Digital Footprints

Are students aware of the power of their digital footprints?

Looking at this pictograph from Connected Learning (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), students are on-line using a variety of networking tools to create, share, explore, play, learn, and publish. Their online presence is creating an indelible mark about who they are as a potential employee, college student, or member of the military.  Too often, I see the negative side of how students use technology and social networks.  How do we help our students be their best?

In the blogosphere, educators are constantly discussing the need for teachers and administrators to have a PLN and August has been Connected Educator month with lots of free professional development to help educators network and grow as a professional including their digital footprint. Should we be discussing and creating a connected student month that focuses on helping students network "academically?"  By academically, I mean that students start to think about how their on-line presence is going to help them for college and career readiness.  Or should this type of learning just be a part of students' daily/weekly learning?

In the end, students need to have a balanced education that includes learning to create a positive digital footprint for themselves.  What are your thoughts?

The Start of School

104 days of summer vacation and school comes along just to end it.  -- Phineas and Ferb, Disney

It is crazy to think that this first day was my 28th (as student and educator) and will be my dad's 55th (I think, you can scold me if I am wrong).  I am very excited to get the year started; faculty had their first official days back last week; Freshmen Orientation was Friday; and our whole high school was  filled today.  I hope that I can continue to have the same passion, drive, and excitement that my father has continued to exhibit in his 30 plus years in education. 

I am excited about about the future of education and I am constantly thinking about the possibilities.  Eric Sheninger shared a video called the Voice of the Active Learner on his blog: http://esheninger.blogspot.com/2012/08/voice-of-active-learner.html (check it out).  This video really captured one of the things that has been weighing heavily on my mind this summer; and that one thing is providing a world class education to a generation of students that "pack a smart phone" and has choices on how/when to learn.  How do we take the best of what we do in education and leverage technology to individualize education, as well as providing the opportunity for national and global collaboration, while upping the level of rigor and promoting creativity?  I shared the video with our faculty to promote a discussion and to get all of us thinking, developing and implementing new strategies and ideas into lesson plans. As always, I believe a balanced approach is critical to what we do.  

Whether you have had your first day or you will shortly, have a great start to the school year! As Phineas states, "We've got fun to make." 

Cheers,

Aaron

Back to School PLN

It's funny how as an educator my year revolves around the "school year."  I was talking with my wife and I said something to the effect of "this upcoming year . . .", and she asked, "are you talking about 2013?".  Any way, another year (2012-2013 school year) is getting ready to begin and I can't wait for all of the students and faculty to be back in our building.  I'm excited about where we have been and the direction we are going.  Yesterday, we had our annual back to school department chair meeting and I attended our marching band preview.  Things are definitely picking up steam and as they do, my mind is beginning to swirl with a myriad of "to do" items/ideas and also thinking about finding that right balance of time with work and home.  While, I do not want to go into all of my professional and personal goals for the year.  I am wrestling with what I want to get out of my on-line PLN (Professional Learning Network).  I have read some great blogs and tweets with informative links this past summer, but I also want to be a contributor as well, which I have tried with my limited number of tweets and blog entries.  I often times come back to the question of why am I taking the time to do this on-line PLN thing?  What am I adding to the equation (my inner math geek is showing)?

First, this past winter I actively joined Twitter and started following educators after attending a conference and seeing the ability to have a conversation during a keynote as well as recognizing the amazing amount of information and PD that various educational leaders are sharing.  Second, I started a blog because I wanted to learn another valuable, educational web 2.0 tool and hopefully contribute to the blogosphere conversation.  After about six months, I am averaging about 10 tweets a month and 1 blog post a month, hardly significant.  I want to produce original content or at least add a new/different perspective to an idea or article, which brings me back to my two questions above.  So, I plan on writing a blog entry a week and doubling my tweets to 20 a month.  Will spending more time actively engaging in producing content help me see why I am doing this and what I am adding to the equation?  Time will tell.  For those blogger and twitter sages out there, what advice/encouragement do you have for me to meet my goal and answer my questions.

In the meantime, I wish all of you educators out there a great start to your school year.

Cheers,

Aaron

On Leadership and Building an Enduring Great Institution
I have been reading Jim Collins' Good to Great along with Good to Great and the Social Sectors as part of a book study with fellow educators.  I also recently read a faculty address by Dr. Gordon E. Gee, president of The Ohio State University, on A Blueprint for the 21st Century University (see the link at the bottom of the page for the full address).  So where is the connection?  It's two-fold: Leadership and Building an Enduring Great Institution.

In his address, President Gee espouses a blueprint for the 21st century university that includes thinking outside of the box when it comes to funding, achievement, learning environments, research, and developing programs to ensure student academic success. I believe much of this blueprint requires a Good to Great mentality or as Dr. Gee states in his address Excellence to Eminence.

