waiting for you. But you have to build it? WARNING … COMMON MISTAKE. Don’t set up a Twitter account and follow 2 to 20 people who include mainly your Mom and brother and 2 teachers you know that work in your building, and 4 teachers from other schools, and your friend in Florida and uncle in Montana, and Ashton Kutcher and Oprah and the Discovery Channel … and then sit back and wait for it to happen. Everyone on that list are fine to follow … but you have to spend a bit of time making the connections to build a network.

Some will come to you, find you. But mainly it’s up to you to go out and make 20 or so connections (and then keep going any chance you get). How? Go to my Twitter page and note who I follow (and other people you may already know have a Twitter account). Read my blog and note the links to others’ blogs I have and check them out. Follow me on Twitter (you don’t have to though) and start checking out those I follow and who THEY follow. If you click on the “following” link on our Twitter pages it will list who we follow. If you click on the link to anyone you can usually find out a bit about them … oh they teach too or have a common interest or just look interesting, click on the follow button and you will see their Tweets on your Twitter page. AND they just might follow you back (you get an email telling you if that happens). Don’t be shy, … people on Twitter expect that to happen … you don’t have to get their permission … you are not breaking some online etiquette … that’s how Twitter works.

NOTE: Blogging is similar … read blogs, leave comments, start your own blog, it builds over time and all these online social applications leverage each other. Then anytime you get a chance, answer someone’s question, Tweet out something your students did, ask a question, share that you are trying something for the first time… it’s OK to just watch a bit … but you need to engage too. Re-Tweet someones Tweet that you like. Get into a Twitter conversation with someone. Then it will happen. People will start following you. You will talk more of your local colleagues into joining in. AND THEN you will start reaping the benefits in bushel baskets. Just now I checked Twitter (really) and Dean Shareski asked:

“Anyone have a great story about the power of twitter? Either a personal or something you read? A link would be awesome.”

And I answered:

“Maybe this?: http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=617

(Check out the link, it’s a cool short story)

The span of time between their question and my answer? 2 minutes.

There is much more to this story because all of the other social networking apps like blogs and Skype and FaceBook, Flickr, wiki pages, Nings, … all of them leverage each other and the whole becomes more than the individual pieces, and … OK, OK … I’m getting carried away now … but it’s all true.

Note that I could write a post like this on most, if not all the applications I’ve mentioned here. I didn’t start out to focus on Twitter, that just happened … I think because it is a fairly painless way or place to begin. Just remember you have to engage … make those connections. It will take some time, but it doesn’t have to be a drag. Just try to consistently do 10 minutes here, an hour there, 5 minutes way over  … you can’t mess this up except when you don’t keep going … and the great news IS that you
can always come back and pick up where you left off … the network is there always … waiting patiently.

Many have tried to explain this social networking / PLN powerhouse and how it impacts teaching and teachers, students, schools … education and learning in general, to those not caught up in it already. And it’s hard, and I have failed to explain it totally here. You are just going to have to trust me (and the hundreds, really untold thousands in certain ways, that comprise my PLN) … jump in, you’ll see.

Learning is messy!

I’m thrilled to say that I’ll be attending my first EduCon in a few weeks and I wanted to make attendees both F2F and otherwise aware of what my “Conversation” will be about. My session/conversation is entitled: Elementary School In The 21st Century - How Does The Pedagogy Change? How Does That School Look?

When the discussion about a changed vision, an updated vision for education and schools happens, often that discussion is a more general one that doesn’t get much into the real specifics of what that could be … what should that look like? How schools will and should look will be different based on the age level of the students as it always has (unless you disagree). My goal here is not to come up with THE MODEL, but a possible model that would be a point of future discussion … something to point at as a starting point. In fact perhaps what will come out are several different possibilities instead based on location and other variables … that’s fine too. But I did want to focus a bit more specifically on elementary (this could easily be an “upper-elementary” or just a “primary-elementary” discussion too, but I don’t think we have time for that) because that’s where I am, and I think it gets a bit less attention in the general discussion online. The other reason is I think it will be just an interesting discussion period with others that have been mucking around with this stuff and have their experiences to bring to the convo.

