If you want some good professional development materials and ideas, just visit the Professional Development Center of this site. I use these materials often to train teachers in my district. It is a good idea to point new teachers to this section when they are starting with DE services, especially the “Best Practices” section. There are examples of using closed captioned shows, differentiating activities and more. Showing this to experienced teachers is not a bad idea either, as they can always use a new tip now and then.
Don’t forget the online training videos that can walk someone through the process of using these materials, as well as those mentioned above. If you are a STAR DE, they you are very familiar with these services, but newbies are not. Tips like embedding video into presentations and web-quests are detailed here as well.
Plan ahead with the Thematic Focus Archive. Look to see what is upcoming, or peer back and see which units can compliment your curriculum.
If you have been part of the Discovery DEN then many of this tips are like an old hat to you, but sometimes we need to revisit those old hat to see if they compliment a new outfit!
Jen Dorman just wrote this post for her Blog… and I had to share! I am currently finishing up this program, and it has been the best learning experience ever! The course designers are amazing (Check them out… you may just recognize a few) and the knowledge and tools that I have taken back to my own classroom are what make this program so meaningful and worthwhile.
To advance a new generation of education technology leaders,
Discovery Education, renowned for its quality content and digital media
services in over half of all US schools, and Wilkes University, a leader
in graduate education, have teamed up to create the online Master of
Science degree in Instructional Media.
To thrive in the 21st century classroom, successful educators are
embracing a new approach to teacher instruction. New tools. New
technologies. A new appreciation for digital media. From Web 2.0 to
digital storytelling, to virtual field trips, the 21st century classroom
has the power to engage and inspire today’s tech savvy students. This
degree provides teachers the tools, knowledge and strategies to be
successful 21st century educators.
Learn
about the program from our amazing course designers, check out student
projects, and more at our brand new website: www.discoveryeducation.com/masters
Every
Tuesday educators enrolled in the Discovery Education Wilkes University
Instructional Media Program get together to share ideas. Join them on
February 16, 2010 as they have Daniel Pink, author ofDriveandA Whole New Mind,
dropping by for an hour-long discussion. All the details can be found
here.
Because I participated in the first Siemens STEM Academy Webinar, I receive notifications about Discovery’s latest partnership and great new science resource, The STEM Academy. If you did not attend the webinar, you can access it here. Whether you participated virtually or will visit the archive, hopefully you will downloaded the accompanying lessonplan, and Discovery would love your feedback! Can you take 5 minutes–or less- to give Discovery some feedback?
How valuable was the resource? Did you download the lesson plan? We would love to get your feedback so that we can continue to develop relevant and useful resources. Please take this survey to let us know your thoughts and suggestions for the future.
Have you visited the STEM Academy site today?
We hope that you will visit the Siemens STEM Academy site often to take advantage of all of the resources available, including blogs, useful links, and information on professional development programs that support and encourage STEM education in your classroom.
We also encourage you to upload and share your own lesson plans, tips, tricks, ideas, presentations, videos and other STEM related materials in the Resources section.
Are you registered for the next webinar?
Additionally on the site, you can access resource files related to past webinars and register for future webinars. Be sure to register for our next seminar, “Top Ten STEM Resources,” which will take place on February 17, 2010 at 7pm ET.
I was extremely disappointed that I didn’t get to make the trek out to Philly this past weekend for Educon2.2. I missed out on the conversations & connections face to face, but was able to catch a few sessions virtually. One of the sessions I attended was called Managing Life and Personal Learning Environments in the 21st Century. I was especially looking forward to this session because four of my very good friends were facilitating it; fellow PA LC member Tracey McGrath, along with fellow Keystone Technology Integrators Lori Sheldon, Scott Snyder, and Brandon Lutz. The session was absolutely phenomenal. The conversations taking place were awesome. I can’t even think of another word to use. And although I wasn’t physically in the room, (and the streaming for this particular session was shaky) I was still in awe at the discussion, ideas and thoughts that were put out there. The facilitators would pose a question, and each table would discuss it for a while and then the whole group shared their thoughts. Being able to share experiences and tools that help with the challenge of managing new technologies and life was enjoyable and worthwhile to hear. The conversation went visual through use of Wallwisher, which is an excellent Web2.0 application that allows for communication and collaboration itself. It provided a great visual for the participants in the room, and for those attending virtually. (It came in handy when the streaming audio was shaky!) Here are the questions for discussion from the session… Check them out, and add to each Wallwisher yourself! And, if you’d like, view the CoverItLive here.
This was certainly a session that many people can relate to. It was nice to see that everyone most people have difficulty at times managing life, technology, work, etc. Sharing strategies, suggestions, stories, and techniques to help overcome this challenge was refreshing. I have never seen a hour and a half fly by so quickly…and I could tell participants in the room felt the same way. The conversation definitely could have continued! As stated during the session, “Thebalance that we are currently learning is something that we can model.” This is a great thought, because it can be modeled for both students and colleqgues…and possibly carried on like a chain reaction.
