We Run Our Schools Like We Coach Soccer

As a former coach, I was intrigued by the headline Hog the ball, kid referencing an article written by Sasha Issenberg on Boston.com about the way we coach youth soccer in our country. Reading through the article, a number of things seemed closely connected to how we educate students as well.

“We take the creativity and imagination out of players at a young age,” said Thomas Rongen, coach of the United States under-20 men’s national team. This reminded me of a scenario Will Richardson described at a conference last spring. He asked how many students we thought would raise their hands if we went into a kindergarten or first grade class an asked how many of them were good at art. We all agreed that all of the students would raise their hands enthusiastically. Then the bigger question was asked - At what age do kids start thinking they are not good at art? More importantly, why?

It is of course not just about art class, but when is that students start to lose their excitement for school in general? Again, why does this happen?

A Possible Solution (From The Soccer Field)

As the article continued it described the difference between soccer instruction in the Unites States and soccer instruction in countries with more talented soccer teams.

"In those cultures, children hone their skills naturally through relentless informal play...They suggest ways to reduce the amount of instruction entirely, instead creating loose situations where kids get a lot of access to the ball and are able to experiment with it... No adult with a whistle will stop a cocky player from making a daring run at goal, or scold her for insouciantly challenging a defender..."

For me, I think we tend to be to narrow-minded in how we allow students to access information and make it their own. The description above to me is a perfect description of the inquiry-based model. While I could go on and write a few more paragraphs on the passage above, I think the connection is clear.

The Conclusion

The final sentence of the article also could be a concluding statement on our traditional approach to education. "What’s best for children over the long term, in this case, may be exactly the thing that brings them the most gratification now."

My thoughts on this concluding sentence started me back on inquiry-based learning as well as the importance of integrating technology into all curriculum areas. As Chris Lehmann brilliantly described in his article Shifting Ground, "For most students, the tools and talents they employ outside of school have little place in their academic classes." We need to stop taking the technological tools that students find gratifying and engaging out of their hands when they enter our doors.

As Lehmann concludes in his article, "Schools can and must be transformative—when they encourage kids to harness the new tools at their disposal to create real work of meaning, students can be authentic voices in the world!" Real work of meaning? Authentic voices? That sounds like fun!

We better not try it.

Another Video Message About The Need For Greater Technology Integration

I know there have been a number of these videos regarding the importance of schools doing a better job with the integration of technology. That being said, I still am drawn in by the message of these videos and they make me reflect on whether we are doing enough so that, as the video states, "students are not powering down" when they enter our schools.

An Interesting Conversation (On Twitter) About What Makes A "21st Century Educator"

Every Tuesday night on Twitter there is a discussion called EdChat. During last night's discussion those Twitterers who participated tried to determine what skills, traits, or characteristics were necessary for "21st Century Educators."

Here is a bit from one of the moderators, Steven Anderson, an Instructional Technology teacher from North Carolina:

If I ever become an administrator, in the position to hire teachers or other school faculty my first question to a potential new hire will be for them to demonstrate to me how they collaborate. I want to know how they work with others. Do they have a PLN that they have created? Do they even know what a PLN is? Who will they turn to when they have a question about teaching or subject-matter? Going even further, how will they foster collaboration in their classroom. When I walk by will I see drones in the seats or kids, excitedly learning, talking, working together?

If you wanna move from being a good teacher to a great teacher, its all about collaboration. We need teachers who look beyond themselves and want to work with others, who want to reach out to others. But we also want teachers who are willing to create an environment in their classroom where kids can work together, problem solve, put their heads together, collaborate.

Mr. Anderson's blog is one of the best places to learn about Web 2.0 resources. I encourage you to read more from his post What Is A Great Teacher? Then add your own comments!

Where Are We Going With Technology In Our Schools?