Here is the description from the EduCon 2.2 wiki:

 School/pedagogy needs to change, adapt, modernize is the siren call. We will briefly look at and/or discuss examples of lessons, technology use, and projects in elementary school today. Then use the bulk of our time attempting to outline what a “changed” vision for elementary school could and should be. Is there anything that stays the same? Should we approach this from no cost matters, or try to do it for the same or lower cost? PEDAGOGY: Reading instruction … what changes? What doesn’t? Math? Other subjects? What about the building? Probably can’t raze them all and build new … so? What equipment/tools? We could dream big, but I’m thinking we might want to look at a model that is doable? What else? We can build a wiki so the thinking/planning can be archived and continued after the time runs out as well as accessed and added to by those attending off site.

Conversational Practice: We will build a wiki that will be available to continue after the session.

Come join me in some “Messy Learning” about the possibilities!

Learning is messy!

Tags: EduCon2.2

It’s been a long time coming, but my new class of 4th graders posted for the first time on their blogs today. Our new MacBooks are up and running, we’ve learned how to turn them on, find our class wiki page … and now how to post to our blogs.

We have been doing an activity I’ve blogged about before, but this time I’m following the lesson plan from the Writing Fix website (This lesson idea was proposed to WritingFix by NNWP Teacher Consultant Kim Polson) a bit more closely because my current students are less experienced writers than my 6th graders last year.

Their posts are simple paragraphs about topics of their choice that follow a pattern from the book “The Important Book” by Margaret Wise Brown. Later we will “expand” these first examples into much more descriptive paragraphs … and eventually drop the “pattern” and develop other language pieces as well as write multiple paragraphs on the same topic. But this is a great starting point for us, everyone was successful … and thrilled. Note: my 4th graders are very “at risk” … 90% free lunch and 90% second language learners (and most are not close to fluent in their 1st language either).

My students were excited to say the least, and the few that have internet at home were making sure they knew how to find our blog online so they could show their families tonight.

Learning is messy!

Tags: studentblogging

My family was given some “unused” tickets to the local production of The Nutcracker last night (which was fantastic btw). We sat in a section where most of the audience were families of children with cancer or in remission of cancer. I was recognized by one of the organizers and she let me know that a certain former student of mine was in attendance. I get asked fairly often how she is doing, I haven’t seen her in over a year …  but I’m ecstatic to inform you she is doing very well … looks really good. I wish I could say more, but can’t … other than to say that as inspiring as the story in the video is, if you knew more of her story you would be even more impressed by what she has overcome and how she stays so upbeat. She had a big smile and a hug for me and we talked for just a few minutes. My Holiday Cheer level was definitely raised!

Learning is messy!

Tags: Inclusion

We have 30 laptops charged and ready that are still not on the school district network after 15 weeks of school … should be put on soon … fingers crossed! For the last 3 years my class has been a 1:1 laptop class … but for various reasons we are not right now … and dealing with that has been difficult for me for several reasons (not for my current students so much because this will be new to them).

For one, being an elementary teacher I’m used to acquiring support and supplemental resources, materials and lessons for Reading, math, social studies, science, art, and so on that in the past have provided me with loads of schema building …  much more than we could ever cover. At one point I had 4 - four drawer file cabinets full of great stuff in my classroom and more in our garage. Everything from volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount St. Helens, to newspaper clippings of the first moon landing, various brochures from NASA on anything you wanted to know about space or space travel, to art projects based on the masters.

Several events conspired to limit those resources. First, we’ve been 1:1 for three years and the internet is a tremendous resource all by itself … those NASA brochures were 5 years old and older … very out of date, so chuck those … and likewise happened with other old resources until I was down to 2 file cabinets of “stuff” (but I still have the ash and newspapers) … on the web everything, well to a point, is updated and new … so much of your old stuff becomes obsolete. Then my school was refurbished and we literally had to strip our rooms down to the bare walls AND we were encouraged to get rid of stuff … so I’m down to one file cabinet … and from 2 large storage cabinets to one … and nothing (almost) in the garage.

