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What can a whole school get from a Twitter account
What can a whole school get from a Twitter account? – Innovate My School http://t.co/Ent1UGg7Rk via @InnovateMySchl #yorkdukes #cpchat
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Create a Lab / Room Scheduler in Google Sheets
From Richard Byrne – “Lab Scheduler is a neat Google Sheets Add-on that enables you to easily create and maintain a lab or room reservation system for your school.”
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Inquiry Based Professional Learning
George Couros – “I was thinking about how if we want schools to do this type of learning with their students, it is more likely to be successful if teachers had the opportunity to participate in this type of professional learning.”
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5 Tips for Administrators to Make the Most of Google Calendars
With Shared Calendars, multiple people can view and even edit the same calendar. It’s easy to manage a shared calendar with your Administrative Team, Clubs, Faculty, or even parents using Google Calendar.
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How Power Is Shifting From Corporations To Platforms
In a connected world, power no longer emanates from the top of the heap, but the center of the network.
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8 Things to Look for in Today’s Professional Learning (Part 1)
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Here’s The End-of-Year Goal-Setting Activity I’ve Done With English Language Learners
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Grant Wiggins on Reading – Readlists
A great series of posts by Grant Wiggins on reading for understanding and supporting the teaching of literacy skills.
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Connected Lead Learner: Are We There Yet?
New post-Are we there yet? http://t.co/BtmQAzBqTX @spaul6414 @PrincipalNauman @MrPowersCMS @patrickmlarkin @principalkp @gpescatore25
Author: Patrick Larkin
I have been in school leadership for over 25 years. I feel blessed to be an educator. I have had the good fortune of working as an English teacher, an Assistant Principal, a Principal, and an Assistant Superintendent in three districts in MA. I am also proud to be an IDEAS Instructor working with educators across the state and region who are part of schools and communities that promote anti-bias, anti-racist education.
BPS Evaluation Update – Spring 2015
This post first appeared on the BPS Evaluation Site
As we head towards April vacation and the final two months of the school year, we wanted to provide an update on some of the upcoming dates on our Teacher Evaluation calendar. For our PTS teachers (on two-year self-directed plans) April 15 is the due date for the following: evidence of meeting each of the “Great Eight Standards,” and progress on attaining professional practice and student learning goals as well as evidence supporting each of the the “Great Eight.”
Please utilize the “Great Eight” Evidence Support Document to see some of the examples of things that could be utilized. Please understand that this is just a partial list that we are adding to as we move forward.
Finally, remember that we are looking for quality and not quantity when it comes to evidence. Just 2-3 for each of the “Great Eight” is sufficient along with evidence that you are making progress on attaining your student learning and professional practice goals is sufficient. It is expected that teachers will share artifacts with their evaluators in Teach Boost and/or Google Drive.
Please direct questions on the process to Patrick Larkin or Diana Marcus.
My Weekly Diigo Bookmarks (April 5, 2015)
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Every Strike Brings Me Closer to the Next Home Run.
I used to be scared to experiment with our marketing. I thought that I there was the potential for me to “screw something up” and I didn’t want to hurt my school’s name. The realization is that you won’t screw anything up. The reality is that the worse case scenario is that no one will pay attention. You need to learn from that lack of attention and try something else.
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Can’t get enough @nicholedobo reporting on #blendedlearning and #edtech? Get exclusive newsletter content: http://t.co/BjgM17yklq
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Create An Alias That Automatically Distributes Documents | The Gooru
Create an alias that automatically distributes docs and save time for the important things http://t.co/Owj2TI2Q2l http://t.co/cJm6crMd9p
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iPaddling through Fourth Grade-Encourage…Engage…Enlighten…Empower: Student-Led iConferences
Great examnple of Student-led iConferences
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Two Years of Research on HarvardX and MITx
Research from Justin Reich on the Mooc’s at Harvard and MIT after two years.
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On reading, Part 4: research on the comprehension strategies – a closer look | Granted, and…
Part four in Grant Wiggins’ series on teaching students to be better readers
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The extent to which children slow down their reading on encountering inconsistent information is a significant predictor of comprehension.