Today I read a post from Will Richardson's Weblogg-ed which I feel is a must read for anyone involved in education. The following are a few of the important questions that Will asks in his post - I Don’t Need Your Network (or Your Computer, or Your Tech Plan, or Your…). :

• If at some point in the fairly near future just about every high school kid is going to have a device that connects to the Internet, how much longer can we ask them to stuff it in their lockers at the beginning of the day?
• How are we going to have to rethink the idea that we have to provide our kids a connection? Can we even somewhat get our brains around the idea of letting them use their own?
• At what point do we get out of the business of troubleshooting and fixing technology? Isn’t “fixing your own stuff” a 21st Century skill?
• How are we helping our teachers understand the potentials of phones and all of these shifts in general?

I encourage you to read the entire post and comment!

What Will Your Amazing Be?

I just read a great post from Cool Cat Teacher Blog titled From Amazing to Normal: Taking the Journey while Encouraging Others.

The post highlighted a quote from Chris Betcher's Blog - "It’s time to stop being so “amazed” at things that are just part of the technological and cultural landscape of life in the 21st century. "

In regards to changes that we are making in our school and system my Superintendent often says - "It's just the train leaving on time." This is not meant as a knock on anyone who is making changes that others may have made long ago. This is simply a statement of fact.

As do most of us trying to become more competent using the vast array of web 2.0 resources, I am just trying to chase the exhaust fumes of the leaders in this movement. I do not want to be obsolete as a school leader, but more importantly I do not want my children and the students at my school to have an obsolete educational experience. I want them to be ahead of the curve.

I would be embarrassed for a student to get to the next step in their education and be amazed at something that should have been commonplace to them. I read, I tweet, and I blog because I enjoy it and I learn more in an hour than I have at any Principals' Conference that I have ever attended.

But I also do this out of fear! I don't want my children or the students I am fortunate to work with to have an education that is out-of-date. The need to change our schools has never been greater, but many of us still live in insulated environments where we are satisfied comparing our practice to what we did just a day, a week, or a year earlier. In some cases where we are more fortunate, we have colleagues in our buildings who we can learn from and improve, but even that is not enough.

We have missed the train if we have not started our integration of technological tools into our school and started our collaboration with teachers and students from other schools, states, and countries. While you might be amazed at what you see, I hope you will be more amazed by the fact that you took so long to get on board.

This is not another fad in education. The amazing changes today will be commonplace tomorrow and there will be a new amazing. Which amazing will you be amazed by? More importantly, what will amaze your students?

Happy Tweetsgiving! - Sorry I Can't Stay Under 140 On This

Tweetsgiving is a new term for me, but I certainly like the definition: TweetsGiving is a global celebration that aims to change the world through the power of gratitude.

Any statement of gratitude for me would start with my three great kids and include the rest of my family, my friends, and the passionate educators I work with at Burlington High School.

However in the spirit of the tweet, I am thankful for the amazing educators in my PLN, a group that I did not even know existed last Thanksgiving. These folks help me each day with their wealth of knowledge, insight, passion, and humor. My PLN has raised my sense of optimism for real and lasting change in education!

Failure Can Lead To...

As a parent, I have to admit that I do not enjoy seeing my kids fail. But the video above from Learning in Maine ends with the quote - "If you've never failed, you've never lived." It was a good reminder for me not to o

I always like the analogy of the butterfly which builds its strength to fly by struggling its way out of the cocoon. We need to let our children struggle their way out or through some things as well.

It breeds resilience, something that should be at the top of our wish list for our kids.

It's That Time of Year (for me) - We (I) Need To Reinvigorate and Refocus

Every now and then, we all need to be reminded what our priorities are in education. We spend way too much time arguing about things that are not in the best interest of our students and too often they have nothing to do with teaching and learning. These discussions can be depressing and they can take momentum from many of the positive strides that are being made.

Add to this that certain times of year tend to be ripe for anxiety and dysfunction. In fact we are entering one right now as we (in our part of the world, Burlington, MA) head towards our annual Thanksgiving break with our Holiday season not far behind.