As always, Will Richardson packed the room to something that just might worry a fire marshal. From the program’s prospective:
The next ten years promise to be hugely disruptive for the traditional idea of school as more and more alternative learning platforms are created and expanded. This conversation will focus not on technology but on the larger shifts that will have to evolve into a different role in our society. Driving the discussion will be quotes from Allan Collins and Richard Halverson’s recent book, Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology.
Will opened his session to note he has 3 slide and a lot of conversation both virtually in Elluminate (@45 participants) and 40 in person. The birth of this conversation was Collins and Halverson’s recent book. Richardson said this book made sense to him as a conversation that schools to engage in to exist. The book makes the case for a third shift from apprenticeship and standardized learning to an individual education environment that threatens schools as we know them. What he hopes we can do is think deeply about:
challenges the present moment present us as implications for society for those who can/not take advantage of the changes (the equity issue);
develop some kind of framework that lists the top problems schools have to address because they are coming or are already here. If you are not in a discomfort zone now, then you are not paying attention.
First Quotation Excerpt: schools will have less to do with education;
Second Quotation Excerpt: school systems cannot adapt to emergence of new forms of teaching and learning out side of school;
Third Quotation Excerpt: if educators cannot successfully integrate new technologies into school, then students with the means and the ability will pursue their learning outside of the public school.
Questions:
Are schools becoming social/psychological centers as a piece of the community aside from what we currently see as a learning center?
Schools are artifacts of our larger social organization. Will change encompass all kids?
Will lack of equity cause a lack of achievement?
New v. good technology: what do we choose?
How do we create better learning for students?
Group Brainstorming:
How do we bring reluctant teachers/students on board?
What kind of curricular change; what is change and what kind should we make that is relevant? What is it that we need and how do we know?
What should we be preparing students for in the 21st century?
Education is becoming more about facts than process, find, and express?
Does having a window into the world overstate the importance of the impact of technology on education?
Should there be a connection between K-12 and Post-Secondary?
Reporting Out:
What does an educated person look like?
What are the essential practice of teachers where students are learning outside of school?
Where does socialization and relationship occur outside of school?
How are we going to shift the expectations for schools from all of our constituents?
How do we change policy to support more flexible time and place learning?
How do K-12 and higher ed have this conversation about change together?
The shift is not about failing schools but an opportunity for kids to learn outside the traditional structure. So….
What is the purpose of school? to produce high test scores, workplace, ethics, citizenship, warehousing kids?
How do we teach kids ethics and citizenship (especially if students opt out of traditional school)?
How do we continue to make school and/or learning community (outside walls) available to everybody?
Is school a resource or something we do?
How do we adapt our curriculum to the technologies that kids are already using?
How do we ensure that every child has access to learning opportunities outside of school?
How do we make school fun?
What should be compulsory about school?
How do we make sure that the weakest forms of traditional school don’t get ampflied by technology?
How do we avoid the social justice implications of elitist model of education?
How do we ensure those without privilege have equal access to quality education and opportunity?
How do we become better equipped, both as individuals and as systems, to deal with change?
What is preventing us from being adaptable to change?
How do we rethink the reallocation of resources to support individualized instruction?
Will be creating a new class of marginalized people with these shifts?
What is the essential learning that schools impart?
How do public schools prove that they are committed to educate all children?
What risks are we willing to accept?
What is our obligation to collaborate with other systems going through similar changes?
How doe we measure or assess the effectiveness of individualizes self-directed learning (and credentialing) outside of school?
How do you validate or evaluate informal learning?
How do we help students discover their passions?
Who is going to pay for equity of access to these environments?
Why don’t we do the right thing?
People who have the ability to self-direct will have an advantage over those who cannot/do not. Richardson gets the sense that some kids will be left behind. We are living in an unclear, muddy moment. How do we make these questions part of the change? Can we make the bigger systemic change? If we can, what are we going to do? Can we create a critical mass by challenging the people we go back to?
Gary Stager posed the question early in this discussion, What if there is no problem? What can we create in the redesigning of education? Is the fall of the Berlin Wall a paradigm for today? Are we seeing the beginning of the tipping point where we can make a difference in our school systems to create change? Are the people making the decisions the people who should be making these decisions? More than school boards or administrators, teachers have the largest voice. Why are we not exercising it? And the answer from the conversation is the fear of losing a job or a school. What a shame.
Christian Long believes that we are architects of the future and questions what does great teaching and learning look like? To demonstrate his point, he brought students Benedikt Kroll and Michael Nathman who experienced self teaching and learning through an interesting project: Falling Down the “Alice Project” Rabbit Hole as together students inverted traditional high school English research and writing. Long began by asking us why we chose this session over others, bringing the audience into the creative conversation. Long said his role was not to teach, not to lecture; rather he settled disputes, prodded people,worked as a moderator of learning. It was the kids who just kept going.