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If strategies are taught with too narrow a base of content or text, then students do not have a chance to learn how to transfer them to new reading situations (Rosenshine & Meister, 1994). The optimal balance enables students to learn that strategies are an important means for understanding but are not the main point of reading activities.
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found that third graders’ conception of a good reader was one who reads quickly without making mistakes, replicating the findings of Myers and Paris 30 years earlier
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Many students think comprehension is “knowing what the words mean” and “what the author said”
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The key “strategy” is metacognitive self-monitoring because without it, there is no awareness of misunderstanding and thus no need for the strategies.
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Far greater attention has to be placed on getting readers to feel the lack of understanding/slow down in the face of the realization that they do not get it.
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This is a key!
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The third post in Grant Wiggins’ series on reading and literacy.
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As the previous posts on literacy have shown, many researchers are critical of the way the strategies are taught (or NOT taught), and few studies show solid transfer of learning into independent reading. There is no doubt that comprehension can be improved through teaching cognitive and comprehension strategies; the most common implementation of these strategies is often doomed to fail. Every teacher of reading, ELA, and English needs to understand how and why.
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Collaborating Online Is Sometimes Better than Face-to-Face
From Harvard Business Review
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Good post on digital workflow for the iPad from Holly Clark
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Students Ask Big Questions At Science Leadership Academy
From Tom Vander Ark about his visit to Science Leadership Academy – “Philadelphia is home to a high school that is transforming the opportunity set for 500 urban students in an unremarkable converted office buildings located downtown.”
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The 10 most popular TEDx talks | Playlist
The 10 most-watched TEDx Talks
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iPad Summit Boston 2015 – EdTechTeacher iPad Summits
WOW! #ettipad Boston?! It’s like someone built my #edtech PLN Pantheon! @mrbadura @GuyKawasaki http://t.co/YAwIVDA8bg http://t.co/lBQEcCXYYL
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Twitter for Learning: The Past, Present and Future
From Jane Hart – “…to understand the VALUE it holds for them personally or professionally, requires spending TIME on it – being immersed in it and “feeling” what it’s all about.”
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Evidence-Based Professional Development
White paper from Campaign for Learning in the UK
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12 Google Apps Adoption Tips For Your EDU
From The Gooru – “How do you increase adoption early on and ensure a smooth implementation for your school? Below are 12 tips addressing change management, training and adoption.”
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Convert PDFs to Google Docs to Differentiate Instructional Materials
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On Reading, Part 5: A key flaw in using the Gradual Release of Responsibility model | Granted, and…
Part 5 of great series on reading by Grant Wiggins
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The Finnish National Board of Education – Current issues
Subject teaching in Finnish schools is not being abolished
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Hacking PD Through Innovation and Collaboration – SXSWedu 2015 (with images, tweets)
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MassAnalysis – Pioneer Institute :: Home
Want to see how well your Mass. town operates compared to neighboring communities? Check out: http://t.co/kRAgG4mcsj #mapoli #localgov
Let’s Share More Student Work At #BPSCHAT – Burlington Blog Update (Edition 20)
The post below is actually a copy of a weekly e-mail that I send to our staff to promote our Burlington Public Schools Blog which shares the great work going on across our school district. I also try to give a quick technology tip/resource that I think would be useful. It is the 20th post in the series.
Share Your Student Work By Tagging It To #BPSCHAT
While it is great to see the growing number of staff sharing information on our district twitter hashtag, it would be awesome to see everyone sharing some of the great work by students on the district hashtag. I have embedded a few examples of what this could like below. Please share pictures and or posts at #bpschat or feel free to e-mail me photos to share from the district twitter account. If you have any questions, feel free to touch base.