One of the songs we often hear has the words - "It's the most wonderful time of the year." However in our schools where people come from so many different individual sets of circumstances it is often times one of the most difficult times of the year. Having said this I feel fortunate to have a wonderful Personal Learning Network on Twitter where I can find words of wisdom that "put the wind back in my sails.We all need to have places like a PLN where we can turn for a boost of positive energy.

All of these quotes from some of the people I follow on Twitter have come through in the last two days and they have been a great motivating factor for me as I continue on the never-ending path to professional and school improvement. They help remind me of the moral imperative that educators must take stock of daily.

• I learned a long time ago that it isn't time, it's priority. If it's a high priority you will find the time. Shelly Terrell, Teacher Reboot Camp

• Today, it is not important to measure what our children can be taught. In stead, we should figure out how to measure what they can gain through their growing skills of learning, curiosity, resourcefulness, and caring — and what they can do with what they’ve learned.The world has become more cooperative, not competitive. The world has become a lot more interesting…"David Warlick, 2Cents Worth.

• Effective high school redesign is not about the amount of time spent in school but rather how students are learning before, during, and after school. Linda Mariotti, ASCD

• So how do you motivate the unmotivatible? You can't and you don't. Those that are never going to integrate can't be changed. Efforts need to spent with those that are willing and want to learn and are eager to try. Then you might start to change minds. Steven Anderson, Web2.0 Classroom.

Social Media - Watch Your (Digital) Step!

I found this interesting video on the Educator's PLN. The video revolves around how employers are utilizing social media to assist in the screening of candidates for positions. By the way, college admissions officers are doing the same thing! The message for students is this - Watch where you leave your digital footprint! A poor choice on-line could limit your choices for college, for employment, for...

Find more videos like this on The Educator's PLN

We Need Great Schools In Order For Our Kids To Find Success

I agree wholeheartedly with the following quote by Jim Collins in his best-selling book Good to Great - "We don't have great schools, principally because we have good schools."

How do we change this? It is quite clear that NCLB will not change this. In addition the world outside of schools continues to change at a head-spinning pace while the world inside schools looks quite familiar whether you are a member of the Class of 2009 or the Class of 1949. The teacher-centered classroom is still the norm with student sitting in rows listening to the "sage on the stage."

I ran across an interesting article where a guest speaker named David Wiley told a group of professsors that college would be irrelevant by 2020. Wiley should know, he is a Professor of Instructional Psychology and Technology at Brigham Young University. I can't help wondering how many high schools will also be irrelevant by that point.

Worrying About The Education Of My (Our) Children - Re-Posted From July

I need to extend a personal thank you to Will Richardson for giving me the figurative slap across the face that I needed to get this off my chest. I had the good fortune of hearing him speak and show a group of educators one resource after another that would allow us to better engage students.

Richardson is the author of Blog, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. I highly recommend you visit his blog and/or wiki.

My two passions are my chidren/family and public education. My biggest concern at the moment in each of these areas is actually the same and the concern revolves around the following question:Are my children getting the education they need to be successful in our rapidly changing world?Of course the question is also relevant for any parent. The worst part for me is that I know the answer is no and I feel that I have taken a much too passive role in working to address this concern. I guess I have been a typical parent (no offense intended to other typical parents) with my willingness to accept that the same schooling that I received would be good enough for my kids.The fact of the matter is that my children are being prepared for a world that no longer exists. My kids attend a nice elementary school where the principal greets each child by name outside the school each morning (rain or shine). The kids are happy going to school each day and they have hardworking teachers who care about them. So what's my problem?

I guess it is probably the sands of the hour glass that are flowing faster each day. My oldest Tim just turned 11 and is headed off to middle school next year. Bryn (8) is not too far behind as she heads towards the completion of grade 3. Then there is Mary Clare (3) who will begin in the same elementary school next year in the pre-school program.There are really two big problem areas for me. First, I have never had one teacher talk about either child's growth as a writer by showing me writing from the beginning of the year and then writing from later on in the year where focused instruction has helped them to improve. I have not seen one exemplar or heard about the focal areas of the writing instruction at any grade level. Maybe I am not asking the right questions?