Long questions if his vision is relevant to their future when their primary goal is college. Alice is a story suspended below the ground. Long says that learning is about the “big mike.” Years ago, your story did not matter, go beyond the family bible unless you were a king or queen. Today, the game has changed and our roles as teachers have changed: ask great questions and DEMAND that they prove it in public because we must be relevant to the world. So, how do you have a big mike and relate to the world? Co-presenter Jason Kern supplied an answer later during the conversation: with his social network of approximately 100 followers and Long’s with 600+, you have a big mike because you have put yourself out there for the benefit of your students.
Long set up the project, gave them the “big picture,” asked the questions, and set the students loose with defined roles, but other than that, it was wide open. The teacher creates the project and guides students responsibly, asking questions that guide students in completing the project. It’s all about them and we make sure that everyone can go out there and do it.
Student Perspectives:
Long teaches British Literature, “supposedly.” Referencing the “Big Ideas” session, students asked what teachers wanted their students to know, but the teachers did not ask how they would do that. Technology’s evolution enabled the Alice Project.
At no time did Long pull in classroom methodology; if students were interested, they had to post it on their blog. Students liked it because they learned by what interested them. They all produced things that were interesting, and they chose how they wanted to blog, which way they wanted to learn.
At this school, the students have created a community of bloggers and readers. Students say up to 4 AM because they want to get the job done, not because they are behind or there’s a due date. Between midnight and 4 AM, these students find the hours most productive. You feel like Alice; you want to dive down the hole. It’s magic.
We did this project for 6 weeks but we are still thinking about Alice instead of Frankenstein. We taught ourselves and each other on our team. They think differently now, and it’s hard to think about learning in different environments where learning is not like this project.
How do you deal with moving from blogging where you love what you are doing to going to math class? Teenagers jump on technology because it’s a laptop. Teachers get students to do what they want, but it’s important to use technology to make it public, collaborative, interactive. Technology makes you want to learn; the project not the laptop makes you want to learn. They read and interpreted Alice.
Does this project put pressure on other teachers to make their learning more relevant? Students responded that other teachers say, “Alice time is over; it’s time for me now.” Long says that teachers are interested and they will get there. Day 1 it was different; it was simple and not exciting. 15 blogs, 15 comments to colleagues, 57 kids–do the math–you create a community of bloggers. Check their website, rules, student reflections, reflection videos at their project website. Students are used to reading, not reading annotations and research. Long gave really hard quizzes but did not count them; he used them to motivate them to read deeply.
Long made the students consultants by asking them five final questions that they blogged. The ultimate and scary questions was, “Would you do this project again?” Their responses validate the project. They would do it again because it was a fun way to learn to read and analyze; it was not a teacher talking. The one “no” was because you can only do a project like this once. Check out videos at YouTube about this project.
Why does anyone want to teach–to make students smarter–but what is smart? Teaching makes someone else happy; it’s not about giving them your idea. Without backing up their own ideas, they don’t get validated if they are not read. Teachers lose themselves in teaching students without looking at why they are teaching them. Help students achieve happiness at the level of their aspirations. The project is great because they could talk to and interact with people. In 30 years, I’ll still remember this project.
The process: we do the post, submit to the team’s editor of the week for proofing. Student editor submits to Long, and Long approves and it goes to the blog. It was scary because it wasn’t just the students on their own but now they do not want to go back to the other way of learning.
Student empowerment: did the rules and regs empower or restrict. In the beginning it was restricting, but when you got going, it was not restrictive at all. Long said it was a limitation to see what was possible. He had to have some public currency. What’s the stuff behind the stuff–not all perfect but you push through wanting pulling the plug. You needed to be deep enough into the project to get to the end.
Without rules and regs for the project, some students might have done more to get the A before the deadline. But would this project build stress if the project was wide open? Student response: much scarier. Difference between quantity and quality. A restricted number kept quality in the posts.
Long: difference between pain and discomfort: pain keeps you off the playing; discomfort puts you there. 15 was just a number.
Were there indifferent students? Not really because according to the students, they get weeded out. Real people from around the world commented, not just the teacher. That was a motivator.
What about the students who do not like English? The stereotype of the student who just want to pass after one or two weeks, they started to get competitive in a good way. I’m going to write another one, analyzing with pop culture. The students liked the book because it covered everything. Teams helped each other out. They used CoverItLive and posted the information. Competition and collaboration worked hand in hand in this project.
Does blogging affect other discourses? Students said yes because audience is global, and you write differently for a public/global audience. Will Richardson’s “are you clickable” notion. You have to thing about your audience which is in flux, according to Long, because it’s live. Relevance is part of the equation, not just accuracy.
Readers of the blogs went down the rabbit hole with the writers, really loving going down that hole.