//storify.com/patrickmlarkin3/share-your-student-work-at-bpschat/embed?border=false//storify.com/patrickmlarkin3/share-your-student-work-at-bpschat.js?border=false[View the story “Share your student work at #bpschat” on Storify]
A quick look at our BPS Facebook Page in 2015
We have been pretty active in using our district Facebook page to get out information to our followers there. One of the nice things about having the Burlington Public Schools Facebook Like Page is that there are a number of analytics that allow us to see which posts are most popular with followers. Having this type of feedback is great because it allows us to get a grasp of what type of things our followers like to see on the page.
As we look back at the first three months of 2015, the posts with the most likes have been those announcing the cancellation of school due to snow. All of these posts received between 2,000 and 3,000 views. However, the one post unrelated to a snow day that also approached this was a great post from Memorial Principal Deb Dressler last week highlighting the “We are all MEMORIAL” initiative started by two fifth graders.
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| Heartwarming story at Memorial School! – “WE are all MEMORIAL” http://bit.ly/1ELDYCe #bpschat #edchatma #stuvoice Posted by Burlington Public Schools on Saturday, March 28, 2015 |
Burlington Blog Update
- Day 104 – Google and Schools – Ben Schersten – Francis Wyman IT Specialist
- Day 105 – Why Take Latin at BHS – Parina Patel – BHS Senior
- Day 106 – Science Center Pattern Exhibit – Mrs. Casey – Francis Wyman 4th Grade
- Day 107 – Amazing Amphibian and Reptile Projects – Mrs. Boucher – Francis Wyman Second Grade
- Day 108 – We’re Not Monkeying Around – BHS Help Desk Students Develop App
- Day 109 – MSMS Photography Club Continues Making Quality Pictures – Mrs. Rogers
- Day 110 – Culmination of the Simple Machines / Invention Unit – Mr. Daley – Fox Hill Grade 4
- Day 121 – Light! – George Norman – Fox Hill Grade 5
- Day 122 – Graphic Design Invitations – Mr. Mistler – BHS Art Department
- Day 123 – Rock and Mineral Testing – Mrs. Cyr – Memorial Elementary Grade 3
With two-thirds of the school year behind us, there Only 57 more posts to go…
My Weekly Diigo Bookmarks (March 29, 2015)
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Part I of the 2015 Brown Center Report on American Education.
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NPR Interview: Jay Smith And Mary Willingham, Authors Of ‘Cheated’ : NPR
today, UNC’s athletics are also known for something else entirely: a massive academic fraud scheme. In Cheated: The UNC Scandal, the Education of Athletes, and the Future of Big-Time College Sports, UNC history professor Jay Smith and Mary Willingham, who worked with UNC athletes as a learning specialist, detail the scheme and the attempts to cover it up
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Debate over test security vs. student privacy rages in the age of social media – The Washington Post
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Dave Isay shares his TED Prize wish: to take StoryCorps global
From TED Blog – ““Tonight, I’m going to make the case that inviting a loved one, a friend or a stranger to record a meaningful interview might just turn out to be one of the most important moments in that person’s life — and in yours,” says Dave Isay of StoryCorps, stepping to the TED stage to accept the 2015 TED Prize in Session 5 of TED2015.”
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Family Success at the Heart of Engagement Efforts in Mass. District
If parents in the Springfield, Mass., school system want to help their children with the college-application process, figure out how to balance the family budget, learn to knit, or even become a certified lifeguard, there’s a class for that, thanks to the district’s Parent Academy.
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Knowing and Wisdom Isn’t Enough
More food for thought on marketing schools from Brendan Schneider
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5 Steps to Effective and Transformative Professional Development
From Getting Smart – “At last year’s Learning Forward Conference in Texas, Linda Hammond Darling (the respected Professor of Education at Stanford University and Director of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future) was asked about the effectiveness of teacher professional development. She said that while she believes some districts are doing a great job and could just tweak it around the edges, about 90% of school districts need to think about starting over and redesigning their PD.”
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The Somali woman who’s become a global star on Instagram
Another example of social media used to promote a positive message – What’s your stereotype of the Somali capital Mogadishu? Whatever it is, chances are it’s different from the view you get if you follow Ugaaso Abukar Boocow on Instagram.
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Learners are learning differently; are you changing the way you train and support them?
