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Good Question – How many teachers currently see themselves as connectors? As curators? As models for learning?
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Great resource for K-12 math
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From Alfie Kohn – “Maybe someone just figured that the language of productive failure is a clever way to sell valuable progressive practices to a wider audience, rather like rebranding them as “21st-century skills” or “brain-based education.” But that just raises the question: How in the world did this come to be a selling point? Why have so many people accepted the idea that kids need to fail more?”
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good thoughts on the importance of curating and following talented curators
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According to a study cited in this white paper, Knowledge fuels Digital Transformation – Digital Transformation Revolutionizes Learning, 83 percent of respondents said their companies lack the skills needed for digital transformation. Seventy-three percent stated that their business executives don’t have the technology skills required.
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Great resource for cultural etiqutte from around the world.
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Research by Marty West and colleagues of no excuses charter schools in Boston found large gains in test scores but also significantly lowered student performance on noncognitive measures. And Josh Angrist and colleagues found that those schools actually decrease four year high school graduation rates despite large gains in test scores.
My Weekly Diigo Bookmarks (June 19, 2016)
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Free Online Digital Citizenship training for teachers
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High-speed internet service can be defined as a utility, a federal court has ruled in a sweeping decision clearing the way for more rigorous policing of broadband providers and greater protections for web users.
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From Monica Evon – Great resources for elementary teachers – I have found most Mystery Hangouts last about 30-45 minutes. You connect with another classroom from around the globe to guess their Mystery Location. You can connect through Skype or Google Hangouts depending on what your district allows. The goal is to have your students guess the other school’s location before they figure out yours. Students ask each other yes and no questions. You can guess their state, country, town, city or even their school name depending on the amount of time you have allotted for your hangout.
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A community college reform group has selected a handful of schools in Virginia and Maryland to develop degree programs using open-source materials in place of textbooks, an initiative that could save students as much as $1,300 a year.
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Many of the educators I encountered who seemed best able to engender noncognitive abilities in their students never said a word about these skills in the classroom.
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From Carl Hooker
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I think I may root for Kevin Love because I know he hates Lebron more than I do https://t.co/72qhlMv1LT
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More good social media marketing advice from Brendan Schneider.
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From Larry Ferlazzo
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Our research has shown that these children tend to have a “growth mindset.” They believe that their basic abilities, even their intelligence, can be developed through learning. That’s why they love challenges and remain confident through setbacks. Their more vulnerable counterparts, however, have more of a “fixed mindset.”
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From Pedro Noguera – “Social science research has consistently shown that public school students with higher-income parents are likelier to attain higher levels of education than their lower-income peers. The United States continues to have the highest income inequality among first-world nations, and all the grit in the world will not change that.”
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Blab is a live-broadcasting app that streams video to a “Public” or “Unlisted” stream (host’s choice). With 4 “Open-Seats” available in each Blab, topic-driven conversations are shared with a live audience.
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Good list – Mostly tools I use, but a few to check out.
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Good post on PBL from New Tech Network
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What makes a book a book? Is it just anything that stores and communicates information? Or does it have to do with paper, binding, font, ink, its weight in your hands, the smell of the pages? To answer these questions, Julie Dreyfuss goes back to the start of the book as we know it to show how these elements came together to make something more than the sum of their parts.
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From Edudemic – From smartboards to iPads for every student, technology has revolutionized the classroom. Now, gym teachers are integrating new technologies into P.E. class to get students healthier than ever. Gadgets that help students track their health goals, gaming systems that involve full body movement, virtual tools that break down complicated sports instructions — this kind of technology has the power to transform students’ time in the gym. Consider the following five technologies that are becoming commonplace in some gym classes, and the pros and cons for each:
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Obama 10 days before the Orlando massacre, responding to a question on gun control https://t.co/d8mQ3SbQye https://t.co/RkhaUP5KWE
Are Digital Devices Paralyzing Your Productivity?
Back in January, I wrote a bit about Infomania, the state where an individual is so obsessed with the flow of information from technological devices that their ability to focus routine tasks is greatly inhibited. We all need to have a sense of awareness of the hold that the constant stream of information coming through technological devices has on us. In many cases, today’s technologically focused individuals have no idea just how inefficient they have become due to the unhealthy hold that their devices have on their attention.