Would this project work with other texts other than Alice? Students said that the Annotated Alice lent itself well for this project, but you could do this project with any book as long as you consider your audience. Would Frankenstein work–yes, if adapted. It’s all about how you frame the questions for the text, the self-discovery. Dancing monkey and Svengali was something Long did not have to be.
One student’s connection was a playlist for Alice that evolved from every music genre.
How did the students feel about adult comments? Proudest about? The students knew they would get read, but they never anticipated they would be commented upon. It really makes a difference because they had an audience of readers in the real world.
Did the students use social networking differently? Students used Facebook. What changed was knowing that everyone read what you wrote that was on your network, so it changed through interaction. They thought differently about FB because they realized someone was really reading everything.
Students used the Alice story to explain the annotations in the beginning, but then they moved to the annotations. It was like they read a book within a book.
How did you create buzz for the project? Risks and rewards? Long went for the first time with names because you can undo anything with the right reasons. School, students, photos: first name last initial, but it did not give the students a digital footprint. You need to network yourself/your students. Long has 500-600 followers and that’s how he got the project out. Without being a connected teacher, you cannot connect your students. You have to put yourself out there from your students. Learn as a teacher how to market in the real world, not your comfort zone. Act like a corporate professional and network. You need to wheel and deal to give students a future, so make a phone call and ask people to help you help your students.
One SLA student asked the students if they used the power of video and other media to push back and work on the project. Video should add to but not distract from the writing. Long says most of the work was inspiring, but a good rough draft upon which to build. Long did a museum artifact that someone could find in Lord of the Flies. At the same time as they were blogging, they also did other readings/projects. Be magnificent, be remembered, and find the right tools. Next week they will debate was Frankenstein’s responsibility as a moral creature, so they use Google Docs, create a public wiki if it’s worth it. Manipulate great tool for the moment. Use the web of things they did, turned in, of what was possible, which was not perfect execution.
What can not so motivated teachers do to motivate you? And the answer is what bothers students most is a teacher who constantly talks and has a book in his hand. How can a math teacher do it (differently). Don’t just read the book because students can get the same experience by going home. The teacher’s experience is not to read the book but make the students a resource to themselves is the most important thing. The most important thing is connection to the outside world. So, math class and finding the hypotenuse–why do it if you do not connect to the real world, a real building. Connect the rituals of the book to the rituals of society, and not just because you are killing me.
“Everyone is responsible for his/her own education. Everyone is responsible for the education of all students.” This session began by identifying that this program is in its first year and there is a learning curve they experience with its implementation. We began with a quotation from Why School? by Mike Rose, encouraging us to think deeply about what we want our schools to be.
The birth/concept of this program began with teachers and 5 students who wanted to envision seniors working in freshman classes. The numbers grew to 25 students within an elective program, and this mentoring program really “completed the circle.” As an elective, the schedule had to carve out time for 4 meetings weekly. The group is dedicated and spirited, and halfway through the years, they readjusted the student teaching program, revamping with needed reconsideration for the student teachers.
A teacher, a tutor, a mentor, and a helper are the support systems in the SLA classrooms. The student teachers have credibility as co-teachers because they have been in the same seats, same situations. Each student teacher assumes a different role, depending on the class and teacher with whom they work. What resonates through each student’s description of his/her role is one-on-one instruction. Students meet weekly with their “teacher,” have and share co-planning, and even grade “small things.” They work in their designated classrooms everyday and meet collectively once a month to share experiences, ask for advice, build community and group identity. The meetings last upwards of 1.5 hours and energize the program and the school.
On insight into the meetings, the students provided video footage of actual meetings on peer advice at a Student Assistant Teacher Meeting. Student teachers realized that they needed to help struggling students more intensely. The next discussion focused on how kids acts in different environments and how that can be adapted. The student teachers realized that they need to find different approaches to helping students, especially those for whom a class is an elective that they may/not care that much about. These students actually discussed their role in discipline, and they know that they need to switch roles like lightning to adjust to the students’ interest levels.
The third meeting we viewed centered on how student teachers react to discipline problems, knowing that a year or two ago, they may have been guilty of the same behavior. They recognized that teachers “hear but ignore some stuff.” If you call students on things they say, the student teachers are told to report to their teacher anything potentially dangerous to the welfare of the students and the community. But, they also need to distinguish between real threat v. kids being kids. Part of what student teachers cope with is the students’ perception that no one cares about what they say, in spite of the fact that student/teachers do care.
From the Student Teachers:
Meetings are for support in the process to keep the program running smoothly. Teachers facilitate via a choice of journal topics, usually two, and then they write as the springboard for the meeting. They use Moodle for a series of discussion threads when they do not meet. The students felt that the journaling and discussion boards were useful in organizing the student teachers for the meetings by being prepared. Most student teachers check Moodle every day, because this program “takes on a life of its own.” When meetings get cut off, having a place to post online is great because the conversation continues. Journals are a way to catch up with misses meetings. Student teachers check online journals as a way to keep up with all the outlying Moodle conversations that extend beyond the core group and are less active.