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Pls vote by RT & Fav for @TEDxFargo @MrsDelz https://t.co/zmwhFK6It4
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Nipmuc Regional High School Principal’s Blog: Guest Technology Blogger: Senior Ashley Whitmore
Guest Blogger on Nipmuc Blog – Highlighting benefits of 1:1 at the high school.
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Five-Year Comprehensive Professional Development Plan
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Adult learning inmultiple forms abounds in school districts. However, articulation of focused, coherent professional development is a rarity. A specified path for professional development and training for all employeesserves toclarifyexpectations, evaluations,and the allocation of resources. This requires a school district to clarify its aim as a system and align professional development so that it can have its greatest impact on improving student learning. A school district should organize itself sothat each employee has access to adult learning that affects his or her ability to perform so that every student learns and is able to graduate.
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Continuous improvement is a familiar model, used in much school improvement planning. Killion and Roy‘s Backmapping Model for Planning Results-Based Professional Learning, shown below, complements school improvement planning. Killion and Royobserve that―School improvement plans identify student learning goals, while professional learning helps educators acquirethe knowledge and skills to help students meet those goals‖
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If students designed their own schools… – YouTube
A look at Monument Mountain High School’s student-designed program
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After Learning New Words, Brain Sees Them as Pictures |
Interesting study from Georgetown University Medical Center
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Wondering about customer service when it comes to the way educational institutions connect with their stakeholders, mainly parents and students. What connections can we draw here?
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Research Seeks Scale For Measuring Student Engagement
From Teach Thought – “a University of Missouri researcher has developed a scale that quantifies student engagement and could help educators identify barriers to student participation and increase levels of student involvement and learning.”
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Collaborative Culture Fuels Meriden’s Blended Success
from Getting Smart – A great example is Meriden Public Schools, which hosted a Blended Learning Summit (#MPSblended).
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Scaling Unhangouts: Our First In-District #Edcamp Online
A great idea for an online edcamp which was carried out by Meg Roa
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What’s the Perfect Amount of Homework?
Melissa Dahl from NYMag reports that new research published in the Journal of Educational Psychology has found that any amount of homework that surpasses 70 minutes is too much.
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Great set of podcasts on a variety of topics related to literacy
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Flipping the Classroom Explained – YouTube
Great video explaining the Flipped Classroom
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Why We Are Misunderstanding the Chromebook iPad Debate
Good summary of what the iPad can do that laptops cannot from Tim Holt
My Weekly Diigo Bookmarks (March 22, 2015)
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Preventing Youth Suicide Through Lessons Of Hope
From Teach Thought – “Schools for Hope is a new, free educational curriculum that was developed by The International Foundation for Research and Education on Depression (iFred) to prevent youth suicide by giving students, educators and parents the necessary learning tools to find and maintain hope.”
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How to Design an Agenda for an Effective Meeting
From Harvard Business Review
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Increase Learning Comprehension By Taking Pen and Paper Notes in Class | Big Think
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Why the American Dream is unraveling, in 4 charts
from the Wall Street Journal with some interesting data to back ti up – “analysis shows how family structure, parenting practices, schooling and health habits correlate with diminishing opportunities for poorer children.”
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From Terrance Ross in The Atlantic – “Nearly every school in America has some form of Internet connectivity—but that alone doesn’t mean all kids have equal access to the web.”
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Letter from the Department of Education in NJ re: Social Media monitoring
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Doxxing to Defend Student Privacy
Another Must Read – More on student privacy from Audrey Watters – prompted by Pearson’s monitoring students’ online activity during PARCC exams.
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Warning bells for me: this was the second story in a row in which Braun had disclosed the personal information of a female edu employee of the state of New Jersey. And in this second story, it wasn’t just work info; it was a home address. Her deets. Her documents. Her dox.
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Some great tips from Brendan Schneider about using social media tools to help manage your priorities
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Twitter Looks Back on Its 9-Year History, in Tweets
From Time – Social media site celebrates birthday with a round-up of influential moments and milestones
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Is Your Child’s School Student-Centered? A Checklist for School Visits |
From Bonnie Lathram on Getting Smart – “This checklist is for parents who want to ensure that the school is student-centered. A student-centered classroom and school helps create deeper levels of engagement through a more personalized learning environment and allows for learners to thrive- by putting them in the driver’s seat.”