The inspiration for my earlier post (and this one) is the Infomagical Project that was developed by the folks at Note to Self, a great podcast that looks at the impact that technology plays in our lives. The Infomagical project proposes daily challenges for people to undertake in order to recover some of the balance in their lives and reduce their preoccupation with technology.
As we head into the summer, it is a great time to revisit this topic and renew our commitment to finding a sense of equilibrium in this endless battle against the flow of digital information and stay present and productive in our personal and professional lives. Thankfully, this week’s Note to Self podcast highlights the most important challenge from the one-week project back in January with its Infomagical Boot Camp focused on single tasking.
I challenge you all to focus for 20 minutes on this week’s 20-minute podcast and think about the role technology plays in your life. Is it a healthy balance or are you jumping from one task to another without completing anything you started? Maybe some of you didn’t get this far down in this post without interruptions due to email alerts or social media updates…
Good luck with the single-task challenge!
https://www.wnyc.org/widgets/ondemand_player/wnyc/#file=/audio/json/626578/&share=1
My Weekly Diigo Bookmarks (June 12, 2016)
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Wondering what the Globe’s Agenda is here.
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Could we do this internally? I feeli like we could promote more face-to-face interaction by scaling back on e-mails/
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Great interviews with top #Massachusetts #educators! @patrickmlarkin @PeterHReynolds @WorldLillie https://t.co/GAnshafxcu #edchat
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From Terry Heick – “Over the last couple of years, the news that both Apple and Amazon were entering or otherwise updating their participation in the textbook market is both underwhelming (we really should be way past seeing next textbook forms as innovation) and important (there’s a bigger picture, as always).”
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From EdSurge – Many people think they know exactly what “professional development” is. But do they, really?
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Good reminder about scheduling and classroom culture – ” This school year, we added five minutes to each of our content area classes, causing a negative ripple effect in our cultivation of classroom community. It turns out, five minutes is a lot more valuable than it seems.”
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Before we can implement policies designed to shepherd more of this country’s residents toward a college degree, we must actually know what makes a student college-ready. But what if our definitions of college readiness are incomplete, or worse, painting an unreasonably dour picture of how prepared U.S. students are for the rigors of college?
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Only on his mother’s side … https://t.co/EiIjrw2DH9
My Weekly Diigo Bookmarks (June 5, 2016)
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Good stuff from Cale Birk on Learner Centered Design – “When we create assumption-based solutions independently of those who the solution will impact, and then fail to collect feedback on how the solution worked, we have become “organization-centered”.
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Great distinction between these tests by Peter Greene.
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Great seeing a good friend and talking about helping teachers! https://t.co/NOwgwBwd5t
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“Breaking Tradition” via @patrickmlarkin watch his AWESOME @TEDxYouthBHS talk now! https://t.co/ILz0PzXgGa #Tededchat #bpschat #cpchat
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Curious why Nza-Ari Khepra launched Project Orange Tree + the #WearOrange campaign? https://t.co/AuMKVkbFCh
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Free annotated research papers and accompanying teaching materials
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Because noncognitive assessment is still so new to schools, one answer to this question is we don’t yet know. We anticipate that five years from now we may be astounded by the diverse and innovative ways in which educators wield what we believe will be a powerful and creative tool.
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My buds @NikkiDRobertson & @patrickmlarkin say: “Tell your story, or someone else will.” #tellyourstory #1to1techat https://t.co/pzdeoIcygX
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Great site for audiobooks
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My appearance on BAM Radio on the topic of Transgender issues in schools.
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From EdWeek – Middle and high schools in Maine are returning their iPads and switching back to laptops after a survey found that 88.5 percent of teachers and 74 percent of students in one district preferred laptops for schoolwork and classroom instruction,
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Student Growth Percentiles are as reliable as flipping a coin according to this report.
