cc licensed flickr photo by schani
Here are some articles that I really enjoyed reading (and watching) this week. Thanks to my PLN for sharing such great articles:
- Education Innovation: The Contradictions of Student Creativity -A great article on the contradictions that often come with creativity in people and how as educators we need to nourish and recognize these traits in the classroom. Here are a few of the characteristics:
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Creative people have a great deal of physical energy, but they’re also often quiet and at rest.
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Creative people tend to be smart yet naive at the same time.
- Creative people combine playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.
- I Am A Teacher | Avenue4Learning – Michelle Baldwin’s blog is becoming one of my favourites to read as she is passionate in her writing and has some amazing ideas. This is a definite blog you should add to your reader and Michelle is a great conversationalist in her comment section. If you ever have a question or comment on one of her posts, she always comes back with something insightful that will really make you think and learn along with her. Here are some highlights from this post by a very passionate educator:
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How do we as educators change the public view of what we do in the classroom?
- Contact the media more often. Invite them to my classroom (again). Share, through multiple methods, what it is we’re doing.
- Bring parents into the classroom more. The parents in my school are already welcome in my classroom, although not many of them take our offer to visit. I want them to share their expertise in my classroom more often. Side note- I actually have really great and appreciative parents in my school, and for that, I am extremely grateful.
- Bring more attention to other teachers and students who are doing great things. Not every teacher has a powerful network where he/she can share successes. I have a great learning network of people who love to share ideas, collaborate, and celebrate with each other.
My action plan is not that complicated:
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I am a teacher. By choice. Not because I was incapable of doing anything else, but because I couldn’t imagine doing anything else that would make me as happy as teaching does.
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The reason we hate advertising is because the ad industry has no idea who its customer is
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Steve Jobs recently shared his thoughts about how the entire music industry failed to innovate something like iTunes. His answer was as profound as it was simple (fancy that). The music industry, he expounds, thought their customer was Tower Records or Virgin MegaStore…but it never was. Those were their distribution channels. The actual customer is the person who consumes the music. And it is the end user, not the intermediaries, whom Apple focuses on in all they do.
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Producing a product for the consumers who are the ones actually consuming the product makes more business sense, too.
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I was thinking about the Special Education concept of Least Restrictive Environment and the idea that many of the concepts of special education, such as an Individualized Educational Plan, are concepts we should want for every student.
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…there are some kids who struggle – despite many opportunities to figure how to manage it – to use technology in a classroom without it serving as a distraction…But banning their use or locking up every laptop would hamstring so much of what we do, and it would not be, for the overwhelming majority of students, the least restrictive environment in which they could – and do – learn.
- Let’s take a tip from Special Education and in the coming school year, try to make sure our schools are the least restrictive environments for learning they can be.
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It’s hard to find anyone here who believes that Joyce Irvine should have been removed as principal of Wheeler Elementary School.
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Ms. Irvine wasn’t removed by anyone who had seen her work (often 80-hour weeks) at a school where 37 of 39 fifth graders were either refugees or special-ed children and where, much to Mr. Mudasigana’s delight, his daughter Evangeline learned to play the violin.
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Ms. Irvine was removed because the Burlington School District wanted to qualify for up to $3 million in federal stimulus money for its dozen schools.
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under the Obama administration rules, for a district to qualify, schools with very low test scores, like Wheeler, must do one of the following: close down; be replaced by a charter (Vermont does not have charters); remove the principal and half the staff; or remove the principal and transform the school.
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even she understood her removal was the least disruptive option.
“Joyce Irvine versus millions,” Ms. Irvine said. “You can buy a lot of help for children with that money.” -
Under No Child rules, a student arriving one day before the state math test must take it. Burlington is a major resettlement area, and one recent September, 28 new students — from Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan — arrived at Wheeler and took the math test in October.
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George, I really appreciate these summaries. Thank you! This is my kind of learning!
Thanks Kelly! As part of my own learning and development, I thought it would be a good idea to share the articles that really shape my thinking!
Hi George!
Michelle has some very passionate ideas about education. Thanks for sharing with your PLN (all of us) what YOU find important reading/viewing. Love the pics of your dogs!
Totally agree! She has some wonderful posts and ideas. Like I said, she is a must read!
George, I loved the articles and the summaries, but it was really the video at the end that pushed me to comment here. As you know, I really believe in using technology in the classroom. I strongly feel that technology is a wonderful tool to help deliver curriculum in a fun and engaging way (but expectations HAVE to come first). I also think that as teachers, we should be using this technology to promote higher level thinking skills, and while some of the websites out there are great for practising basic skills, there is so much more that we can do with these interactive white boards and computers. It takes time though. I was the teacher that used many of these flashy websites and games to engage my Kindergarten and Grade 1 students, but I eventually realized that there are some marvelous Web 2.0 tools, which allow students to create, learn, and teach others too. They can be used with all grades as well.