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Maybe we don’t understand what readers really do – and why it matters
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Responding To Criticisms Of The Common Core
From Teach Thought
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Research shows how to make your employees happier
Research shows how to make your employees happier and more productive http://t.co/TTOq9bBPse http://t.co/Cj3NNj8oUg
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Highlighted sections of ELL Requirements for Principals
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ELL students must participate in allMCAS or PARCC tests scheduled for their grades regardless of the language program and services they are receiving or the amount of time they have been in the United States. The one exception applies to first-year ELL students who enrolled in U.S. schools after March 1, 2014.
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ELL students, including those who have been identified as LEP in the past, but are no longer reported as LEP, may use an authorized bilingual word-to-word dictionary and/or glossary on the following MCASand/or PARCC tests:
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Ohio Schools Punish Children Who Opt Out of Common Core Testing
Sad story about students being disciplined for opting out of PARCC testing.
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How to Stream Live Google Hangouts on Air to YouTube
Are you using Google Hangouts on Air? Do you want to know how to set up for live YouTube streaming?
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What are the Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make When Integrating Technology into the Classroom?
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Know Your Terms: Constructivism
A good overview of Constructivism
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An app for learning grammar and building sentences
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Universal design for learning brings emotions into education technology.
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Allows teachers to create a custom search for their students
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Disney’s $1 Billion Bet on a Magical Wristband
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That’s how we think of it. If we can get out of the way, our guests can create more memories.
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It also allows Disney to optimize employees. The goal was to create a system that would essentially replace the time spent fiddling with payments and tickets for moments of personal interactions with visitors.
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“move past transactions, into an interactive space, where they can personalize the experience,”
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In fact, it’s called the paradox of choice: You make people happier not by giving them more options but by stripping away as many as you can
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Such a great read! Worksheets vs. iPads – The Surp
Such a great read! Worksheets vs. iPads – The Surprising Truth http://t.co/TxFnChCnIr #gafesummit #iossummit
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On today’s open thread – Player Development is human development masquerading as a baseball endeavor. http://t.co/LXMSrhLBMt
Words of Wisdom For Educators On Social Media And Our Students
I have been a longtime proponent of the use of social media by students and educators and I have written a little bit about this in the last few months with a post titled What Do You Do When You See Inappropriate Social Media Posts By Students? As I was scanning my Twitter stream tonight, I spotted a few tweets on this same topic from Chris Lehmann and Audrey Watters, two of the most thoughtful educators I know.
This is a conversation that needs to be revisited in many communities where practices and policies are disconnecting students and educators from a resource that can help us create and/or extend connections between adults in students. Thanks to Chris and Audrey for sharing their thoughts on this important topic!
A New Search Tool For You and Your Students – Burlington Blog Update (Edition 19)
The post below is actually a copy of a weekly e-mail that I send to our staff to promote our Burlington Public Schools Blog which shares the great work going on across our school district. I also try to give a quick technology tip/resource that I think would be useful. It is the 19th post in the series.
During the Google Summit in Burlington this past weekend, I stumbled across a new resource that I thought would be useful for teachers as they support their students in doing research. A new tool called Choosito, allows students and teachers to avoid inappropriate sites and also search by grade level and reading level. The two options for searching on Choosito are a web search and a library search. The library search gives access to a growing number of sites that have already been vetted by other educators and the web search provides a broader search that does not bring up sites that would be inappropriate for a library.
For a quick overview of Choosito, check out the two-minute video below.