My second problem is the limited use of technology at the school. We are in an age where technological change is happening overnight and we are not utilizing these resources to help our children learn. In fact in most cases, schools are denying the existence of these new potential learning tools and punishing those who would be foolish enough to utilize one during school hours.
I feel like we are educating our kids in a manner that resembles an episode of the Flintstones when in reality our world looks more like an episode of the Jetsons.Did anyone else go to Disney World back in the late 70's when they had this people mover at the end of the Space Mountain Ride that showed all of these amazing technological innovations that would be coming in the future? Space Mountain is still there, but the glimpse into the future is gone (or should I say is here). Some schools (not many yet) are embracing this fact and allowing these new technological tools to enhance the education of students. That is the
type of education I want for my kids!

Mary Passage Middle School in Virginia is one school taking advantage of new technologies. Stay tuned for more examples of these innovations. It is the most exciting time in history to be involved in education thanks to the tidal wave of technology in which our world is engulfed. As the adults in schools, we need to start modeling the appropriate use of these technologies as we have done with other past innovations. Until we take on this monumental challenge, we will be selling ourselves (and more importantly our children) short.

A Kindle In Every Backpack? What Are Your Thoughts?

A short time back, I am embarrassed to admit when, I did not even know what a Kindle was and now there are some proponents of a plan to give every student a Kindle. While I love the idea of reducing the load in backpacks and the idea of consolidating all of the books that our children read into one neat spot, are we really ready for such a plan? It reminded me of Maine's plan to put a laptop in the hands of every middle school child. There is also a movement to put a laptop in the hands of each child in the world's poorest communities through the One Laptop Per Child initiative. For $199 you can donate a laptop that will go directly to a child in an impoverished part of the world.

Don't get me wrong, I love the concepts behind these ideas and I agree with the premise that our world is getting flatter each day as Thomas Friedman explained in The World Is Flat. While we could easily make a long list of the benefits of putting new technologies in the hands of our students and children all over the world, I still wonder about the implementation of these ideas and whether or not we are providing the training necessary to allow those getting these new technologies in their hands to make the best use of them.

It may be an oversimplification of the whole issue, but I think that we are also guilty of this type of thinking in schools when we spend a great deal of money on technologies (both hardware and software) without a full plan for implementation that includes sufficient training. I know that we are better off with all of the new equipment whether we have the training or not and that some improvements will take place because of the ability of so many individuals to train themselves without a formal plan to support their use of new technological devices/programs.

While developing a more balanced approach is much more time consuming, it is the only way to ensure that are numerous new resources (kindles, laptops, SmartBoards, etc.) are developed to their fullest capacity to support student learning.

Questions Parents Should Ask Their Kids About School

One of my favorite bloggers Will Richardson dedicated a recent post to the anxiety that parents face at the start of the new school year. In Will's case, he has the added anxiety of his children beginning the year in a new school.

In any event, the post left me with some more food for thought in regards to what I want for my children in their school. In fact, I am sure they hit at the heart of the universal questions that all parents have for their children and ensuring that they receive the best education that they can get.

It all begins with a simple, yet profound question - "What did you create today?"

The post goes on to list a number of other questions that we should be asking our kids about what is happening in their school. What would your questions be?

Will sums up the heart of the matter as follows: "As a parent, I think I have every right to expect that my kids are immersed in spaces where learning is loved and enjoyed and shared every single day. Classrooms where they are engaged in meaningful work that makes them think, a majority of time doing stuff that can’t be measured by some impersonal state test. (I can give them software to do much of that.) Where the adults that surround them are models for that learning work themselves. Is that too much to ask?"