Jim Collins speaks of level five leadership, which embodies a mix of professional will and personal humility.  Additionally, he speaks of building greatness to last.  These type of leaders are driven to do whatever it takes to create great companies/institutions that are lasting and they are quick to take the blame when things are not working but quickly give credit to others when things are working. As Dr. Gee states,  "It is about something larger than any individual in this room or any group of individuals on campus. Frankly, we will all come and go. It is about a University with 140 years of history."  Based upon these quotes and others in the address, Dr. Gee is definitely interested in OSU being a great and lasting institution of higher education.  Further throughout his address, there are numerous snippets praising specific people for their roles in OSU's continued march toward eminence and pointed nods on continuing to cultivate leaders amongst the faculty, staff and administration.

As I think about the future of K-12 public education, there are many parallels to Dr. Gee's blueprint; you could easily substitute out university/higher education with the blueprint for K-12 public education.  There are many forces such as student learning styles, economics, technology, public expectations, and politics to name a few that are colliding to reshape the landscape of education.  As a result, we must, as Dr. Gordon E. Gee states, "re-think, re-imagine, and reinvigorate how and what you teach."  In the end we must, honor our best traditions and practices, while continuing to pursue the necessary changes when it comes to student learning, achievement, learning environments, funding, research, and developing programs to ensure student academic success in the 21st century.

http://president.osu.edu/speeches/address-to-the-faculty-a-blueprint-for-the-21st-century-university.html

 

Mathematical Practices

I have been reading articles, blog, tweets, and other mediums on math education.  They all don’t necessarily align, but there are some common themes.  Essentially there are two camps of advocates in the field of math education.  The first believes the mastery of skills, often referred to as a “back to the basics” curriculum, should be the focus.  The second believes that the conceptual understanding of mathematics should be the focus of a strong math curriculum.  When one reads these statements independently, it is hard to disagree with either one.  Both of these ideals need to be addressed.  One can not have a strong conceptual understanding without having mastered some skills. Thus, one should consider Dr. Keith Devlin’s perspective on a focus of producing innovative mathematical thinkers.  The last four paragraphs of one of his blog entries really speaks to what all educators who are responsible for teaching students mathematics should think about. 

Traditionally, a mathematician had to acquire mastery of a wide range of mathematical techniques, and be able to work alone for long periods, deeply focused on a specific mathematical problem. Doubtless there will continue to be native-born Americans who are attracted to that activity, and our education system should support them. We definitely need such individuals. But our future lies elsewhere, in producing people who fall into my second category: what I propose to call the innovative mathematical thinkers.

This new breed of individuals (actually, it's not new, it's just that no one has shone a spotlight on them before) will need to have, above all else, a good conceptual understanding of mathematics, its power and scope -- when and how it can be applied -- and its limitations. They will also have to have a solid mastery of a few very basic mathematical skills, but they do not have to be stellar. A far more important requirement is that they can work well in teams, often cross-disciplinary teams, they can see things in new ways, they can quickly come up to speed on a new technique that seems to be required, and they are very good at adapting old methods to new situations.

Arguably the worst way to educate such individuals is to force them through a traditional mathematics curriculum, with students working alone through a linear sequence of discrete mathematical topics. To produce the twenty-first century, innovative mathematical thinker, you need project-based, group learning in which teams of students are presented with realistic problems that require mathematical and other kinds of thinking for their solution.

Of course, you still need a curriculum, in the sense of a list of topics that students need to master at some point or other. But it should be a short list, and should not be used as a list to proceed through topic by topic, as is current practice in the US. There needs to be a shift in STEM education from (topic-based) instruction (hashtags #traditional and #back-to-basics) to guided-discovery and project-based learning (#reform, #inquiry-based-learning). The primary focus needs to be not on what people know, but on how they think.

In the end, I think there needs to be a balance in the classroom.  Think about the essentials skills and knowledge students need to have and how does one seamlessly integrate that with conceptual understanding.  At the heart of the matter are the eight Mathematical Practices from the Common Core State Standards for mathematics: 


1. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
2. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
3. Model with mathematics.
4. Use appropriate tools strategically.
5. Attend to precision.
6. Look for and make use of structure.
7. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

By considering these practices, what skills are essential, and rich mathematical problems grounded in real-world application when lesson planning, our future students will be innovative mathematical thinkers. 

Learning and School Design 
I started drafting this blog a week ago and I have since visited Gahanna Lincoln High School.  Mr. Dwight Carter was a great host and gracious enough to give a couple hours of his time to myself and my colleagues.  When most of us think of classrooms or school buildings, we think of the traditional teacher dispensing knowledge to students in desks situated in rows.  If you walked into Gahanna Lincoln High School's Clark Hall with no prior knowledge, you probably wouldn't think you were in a high school.  Bright colors, modern furniture, open airy design, some students were working collaboratively on sofas, other students were working independently at countertops sitting on bar stools, and they had their cell phones, tablets and laptops out in the open with a teacher circulating the room providing assistance or feedback.  