I could not help noticing the white board this history classroom, and some topics under various categories:
I must admit that I am impressed with the language not to mention the conceptual level of imagined engagement.
We were given the privilege of reading hard copy of some student comments about the student teacher program on Moodle. You can see more about this program here. When asked by the audience why student teachers selected this program varied from finding what they want to do in life to knowing they want to teach and know that they already are building an experience resume by teaching students as a student. Others understand the need for educational reform and know that this program speaks to creating meaningful change. Unconditional teaching is paying attention to everyone in the classroom, rather than conditional teaching focused toward one group. Student teachers experience not only hands-on but also current trends in research readings. This program moves students toward creating a vision of school built from the ground up, beginning and ending with students.
Four Corners Small Group Discussions with the Student/Teachers:
Challenges of being a youth with a teacher role: Time constraints did not allow for a fourth rotation, so I missed this group discussion.
Challenges of working with a mentor teacher:Some of the challenges include the difference between how student teachers and teachers think. One student teacher said that working with a first-year teacher creates challenges, especially with Spanish; this student teacher is bi-lingual, so he was recruited to help the teacher, actually. The student teacher is Facebooked by his students and posts his assignments to FB; he feels that the students have more of a connection to him because of his age, language fluency, and social networking; The other student teacher in this group feels she makes better connections but the teacher believes that is a good thing. Both worry about overpowering the class. Sometimes problems arise with students when they see a teacher looking for help from the student teacher. However, that situation was resolved, but challenges arise throughout the year. Sometimes student teachers are better at discipline, and their relationship with their mentor teacher enables this collaboration. When asked how they feel about re-teaching, the student teachers said it makes them feel good because they remember their own student experiences and knew what worked for them. Scheduling is a challenge; this program drives the scheduling, especially for freshmen. In the SAT program, student teachers get to see why a teacher acts the way s/he does, because it takes a lot of time to discipline disruption. As a student teacher, you get to see how much the teachers care about their students. They also noted that they have different roles inside and outside the classroom, and their teachers have asked them to speak to the students about these two roles. They drew a line between the two roles, but find it weird sometimes dealing with it. They noted that students did not know how to address them and sometimes mix up the two teachers.
Insights about teaching:The principal orchestrates the program and the students find it amazing to be able to teach; it has helped them learn and grow and differentiate roles, seeing into how hard it is to lead a class of 20-30 students, knowing the kids “get it”; sometimes they work outside their content comfort, so it forces them to learn more to be helpful to their students. It’s helpful to have someone who struggled with a subject to be a student teacher in that subject, because you understand the students you are trying to help. They also help students understand that procrastination does not work and they tend to listen to student teachers more than the teacher. Students create lesson plans to teach and assist, so jumped in to help students get on task from the first day, but admit they learn a lot about observing. From observations, they learn what works and what does not when they are doing stuff, and they think they would deal with behavior problems differently. You can’t be a successful teacher without an observation period. You learn the dynamics of the classroom and how to apply it. Student teachers learn from caring teachers and their classroom management. They also noted that they can’t bring a bad day into the classroom because it produces a negative reaction. One drawback: the program is pretty much student teacher to teacher, and not enough interaction among the group of student teachers. Student teachers actually read about educational theory because they find it benefits them and therefore their class.
Leadership of the S.A.T. program and what it is like to be a mentor: This program was an organic process that evolved in the third year of the school’s existence. Student teachers comit to a year-long program which is a good thing because there is an observation period and a comfort zone to establish. Mentors plan carefully with student teachers before/after teaching. It’s a time committment, but an enjoyable different level. Since the program was voluntary on both parts, both students and teachers were comfortable with their roles because of a pre-existing framework which avoided disasters. You need the right people on both sides and it has to be voluntary. In reflection, the mentors would like a mentor meeting established on a regular basis so they can connect. From a teacher’s perspective, it makes you a better role model with a different dynamic practioner approach.
I must end by saying that I have never been anything but impressed with all the SLA students I have met.
Chris Lehmann opened Saturday’s Sessions at EduCon, a volunteer conference organized around late night meetings, Skype, Twitter and some really dedicated people. Diana Laufenberg, Marci Hall, Zach Chase, Tim Best, Brad Lattimer, Stephanie Dunda, Doug Herman, Matt Baird, Ann Marie Sweeney and parents working registration were among Lehmann’s shout outs for making the logistics of the conference work. Lehmann mentioned that they are still running a school while the conference planning amps up in the week preceding EduCon. It is hard to imagine the intensity of the behind-the-scenes work the students, faculty, and volunteers mentioned above commit to in creating conversations for the future. Lehmann mentioned students specifically, but I must admit I could not keep up with the list which was deep, but we acknowledge and thank them for making this happen.