TravelinEdMan: 20 Quick Points from "The World Is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education" - The World Is Open

A great overview of The World Is Open by the author, Curtis Bonk. He gives 20 quick points from his book about all of the technological innovations in education today.

At first, I thought that 20 points seemed a bit much, but after I started reading them I could not stop. When it comes to technology and the speed at which it is evolving, 20 points is truly the tip of the iceberg.

TravelinEdMan: 20 Quick Points from "The World Is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education" - The World Is Open

Posted using ShareThis

I Am A Blogaholic!

They say the first step to solving a problem is admitting that you have a problem. Unfortunately, I am not willing to make that admission...yet.

It all started with my use of Google Reader. I was amazed with the fact that I could subscribe to certain blogs that I found relevant and get new blog posts daily on these topics. Not only that, but I am able to comment on these articles to the authors and others who share similar interests.

My main topic is education and trying to keep up with what innovative educators are doing in their schools to help their students stay a step ahead. I am currently following these blogs:

• Cool Cat Teacher Blog - I am one of over 9,000 followers
• Free Technology For Teachers - An award winning blog that provides daily resources surrounding educational technology.
• Weblogg-ed - A blog by Will Richardson, the author of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. If you don't know this name - you need to.
• TravelinEdMan - A blog by Curtis Bonk, author of The World Is Open, a professor at Indiana University, and the President of SurveyShare Inc.
• 2 Cents Worth - A blog by David Warlick, another name you must know in the field of integrating technology and creating 21st Century Learning environments.

There are a few others that I am following, but because I do not want to give an overwhelming list at this time, I thought I would start with my favorites. My entire list is available over on the right hand side of this blog if you are interested. My reason for sharing all of this is the hope that others will take advantage of these resources.

You can start your own google reader account for subscriptions to blogs on any topic that you are ineterested in. I am confident that anyone who gives it a try will be amazed by their experience. As I have learned quickly in my new found experience in the blogosphere - it is now possible to learn about anything, anywhere, at anytime!

More On The Use Of Cellphones In Schools

I found more on the topic of cellphone use in schools at http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=10277#comments.

Here is my comment below:

The topic of cellphone use in schools is one that I feel has only two possible sides: Those who get it and those who will wonder in the future why they did not get it sooner. It is one of my frustrations that we get sidetracked in such disagreements and faill to see the world outside of our schools changing and at the same time fail to take on the challenge of teaching our students how to use all of the resources at their fingertips in an educational context. Are we not doing them a disservice if we continue to let them look at cellphones solely as a vehicle for social interaction?

Or maybe we should just add this to that lengthy list of items that we as educators "do not have time to do."I prefer to see opportunities rather than obstacles. I do have to say that this conversation came up at my school last year and we changed our policy to allow cellphone use at the discretion of classroom teachers who see the potential that they hold http://burlingtonhigh.blogspot.com/2009/05/bhs-discussing-change-to-cellphone.html.

I am sure that we will have our bumps along the way with this policy, but I think that taking such risks is well worth it. Isn't this what we want our staff and students to do? I cannot wait for the day where we start asking ourselves collectively how we could have been so narrow-minded in our thinking about these tools. I encourage people to read the report by Carly Shuler put out by the Joan Ganz Cooney center in January called "Pockets of Potential - Using Mobile Technologies toPromote Children’s Learning"

A Look At Some Schools Making The Most Of Technology

Check out this great article from the New York Times about some schools that are ahead of the curve in the march towards making the most out of technological resources.