In the 21st Century, schools should consider a variety of spaces or learning environments in school, both traditional and non-tradition (this blog is going to focus on the non-traditional).  Flexible space within classrooms and throughout the building   provide opportunities for lecture, collaboration, independent thinking, projects and labs, and other methods not yet considered for teachers to instruct/facilitate and for students to learn and create.  While there might not be a lot of quantitative research about the effects of design and space inside schools, there is mounting discussion and momentum from the likes of Sir Ken Robinson, Christian Long, and Ewan McIntosh, to name a few education professionals.

In the current economic climate as Christian Long mentioned at a conference, schools should not wait for the next big bond issue to build a new school or a "Clark Hall."  However, districts can use current resources to begin restructuring/renovating existing schools and spaces that lie within the old brick and mortar.  

First, paint is an affordable thing that can be done to liven schools up that also allows a school to ease into change.  Most schools have white or vanilla walls throughout the building, elementary buildings might be the exception to this stereotype. Three to five bright colors that are hip and modern that work together can go a long way to sprucing a place up. 

Next, finding "flexible space" outside of the classroom to renovate.  At Clark Hall, each academic floor had a large "flexible space" for students to collaborate or work independently during class time.  For example, a teacher might introduce, review or provide some direct instruction in regards to the learning objectives for the day in the first 15-20 minutes of class, then students break out to work on the work and a teacher can circulate providing feedback or provide intervention to students who are struggling back in the classroom. Then students are brought back in the final five to ten minutes to wrap up the lesson.  In existing buildings, classrooms could be combined and opened up.  There might not be an option to create large "flexible spaces" in various parts of a building.  So look for high traffic areas or nooks where students naturally congregate to renovate that space

Which leads to the role of furniture in renovating space, schools could think about the possibilities of a variety of furniture such as cafe tables, counter tops, coffee tables, end tables, traditional tables, lounge chairs, bean bags, and just a variety of modern chairs.  That is not so that traditional school furniture of desks, chairs, podiums does not continue to have importance to meet the balance of needs.

Next to last, scheduling is critically important.  Just as school space needs to be flexible so does the master schedule.  School leaders should consider how the schedule can be creatively designed to allow for such items as:

• collaboration between two classes such as science and math,
• longer and shorter classes based upon curricular needs and student learning styles, not all classes need to be 45 minutes or 100 minutes,
• common planning time for teachers based upon classes taught,
• advisory time for students based upon interests. 

Lastly, expectations are critical.  As Spiderman said, "With great power, comes great responsibility."  Giving students a variety of freedoms from technology to working outside of the classroom to demonstrating their learning in a variety of ways will allow students to learn responsibility and flexibility, which will prepare them for the "real world." 

In closing, I have just begun reading Sir Ken Robinson's Element, which is about where one finds what they are good at and what they love to do comes together.  If we are to help students find their "element," then we need the environment to facilitate learning that leads them in that direction. 

Technology and Education: An Example
I was able to witness a great lesson a little over a week ago (a little late in posting).  300+ freshmen were in an auditorium on a warm, sunny afternoon and they were raptly engaged with learning.  I wish I had video to share.  It was amazing!

A little background . . . our students were testing that week, but the freshmen were not on this particular day, which provided us with time to engage them in learning.  During this time, Mr. Adam Haynes led a lesson on bias.  He introduced the lesson with a variety of slides that included time for students to think/pair/share, formative assessment, humor, and discussion which included a twitter back channel (facilitated by another teacher Mr. Scott Morrison) for students to discuss, ask questions, and respond to Mr. Haynes during the lesson.  In the middle of the lesson, Mr. Haynes used the viral Kony 2012 video (check YouTube if you haven't seen it) to give the students a current issue to think about.  Bringing the bias lesson full circle, Mr. Haynes engaged the students in discussion on the finances of Invisible Children Inc (Kony 2012), an NPR report, and a perspective from a Ugandan reporter.  Back in the classroom with smaller groups, students had some "exit ticket" questions to work upon.  Ultimately, I hope that students learned about bias and how to critically analyze whether or not to support and/or lend their voice to an issue.  In other words, can they think with a filter or mine for gold, instead of just being a sponge?

This example demonstrates that a well planned lesson can engage students in any situation.  In this case, it was a fast paced, interactive lesson that incorporated technology use and a current issue that struck a chord with students.  Additionally, their was an expectation for students to think.  It will be interesting to see their responses to the "exit ticket" questions.

Once again, thank you Mr. Haynes and Mr. Morrison for your time and planning of this lesson.