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“You might as well flip a coin,” Stephen Sireci, one of the report’s authors and a UMass professor at the Center for Educational Assessment, said in an interview. “Our research indicates that student growth percentiles are unreliable and should not be used in teacher evaluations. We see a lot of students being misclassified at the classroom level.”
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An overview of all of the research done on grit.
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We tell students they need a bachelor’s degree to get ahead. But for too many, the numbers no longer add up.
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From the The Council on American-Islamic Relations
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From Jonathan Martin.
My Weekly Diigo Bookmarks (May 29, 2016)
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Burlington #bpschat https://t.co/Sx7raQrE9j
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From Richard Byrne
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“Adobe Spark empowers anyone – including small businesses, social marketers and students – to create stunning visual content that engages audiences across multiple channels and looks great on any device.”
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From Edutopia – Fortunately, there are plenty of resources on the web with useful information for all stakeholders — parents, students, educators, and administrators — to help support a successful transition to the next major stepping stone. Here are a few for each milestone in the K-12 pipeline and beyond.
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I like the open-ended questions used here at the Summative Meeting.
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Washington Post article on MA study on PARCC and MCAS – Interesting commentary from a Vermont Supt. who thinks it is a fairy tale.
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does the test validly measure the much vaunted touchstone criteria of “College and Career Ready?”
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This means the PARCC tests predicted 16 percent of first-year college GPA.
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With just as much accuracy, they could have said “the PARCC test cannot explain between 82-95 percent of college GPA. Thus, it cannot validly predict college readiness.”
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Nonetheless, Mr. Mathis is also correct that the correlations are low enough that many students (and parents, and colleges) would overestimate or underestimate their true college readiness—if they relied only on the test score to make the judgment.
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We wouldn’t recommend that anyone rely exclusively on the test score for high-stakes decisions.
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A thoughtful approach to homework for math…Even though I’m not a fan of 30 minutes per night.
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From Phil Hill – I’m seeing a lot of chatter online about the recently-released Blackboard report and this slide in particular: Foundational Insights When students take a class online, they make a tacit agreement to a poorer experience which undermines…
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A lot of information in this 2-minute video on the diversity in the U.S.
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Good overview of Google Classroom from Richard Wells.
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Socio-economic class affects the way children are prescribed pills—and not at all in the way you’d expect.
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From the Fordham Institute
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A good overview of ESSA from Politico
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From Mashable – Still, education has always been a big focus for Apple and its clear that is only going to continue. Many of the big iOS 9.3 features for the iPad were aimed strictly at education. With iPad sales continuing to stagnate, focusing on education makes a lot of sense. After all, it’s clear the kids love using them in the classroom.
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Great video on the impact of the Arts
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From Richard Byrne – Adobe Spark is a new suite of free tools for creating images, videos, and simple web pages.
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From Larry Ferlazzo – Looks Like A Good Source Of Free Reading Passages For Social Studies).…
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Interesting study out of Germany
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Jesus loves the church: Shadows and Signposts of his love, you can listen to it right here:… https://t.co/QkCGrUqfz2
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“Google Keep is like virtual sticky notes, but it’s so much more. Create notes in your Google Keep with a headline and body text. Add check boxes to make an instant checklist — perfect for a grocery list or a “grading to do” list.”
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Evolving how you lead — you may already sense — is hard work. It’s hard for multiple reasons.
BPS Blog Update (Volume 9) – Helping Parents Support Summer Reading
Maybe it’s because they have just finished two-legs of horse racing’s triple crown (with the Kentucky Derby and The Preakness completed), but all I can think of right now is… ‘Down the stretch they come!”
It is unbelievable that we are under 20 school days left in our school year and will be into June next week. With this in mind, I wanted to share a great post from Pernille Ripp about helping parents support summer reading for their children. Pernille, a 7th grade teacher in Wisconsin, has some great advice for the parents of students at all grade levels in her post
Parents – How to Help Your Child Love Reading Over the Summer. I encourage you to share it with all of your parents in the closing weeks. If you are looking for a great read for the summer yourself, then I encourage you to check out Pernille’s Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students
Here are the latest posts on the Burlington Blog…
Day 141 – What We’re Up To: Quizlet Live! – Ms. Mirabella – MSMS Foreign Language
Day 156 – “Earth Day Every Day” and other important lessons! – Memorial ELL Blog
Day 157 – “FASHION ON THE HILL” SETS ARTISTIC PRECEDENT – Ms. Chang – BHS Art Dept.