The one thing that bothered me about the video was the number of times the teacher was at the front of the room controlling the use of the technology. I was that teacher, and I needed to make a very concerted effort to change, but I think that the learning grows (for all grades) when students can be the ones teaching students.
To get to this level, I think that there needs to be a budget for training and for purchasing the tools and maintaining them too. I think that your differentiated approach would be great! You also need to prioritize: I think that purchasing Netbooks for 1:1 computer access is a better way to go than purchasing SMART Boards. Ideally you have everything, but that's not always a possibility. It really is about getting the technology into the hands of the students. I wrote a little bit about this same topic here: http://grade1ad.litcircuits.com/2010/05/29/what-w….
Sorry for such a long comment, but you definitely mentioned a topic that I'm very passionate about. I think that this 21st Century Classroom has some amazing possibilities, but it takes a community of learners — students, teachers, administrators, and parents — to allow it to function at its best. I'm very interested in hearing what others have to say about this too!
Aviva
I love when you write blogs in my blogs! You are such an awesome thinker when it comes to picking up the little things.
I have been thinking about the 1-1 aspect a lot in my school lately and how I can make it work from a financial standpoint. Do we provide 1-1 for certain grades or do we try to do them all and sacrifice somewhere else big time? Many of the schools that have gone to a 1-1 program have some grant and they are limited. I do not know of a school that has purchased them without some additional funds through fundraising, grants, or some other aspect. I am also concerned about going with a 1-1 program because in 2-3 years, will most kids have their own device to connect leading me to put a bunch of money in the wrong place. It is the best solution but I am not sure how to put it in place with only government funds. We are sometimes tied to what we can buy as well because of funding structures for technology. Standardization of equipment often happens but it also costs more when you deal with some companies.
Aviva, do you have any 1-1 classrooms in your school? I would love to hear how it goes. I also agree that money would go better towards that but in reality, I can only buy 4-5 laptops in our school division for the price of 1 IWB. It would make a difference, but would not cover it.
George, thanks for being so understanding about my "blog in your blog." You definitely picked a topic that I'm passionate about.
I understand your concerns. Why are the laptops so expensive? Do you need to go with the Board ones, or can you purchase Netbooks at a more reasonable price? My parents just purchased 15 Netbooks for a laptop cart at their school for $238 a piece. A fully installed SMART Board costs at $6000: at least with the installation fees for our Board. In this case, I would say that the laptops are a better use of funds.
We don't have a 1:1 laptop classroom at our school, but a Grade 7 teacher at my school applied for a grant for 30 free desktop computers, and he got them. He has them set-up all around his classroom and will be using them starting in September. I'll let you know how this goes.
While I didn't have a 1:1 laptop classroom, with the suggestion of my principal, I wrote to the Board and asked for any discarded PALM Treos. I ended up getting a class set for free (all within a couple of days). They came with the chargers too. The phone cards were removed, but students used them like mini-laptops. They wrote almost everything on them. We had a morning writing activity for them, students brainstormed blog posts on them, wrote at their literacy centres using them, and used them during various classroom activities to take photographs, record videos, and brainstorm auditory comments. I was thrilled with the success, and plan on using them again next year too.
I know that the cost of technology is huge, so I think that a couple of laptop carts are great: teachers can sign them out for classroom use, and then everyone gets to take advantage of them. If you have the budget and a couple of teachers that you know will make incredible use of a 1:1 laptop program, I would say to put your funds towards this too. Sometimes the technology will get used more in an environment like this. Maybe you could also allow students to bring in their own devices (laptops, iPod Touches, etc.) for classroom use. If the teachers are willing to use them, and you think the parents could afford them, I wonder how many would bring them in. What is the liability? Would parents be willing to take responsibility for this? I don't know. Sometimes I just think it's worth being creative.
Sorry for yet another comment that is like a blog post of its own, but hopefully I've answered at least some of your questions. Can't wait to see what you do!
Aviva
Thanks Aviva! For some reason, we are not able to get the computers that cheap since we have to go through our division purchasing department for computers. With the warranty that is mandatory to have, I think the cheapest netbook we can get is 600. That is not too much, but enough that we are not able to fill the school.
Do you have any idea where your teacher got that grant from? I would love to know so I could try to get one for our school!
That does make things difficult! As for the grant, I think that I have the information in my e-mail. I'll check and forward you the information.
Aviva
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