Additionally, Lehmann thanked Steve Hargadon for putting a bunch of bloggers in a room a few years ago, and noted that Will Richardson suggested they should all get together at EduCon, and that Chris would let us do that. This conference happens because we believe that our students should outgrow us, because of the passion we have for committing to experiential learning. Lehmann says we believe differently that the solutions must include educators and students if we want to succeed. We must all be partner together, especially since school reform is the issue in the news.
That being said, Lehmann introduced the keynote speaker as “his boss.” “Is it good for our students, do you have a plan, and how can I help?” are the questions Perez asks when Lehmann calls her, and he counts himself fortunate to have her on the team. There is no one more passionate, according to Lehmann, about kids.
Marily Perez, who was last year’s Keynote Speaker, once again inspired us at EduCon 2.2 opening Saturday’s session. Perez is the Central Region Superintendent for the School District of Philadelphia. Our children are our future. Perez said that she grew up in the badlands, so she wants us to think about educating all students regardless of where they come from, their personal differences, their gender, and all things that matter to being who we are. Expectations for her, despite her circumstances, were that education is important.
Expectation that she sometimes heard growing up is that “you can’t make it there at Girls High,” but Perez knew that in a place where greatness is expected, your expectations exceed can’t. She notes that she frequently hears can’t in education, but we need to believe that everyone has innate talent and can reach potential. Teachers need to understand the power of their words. We need to tell them at a very early age that they can learn despite their circumstances, in spite of poverty, plague-infested areas. Perez notes that many of the schools she oversees are poverty-stricken, but she still expects a first-class education for ALL children, even though they come with experiences that most of us cannot understand or fathom. No one wants to be poor, yet many children in Philadelphia and elsewhere that are impacted by poverty. Education is the agency that transforms the quality of life for these children.
What we know with pedagogy and high expectations can create a system of order and learning. Order is important in their lives, and if they come to us without order, we need to show them systems of order that help them. Teach with rigor and high expectations and do not water down the curriculum. Teach with the notion that they can think, that they have homework so they can practice, but make it relevant.
High expectations = servitude, serving others, being able to accept demographics. It is not our job to judge; it is our job to educate. We need compassion, strong listening skills, and connections to students, creating engagement and community among all people: students, teachers, parents. Servitude is caring. A teacher’s role is to have a high ethic of caring, making decisions in students’ best interests. We need the courage to challenge the system to care enough to know that it matters and we should take the time to have a relationship with our students, their life, their experiences before they enter the school and after they leave. Love is costly, but servitude is about having a loving attitude, regardless of students’ circumstances, that we need to add value and not judge students because of their background.
What is schooling is having a high educational program. Can we teach students to think, can we provide a workforce that supports our economy. We need to have a schooling that helps our students be strong communicators, build strong global relationships, to contribute to developing cures for diseases and situations in society, to have a productive lifelong learning attitude. We need to change the world if we can shift our thinking.
Friday Night Panel — 6pm-8pm — “What is Smart?” Introductions by Dr. Dennis Wint, CEO of The Franklin Institute opened the conversations creating the future.
David Warlick made a mindmap of this panel’s conversation. It is an enlightening synthesis of the conversation, forwarded to me by Jennifer Brinson.
The panel, left to right: Happy Fernandez, moderator Frederic Bertley, David Shenk, Eddie Glaude, Loren Brichter, and Martha Farah.
* Happy Fernandez — President of the Moore College of Art
* Moderated by Dr. Frederic Bertley, Vice President of the Center for Innovation and Science Learning, The Franklin Institute
* David Shenk - Author of The Genius in All of Us, Data Smog and The End of Patience (and others)
* Prof. Eddie Glaude - William S. Tod Professor of Religion and African American Studies. Chair, Center for African American Studies, Princeton University
* Loren Brichter - CEO of atebits Software and developer of Tweetie Twitter software
* Prof. Martha Farah - Director, Center for Neuroscience & Society and Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania.
As this extraordinary conference begins in the Franklin Institute, Dr. Wink introduced the icon conference and remarked that the setting is fitting: the opportunity for passion, scientific inquiry, the ability to study science in the spirit of Franklin’s innovation. The Franklin Institute partners with Science Leadership Academy, which represents science, technology, and entrepreneurship and holds dear core values of inquiry, research, collaboration, presentation and reflection emphasized in all classes. A special thank you to Chris Lehmann, the organizing Principal behind the school and the conference.
Panel Topic: What is Smart? Each panelist has 5 minutes to present an answer and then questions are opened and the conversation begins.
David Shenk:
We have been for years living under innate intelligence; what you got, you got. Binet-Simon test attempted to lift students up. Individual intelligence is not a fixed quantity; memory, judgment may be increased. The IQ test was co-opted from Binet, and we were still told that intelligence was a preloaded thing. But today we consider intelligence differently because of science; genes interact with their environment and are not “fixed.” So, the brain is responded to our environment with plasticity, but genes are turned off and on. A dynamic process is the creation of intelligence.