Day 158 – http://burlingtonblogs.blogspot.com/2016/05/day-158-spring-poetry-book-mrs-hoyt.html
Day 159 – Enhancing Student Learning With Technology – Pine Glen Library and Technology Center
Day 160 – Exploring the Reservoir – Mrs. Cyr – Memorial School Grade 3
Only 20 posts to go…
My Weekly Diigo Bookmarks (May 22, 2016)
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Our Burlington eNumeracy Website
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Good clip on teaching technology
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From Larry Ferlazzo -Thanks to Elyse Eidman-Aadahl from the amazing National Writing Project, I learned about a fascinating interactive set-up by the Wall Street Journal to compare liberal and conservative news feeds f…
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Important thoughts on personalized learning and what tech companies are trying to sell.
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New study on charter schools from Columbia University
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Read between the lines of a college financial aid award letter https://t.co/HYKLSmKsdW https://t.co/blQ869LcnU
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From Tom Vander Ark and Getting Smart
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Good ELL resources from Getting Smart
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Schooling in all its forms must place a greater priority on developing student noncognitive skills and character strengths.
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Such sanctuaries are becoming necessary as Massachusetts schools confront an alarming rise in the number of students who are hospitalized for mental health disorders. Over the last decade, many schools have seen the number of cases grow from just a few a year to upwards of several dozen, often transforming guidance offices into de facto psychiatric wards, educators say.
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This is so good, people! Watch it! @brandon_timm is awesome! #cpchat #nebedchat #education https://t.co/9QWFlH5vtN
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Average salaries
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Social and Emotional Learning Core Competencies
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Social literacy, as an important factor for furthering more socially productive and aware citizenship, offers richer interpersonal connections, expanded social circles, cultural fluency, and instills genuine and appropriate interactions.
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One Drop of Love is a multimedia one-woman show exploring the intersections of race, class and gender in search of justice and LOVE.
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The Social Centric Institute is designed to enhance skills of educators, counselors, parents, community organizers, law enforcement, and anyone wanting to improve human relations.
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Good look at what students need to do to show what they are passionate about.
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According to Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL), social and emotional learning is “the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.”
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“What beliefs guide your work in your school?”
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Duplicating existing leadership won’t bring success when adaptivity is the order of the day. What’s the new recipe for talent development? RADAR identifies two key ingredients: Initiative & A Growth Mindset
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Good resources for fostering an adaptive mindset
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My slides from #OERSummit are available here. https://t.co/ZLgScUODkW
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Check out our Open Anthology of Earlier American Lit here: https://t.co/29IiS4A5gL #OERSummit https://t.co/zK5OqDrQs4
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Coming Sept. 27, 2016 https://t.co/NJNJxgFPa2 https://t.co/PvhIEScv8h
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Ugh
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From Harvard Education – Welcome to the Internet of Things. It may be about to change our lives as radically as the Internet itself did 20 years ago.
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Report from the Berkman Center at Harvard on problems of surveillance and cybersecurity
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The stress low-income kids experience hurts them biologically. How we punish them doesn’t help.
My Weekly Diigo Bookmarks (May 15, 2016)
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Good analogies to help answer the WHY on moving to OpenEd Resorces
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From EdWeek – Efforts by K-12 schools to give every student a laptop computer increased student achievement and gave a modest boost to their “21st century skills,” according to a first-of-its-kind meta-analysis of 15 years’ worth of research studies.
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From the ALA – “It is important for libraries to develop privacy policies for student use of library resources that are adopted by both the library and the school’s policy-making body. Students should be notified about library privacy policies when borrowing materials or accessing resources for the first time and as appropriate when there is a change in services, policies, or access. Library privacy policies should be made easily available and understandable to students in an age-appropriate manner. Safeguarding user privacy requires that staff keep all in-library use and reference questions confidential and assure that there is no monitoring by staff or peers of what students are reading, viewing, or researching while in the library.”