Burlington Blog Update
- Day 104 – Google and Schools – Ben Schersten – Francis Wyman IT Specialist
- Day 105 – Why Take Latin at BHS – Parina Patel – BHS Senior
- Day 106 – Science Center Pattern Exhibit – Mrs. Casey – Francis Wyman 4th Grade
- Day 107 – Amazing Amphibian and Reptile Projects – Mrs. Boucher – Francis Wyman Second Grade
- Day 108 – We’re Not Monkeying Around – BHS Help Desk Students Develop App
- Day 109 – MSMS Photography Club Continues Making Quality Pictures – Mrs. Rogers
- Day 110 – Culmination of the Simple Machines / Invention Unit – Mr. Daley – Fox Hill Grade 4
- Day 111 – 6B Visits Europe via Google Tour Builder – MSMS Grade 6
- Day 112 – Unlimited – Michael Seleman – BHS Senior
- Day 113 – BHS Celebrates National Foreign Language Week – BHS Foreign Language Dept.
Only 67 more posts to go…
My Weekly Diigo Bookmarks (March 15, 2015)
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Google Classroom iPad App User Guide for Teachers – by EdTechnocation.com – Google Docs
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Why Deep Reading is Suffering as Technology Advances
What do you think? Is it not possible to deep read in an electronic book format? I find that reading on the iPad may come with a few distractions, but I also really enjoy being able to quickly look up related information to further explore ideas, facts, words, and so on.
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Workflow: Moderate Student Email-Posted Videos to YouTube
Good overview of workflow for classrooms uploading videos directly to a class YouTube Channel.
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The Right Way to End a Meeting
Simple but effective way to ensure that everyone is on the same page
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@patrickmlarkin Check out our website for more info: http://t.co/KJvxyJ7yDZ
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If you’re looking to improve your core, squat. http://t.co/0HCqFBoy91
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The Compelled Educator: Ideas for Using Google Hangouts in the Classroom
Ideas for Using Google Hangouts in the Classroom http://t.co/edpx8ZwAOD via @Jennifer_Hogan #ALedchat
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Frankie’s New 3D Printed Hand | Enabling The Future
A story abut our middle school students and what they did with their 3-d printer
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The iPad Goes to School: The Rise of Educational Tablets – Businessweek
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Drive Your Classroom Guide – Google Docs
Great Resource from Rich Kiker
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From Chris Casal – a great addition to the traditional bulletin board by using Aurasma for links to multi-media presentations (iMovie)
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Highlander Institute Blends Rhode Island
Great overview of how the Highlander Institute supports Blended Learning for schools in the state of Rhode Island
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Link to Google Drive Folders from Buckeye Valley Schools in Ohio
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Inside the film room: Transition defense | Comcast SportsNet – CSNNE.com
Inside the film room with Brad Stevens: Transition defense #Celtics http://t.co/TKbdqv3VyT
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New York Public School Abolishes Homework
P.S. 116 will be a very interesting school to keep an eye on. Researchers will doubtlessly analyze whatever effects result from every student’s dream come true: the abolition of homework.
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Video, Transcript & Excerpts From President Obama’s Extraordinary Selma Speech
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How Do We Learn? How Should We Learn?
Great post by Jackie Gerstein on the science of learning.
A quick research tip
After seeing a blog post from Slate last week that discussed that Google is thinking about ranking its search results on facts rather than links, I was wondering how many people take advantage of the search tools built into the social bookmarking tool Diigo. Why do a random Google search when you can search inside this network of links that have already been vetted by others?
I wrote a bit about the problems inherent in a random Google search a while back and thought I’d revisit this example with Diigo to show the advantage. When you do a random Google search for information on something (i.e. Martin Luther King Jr.) you don’t really now the quality of the site before digging beneath the surface of the link. The example below highlights this fact as the links below that came up on the first page of my Google search include martinlutherking.org which is run by the White Supremacist group Storm Front.
Try Diigo Instead
The search below is from Diigo where members can click on the Discover tab at the top of the page and then choose Community to search the bookmarks of everyone who uses the service. The list below gives an example from the Martin Luther King Jr. search that was also done on Google. The top sites about Martin Luther King Jr. here are from the Nobel Prize, Stanford University and the King Center which was founded by Coretta Scott King.
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So next time you need to research, I encourage you to give Diigo a try.
My Un-Learning Journey 