His second point states that intelligence is a set of competencies in development; it is a process and malleable. Understanding the malleability enables a mindset that can change intelligence and abilities, rather than depending on intelligence as connected and limited to a preset. Intelligence is in their (students) and our hands.
Loren Brichter:
Smart is specialization, diving into something so deeply because you are passionate. More appropriate question is how do you make smart? Lehman was Brichter’s teacher in high school, more of a mentor enabling self-learning.
Dr. Glaude:
His answer: I have no idea (generated applause and laughter). Smart = genius, talent, intelligence, reasonableness, and so when we think about ordinary language use, we need to ask what is the context of the utterance to parse the word. Each use of “smart” creates a different connotation, so we need to begin to think about the context of the utterance being singled out.
If we are to cash out “smart” (Henry James and Dewey), it rejects a notion of reason for critical intelligence = inquiry. The idea of smart is made manifest in light of desired aims we want to achieve. Methods of science enables us to engage in scientific inquiry. Therefore, we need a contextual understanding of smart.
Second, we need to think about critical intelligence. If we say that a formulation is beautiful or a mathematical problem is elegant, we begin to understand smart.
Martha Farah:
Is there a single thing called smart? Is it a single or multiple thing. The controversy began in the 20th century regarding measuring cognitive abilities because the different ways we manifest our cognitive abilities is coined as “little g” to discuss a certain way of defining intelligence. The evidence for that is simple; people will push a button when they see a light flash on a screen. Little g = the single underlying thing that governs intelligence. Influenced by neuroscience, we now think that intelligence does not derive from one underlying form of intelligence but is rather multiple or interconnected. Intelligence is a combination of different selectors (Gardner). On unitary v. multiple, Farah thinks it’s a matter of semantics. She is realistic in understanding there is a suite of abilities that IQ tests measure that is important for getting ahead in the modern world. These abilities are often important but certainly as educators we need to recognize there are many types of human abilities, and that we, as educators, need to nurture them.
Happy Fernandez:
As an educator with a democratic egalitarian approach to the classroom, she wants to draw everyone into the sense of successful so they can become successful good citizens. Is smart changing with the times? Fernandez recalls elementary school education, and how we were not allowed to know our IQ, so she thought smart were academically achieving students who took tests well. Smart was good, rule-following to get good grades from teachers. Fernandez feels that not too much has changed, i.e, bluebirds, red birds… and that students still feel they are or are not smart.
Smart is artistic smart, as in a visual arts college like Moore. Smart is how to see things in ways others do not see, and to be good visual problem solvers. Smart is athletic talent, being athletically smart. Some of the highest paid people in our society are athletically smart, but not necessarily good decision makers. These people have a natural talent, but practice a lot, driven almost. Athletes often do well in school, but the highly paid and valued stars had an extra canny ability to see the opening, make the winning shot, or score more points. Our championship athletes see the field and where to put their focus. Smart is political smarts. Dealing with the complexity of politics, you need people who can navigate the complex forces of political life.
What is missing is having young people and young adults be part of a team to solve really big problems, and as we look to the future, we need to consider this point.
Q & A:
1. How does the concept of smart mesh with the bombardment of technology that is moving at warp speed?
Shenk: We agree with the notion of different types of intelligence and wonders if the way to get great at something is to find something you love, have persistence, push past failure, and get good at something. As educators, we need to find that thing, that inroad. His question: can we use that first thing that we can specialize in and pursue it and then use it as leverage to become smart at other things?
Farah on Shenk: We can get to an educational inpoint by using different things. Gene environment interaction allows a kid who is a little better genetically will pull supports from the environment. What looks like a genetic effect is really pulling from the environment.
2. How as educators do we navigate a classroom of multiple intelligences?
Glaude: All children have the ability to make intelligent choices. We can conceive children, no matter of their background, to exact good choices, to act intelligently. We label that smart. We need to smoke out something that is innate that teases out what is intelligence. There are ways we can educate to make good people who may just not have talent.
Fernandez: What is relevant to folks at this conference who are educators and need something relevant from this conversation?
Glaude: What do we do when we see students in front of us, and how do we develop intelligent action?
Brichter: Is it bad to let students focus on what they are good at?
Farah: The idea is to teach people in ways they are ready to earn and recognize and hope that you can get more people to the stage of education we want to get them to by teaching and letting them learn with the intelligences that are strongest in them. But how do you learn history with body kinesthetics?
Fernandez: In some schools in some classrooms, kids can be damaged by messages overt or covert; education is drawing out the abilities to build confidence in good decision making. To generate curious students and develop passion which can lead to imagination and good things is important; we cannot tell students they are not good at…. Backgrounds, bad parents/neighborhoods, cannot let us think negatively about our expectations for these children.