Amidst A Tidal Wave Of Technology Some Schools Remain Virtually Dry

As I continue through Curtis Bonk's The World Is Open, which carries the subtitle How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education, I am plagued by the following summer-themed analogy. Having spent a number of hours at the beach this summer and in past summers, I love to watch my 11-year old catching waves with his surfboard. Many times I see the frustrated picture of my son missing the big wave and not catching the wave at the right moment. But my son has taken the right approach to his love of surfing, he learned to catch a wave by body surfing, boogie boarding, and he has graduated to surfing. Unfortunately, I picture schools in a similar scenario albeit with more dire results. This is due to the fact that we are jumping into the water in the middle of an ocean of technology where the size of the waves is significant this is coupled with the fact that they are breaking fast, one after another. Because of this, it is overwhelming for many in education and many of us are not quite sure where to begin. Despite the intimidating prospect of entering the water, we need to fully immerse ourselves and stop just dipping our toes in.

We need to further our capacity daily and ensure that we are gaining the confidence to catch the new waves of technology that are breaking one after another right in front of us. We have to do this while we also try to catch up with the waves of technology that have already broken on shore. Here are a few more excerpts from The World Is Open that summarize things as they now stand:

• Today's teachers, much like those in preceding generations or even a millenia ago, remain the masters of some content area that must be imparted to students and then rigorously assessed. (p.10)
• Words such as "ownership," "control," "engagement," "relevenacy," and "collaboration" are among those shaping the learning-related dialogue of the twenty-first century. (p.33)
• Jay Cross argues (in his book Informal Learning) that we live in times wherein informal learning oustrips the formal variety. Cross provides a wealth of evidence that both schools and businesses are increasingly reliant on informal learning for daily survival, especially in work-related settings. (p.39)
• The combination of free and widely distributed educational resources with tools that enable learners to add to or comment on such resources or build entirely new ones begins to redefine what learning is - it becomes production or participation, not composition and absoprtion. (p.42)
• Thus, the third macro trende electrifying all of humankind today is the creation of a culture that collaboratively builds, negotiates, and shares such knowledge and information: a participatory learning culture. (p.53)

We have a lot of work to do in our schools to create this participatory learning culture. Fortunately, we have technological resources that we have never dreamed of at our fingertips to allow us to make this work manageable.

The World of Technology Is Open, But The Thinking In Most Of Our Schools Is Still Closed

I just started reading The World Is Open by Curtis J. Bonk and it has really got me thinking about the overwhelming task that we have in education in regards to ensuring that our students have experience utilizing the most current technologies. What makes this task more difficult is the fact that the world outside of schools is changing at an incomprehensible pace while we do our best inside of schools to make steady progress adding as many technological resources for both staff and students.

In addition, over a relatively short period of time, technology has gone from a stand alone subject taught outside of the regular curriculum to a subject that should be integrated into every subject matter. Most educators and parents do not realize the scope of this paradigm shift due to the simple fact that the schools that we experienced were vastly different to what is needed to compete in today's world.

For example, Do you Google? Are you on FaceBook? What are you following on Twitter? Do you have a blog or follow any particular blogs? Unfortunately, these questions are not even touching the tip of this ever expanding iceberg.

Here are a few snippets from The World Is Open that have me thinking:

• The Web has become prime real estate for educational programming about the environment, climate change, history, politics, and nearly any topic you can think of. What few people realize is that as the Web becomes our preferred learning platform, nontraditional learning is suddenly the norm. Lifelong learning dreams discussed decade after decade in the twentieth century are quickly being realized in the twenty-first. (p.5)
• Anyone can now learn anything from anyone at anytime.(p.7)
  In the twenty-first century, education trumps economy as the key card to participation in the world. (p.8)
• In less than 10 years, we have shifted from e-mail and relatively simple online services and activities to opportunities for downloading massive amounts of high and low quality videos, producing and sharing music online, connecting multiple sites in full-motion videoconferencing, and engaging in online chats with dozens of friends simultaneously. (p.11)

I know that the concept of using cellphones as a tool in the classroom created a great deal of constructive conversation this spring as we amended our current zero-tolerance policy on cellphones at BHS to allow cellphone use at the discretion of the classroom teacher. I think that we need to continue to think way outside of our box and comfort zone to see the ever-expanding options that new technologies can offer our students.