Now we are not 1:1 … and have been so longer than expected … and I yearn for all those resources. I’m prepping for a half day sub tomorrow and keep thinking about something for the sub to use that would be perfect … but I don’t have it anymore. The internet and writing and numerous other online productivity and math and reading, science and other learning activities more than took the place of 3 file cabinets, one large metal cabinet, and 200 square feet of garage space (and more).

The great news is that at some point here my students will have all those resources back … whew … it will be a good thing.

Learning is messy!

Tags: 1:1

SchoolChange

Originally uploaded by BCrosby

I made this poster from a photo I took at a turn of the century school in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, using “Motivator” on FD’s Flickr Toys.
http://bighugelabs.com/

Click on the photo to see it in larger format.

The quote reads: “SCHOOLS NEED TO CHANGE FUNDAMENTALLY …

… as long as when they are done changing they are pretty much just like they were when I was in school so I understand them.”

This is a quote I originally used when I presented to a group of local business people about changing how America’s schools work. I noted to them that when I had attended past meetings with them they often railed about how schools were not changing fast enough … but then would complain about any changes the schools made. It really had an impact on them … they got my point that schools and teachers were not the only impediment to school change, and it changed the tenor of the discussions we were having for the better. I often find myself referring back to it in new presentations and discussions I have.

I really do think it says a lot about what is standing in the way of making significant, important changes in how our schools work.

Learning is messy!

I’ve written several posts about the process of getting back to 1:1 after having to “retire” the 9 year old iBooks my class had been using. Very unexpectedly my school district decided to replace the ones that our new wireless system rendered moot even though they were not obligated to do so - thank you, thank you, thank you!!! And that has taken longer than we all would have liked, but beggars can’t be “demanders” … and … well … hey when all is up and going I’ll have 20 brand new and 10 one year old MacBooks on a new wireless system, stored and charged in a new, safe, stronger laptop cart … we are truly blessed!!!

Having gone through 3 years of 1:1 with “sort of” the same class (I roll a 4th grade class to 5th and 6th, then return to 4th - and my students are very at risk so our school has a high turnover rate - students of poverty tend to move a lot, I’ve already lost 2 students this year -  and our boundaries were redrawn and that lost a third of my students one year), you would think I’d consider myself somewhat of an expert at this … and I’m sure in some ways I might have insight, but I’m telling you I feel more challenged than ever. Using at the time 6 year old iBooks that we bought new batteries for and were a bit beat up (but still humming along), made that experience sort of “quaint”  and cool and lowered expectations somewhat. But now everything is new and shiny (including the students) and the “quaintness” is gone. Now we really need to get things done. People have stepped up to provide this fantastic opportunity and I’d better produce. Other teachers would love to have what we have, so make this such a valuable learning piece that the powers-at-be are driven to fund it for others.

I do have some complications, (Hey! I’ve got to lower expectations somewhat), My school did not make Adequate Yearly Progress this past year and so we have had a few layers more of assessment, more special programs, and overall less “flexibilty” (less say over what we do), and that takes time and energy (and adds frustration) away from doing things differently. My new class has very little experience with tech, despite having visited our school’s computer lab once a week since first grade …. they’ve tended to run software apps like Sticky Bear Math and the like for 30 minutes once a week, so we have a huge learning curve to overcome too. I will remind my 2 regular readers of this survey I took the first week of school, … well their expertise with tech and knowing enough to be interested in finding out about things is at that kind of level too.

If there is an “up” side to having to wait to get going though, it is the anticipation of being able to think about learning / doing things differently again - it really gets me geared up. Among many other things I’ve really missed being able to have students do on the spot research to build schema … “Class … We are going to read a story in our reader today where the main characters make their first ride ever on the new fangled steam train coming through town. Follow the links on our class wiki page to find out a bit about steam trains, how they worked, and see a short video of one in action. Note how people are dressed, what the buildings look like, and other things that have changed. Then write a short paragraph or be ready to discuss or …. “

I’m pumped!

Learning is messy!

Tags: 1:1