Shenk: students and abilities are malleable. We are beyond what we have to what we can be.
3. Are we changing what we value as smart in a changing technological world?
Fernandez: Technology is a tool to other ends, just like a paintbrush or book. Sometimes technology gets confused with an ends, and not a means.
Glaude: Students take notes on computers, typing away but it’s Facebook, Twitter… Technology can deform attention. That creates perpetual distraction and is dangerous to democracy because we need a cosmopolitan citizen open to the world.
Brichter: Agrees that computers must be used for something productive; it is a tool.
Technology is a huge distraction. As a tool, each piece of technology does a certain think. Now that we have so many tools, we need to know the end and use the tool, rather than the flash of the tool. What is steering what?
Farah: Need to memorize and retain things in your head is less; weakens memory muscle. We bemoaned calculators and now we have computers.
Shenk: Great to have tools, but we are losing something when we rely on external memory. Does technology make the mind active or passive? Or is it more active on computers.
Glaude: We need to find a delicate balance between the two. Used Haiti as a personal example with his son who texted his donation and then created a Facebook page at 13. He mobilized his friends quickly via social networking. But can he memorize and recite Keats.
4. Do schools mistake compliance with intelligence?
Fernandez: Are computers pacifiers?
Glaude: Students have a grade obsession with the next goal but ask them to think outside the box and they trip. He is referencing highly motivated students who see achievement as a critical dimension for success. Are we delivering products teaching to the tests?
Fernandez: Exams that do not ask for repeating the lecture but PBL like SLA engages in a different assessment process aligned with an outcome is better.
5. What was the definition prior to the written language, and how the the alphabet impact intelligence?
Audience: Survival.
Shenk: Likes survival. What he’s trying to do. Chief motivation was just to survive = one intelligence that was the focus.
Glaude: What is the difference between success and smart?
Shenk: Emphasis is away from critical thinking. Competition can be a good thing if you point motivation in a certain way.
Gaude: American education is oftentimes something squeezing the creative juices out of us. How do we give life in the classroom as a teacher to the beauty of the life of the mind without practical implications? What does it mean to revel in the mind?
6. Is smart a neurological truth or a societal construct?
Farah: Neurological truth; every thought we have, is 100 percent a function of the brain so intelligence is a function of the brain. But that is not mutually exclusive of a social context. Human relationships, kindness v. how stressful your neighborhood is are all elements of the social context we grow up in, and that affects learning.
Glaude: Brilliance can be exposed and nurtured in the most unlikely places. America has never genuinely committed to educating all its children. Gaude says he is a product of expectations.
7. What was the role of an influential teacher in your life?
Shenk: 3rd grade homeroom teacher made him a newspaper editor, wanted to meet teacher expectations, and believed the teacher saw his passion.
Brichter: Shout out to Lehman who helped him improve his skills, but it was never about feeling smart.
Glaude: Socratic method and intellectual vertigo.
Farah: High school English teacher, same one for 4 years and he gave her the confidence to voice her reactions and positive reinforcement.
Fernandez: 5th grade teacher who recognized curiosity and first attractive young teacher, so she wanted to be like her because of classroom climate. Students watch teachers closely, looking at you in all kinds of ways. Many emotional things go one beside challenging students.
EduCon 2.2, a three-day conference from January 29-31, 2010 opened Friday evening with an amazing panel discussion at the Franklin Institute. If you cannot attend in person, Steve Hargadon is coordinating live streaming of the events (see below for information). As stated on their website, EduCon 2.2 is both a conversation and a conference. And it is not a technology conference. It is an education conference. It is, hopefully, an innovation conference where we can come together, both in person and virtually, to discuss the future of schools. Every session will be an opportunity to discuss and debate ideas — from the very practical to the big dreams.
From Chris Lehman’s email about EduCon:
It’s not a place for big speeches, it’s a place for well-thought conversation. It is a place for ideas, not stuff. There isn’t much swag at all and there isn’t an exhibit floor. What the conference has, in abundance, is really smart people who care deeply about the future of education and how we all can make it better.
From Steve Hargadon:
As an experiment in collaboration (students are running all of the streams), I’m excited to be helping to provide live Elluminate streams of all 76 sessions on Saturday and Sunday as part of the work I do for Elluminate at LearnCentral.org.
Prof. Eddie Glaude - William S. Tod Professor of Religion and African American Studies. Chair, Center for African American Studies, Princeton University.
Via RSS
If you want some good professional development materials and ideas, just visit the Professional Development Center of this site. I use these materials often to train teachers in my district. It is a good idea to point new teachers to this section when they are starting with DE services, especially the “Best Practices” section. There are examples of using closed captioned shows, differentiating activities and more. Showing this to experienced teachers is not a bad idea either, as they can always use a new tip now and then.
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