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We are adding these to our technology resources in Burlington
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Unfortunate news here…
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The 2016 presidential campaign is unlike any other campaign in recent history in the ways it’s affecting students, schools and teachers. According to 2,000 teachers who responded to a survey Teaching Tolerance conducted in late March 2016, the campaign is: eliciting fear and anxiety among children of color, immigrants and Muslims; emboldening students to mimic the words and tone of the campaign; making it hard for teachers to remain impartial in the face of ugly rhetoric; and disrupting opportunities to teach effectively about political campaigns and civic engagement.
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Interesting study on the impact of mass shootings on gun control.
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Great initiative for intergenerational opportunities.
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From MA DESE – Planning for Success is a proven planning model piloted by districts in Massachusetts. Based on the Massachusetts Planning and Implementation Framework Download PDF Document Download MS WORD Document, Planning for Success incorporates legislative requirements, educator evaluation expectations, and effective planning practices in its design. The Planning for Success model includes a multi-year improvement plan and annual action plan that supports implementation. Planning for Success provides simple and accessible resources districts and schools can use to conduct an inclusive planning process. The goal of the Planning for Success process is to create a quality plan while building community ownership and support.
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Another perspective on Grit
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Good overview of the work done surrounding Personalized/Blended Learning at the HIghlander Institute
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enjoyed this post by @patrickmlarkin #edchat https://t.co/XF4oL9s5fX
Technology Addiction, It’s Not Just For Kids
We saw another round of alarming headlines last week decreeing the downfall of our current crop of teenagers due to their addiction to mobile technology. These headlines were prompted by a new report from Common Sense Media about technology addiction and teenagers. The report, Technology Addiction: Concern, Controversy and Finding Balance, was all over the news with countless headlines like Smartphone Addiction Rampant and Half of All Teenagers Are Addicted to Their Smartphones. While the headlines are accurate, they do not tell the entire story.
These negative headlines are great if they are click-bait intended to get adults reading beyond the bad news and raise awareness about how we can constructively deal with concerns about technology-use and teens. Unfortunately, the general theme coming from the media reports over the past few years has been to sound alarms and not to focus on a more modern perspective and all of the possibilities that go along with it. Thankfully, Common Sense Media provides a balanced approach to this conversation in the report.
However, schools also need to step forward and be part of the movement to let families know that all screen time is not created equal. As school leaders strive to add more instructional technology resources to their classrooms, they also must ensure that parents are kept in the loop about what their students are doing with digital devices to support their learning. We must be clear that our goal is to choose the best instructional resources that fit the needs of the learner at a given moment. Sometimes the right choice may be a digital resource and sometimes it will not. More importantly, we need to talk about when and why certain digital resources are appropriate. We also need to encourage adults to do the same thing regarding the choices they make surrounding the use of technology for their children and themselves.
Despite the fact that it did not make the headlines, a quick look below at some of the research from the Common Sense Media study shows that the problems surrounding the constructive use of technology are just as significant for parents as they are for students. Then again, these stories are being written by adults. I wonder if the headlines would be different if thet were written in a student publication…
The bottom line is the following statement from the report:
“Embracing a balanced approach to media and technology, and supporting adult role-modeling, is recommended to prevent problematic media use.”
For school leaders, this starts with us. Let’s foster open and honest conversations about the struggles everyone in our school community is having keeping technology in its proper place. Let’s share strategies that are working for families who are finding success staying connected to the world both digitally and in-person. It is clear that there is a role for us in this conversation if we are willing to take it. So let’s look at the conclusion of the report and commit to discussing the following two recommendations as a starting point:
- Talk About It – Connect with your kids and support learning by talking about what they’re seeing, reading, and playing. Encourage kids to question and consider media messages to better understand the role media plays in their own lives.
- Walk the Walk – Lead by example by putting your own devices away while driving, at mealtimes, and during family time. Parent role-modeling shows kids the behavior and values you want in your home. Kids will be more open and willing participants when the house rules apply to you, too.
My Un-Learning Journey 