I wonder

Every now and then, I need a day just to re-imagine the world of education. Not surprisingly, I've seen a few things come-and-go over the past 20 years:

I'm halfway through my career and quite honestly, none of this has realigned teaching as we know it across the state. Sure, there are pockets of greatness.  But it depends on the luck of the draw--which teacher you get.  I wonder about that. I worry about whether the local level funding is where we should focus our energies and our money.  I love the fact we are recognizing the financial needs of young professionals coming into the profession, but besides that, I'm unsure.

I want to learn from those innovative professionals.  And I think the Branstad proposal could be adapted for that, but are those professionals concentrated evenly in each school? Or would this teacher-mentor model be better adapted to an AEA level, allowing teachers to leave their classrooms for a year?   I wonder about that.

And have we asked those administrators in small schools--you know, the ones where the principal or superintendent teaches a math class so the building can stay open and the kids have options--if teaching one or two classes a day is a good idea?  How's that working for them?  Is a coaching or strategist sabbatical a better idea?   I wonder about that.

 See, all of these things, above, are pieces that had good intentions.  But they are intentions without the central focus we need.

We need a vision that is focused on the dreams of students.   Ask your own child.  Ask the next child who walks into your field-of-view.  Ask them if this stuff above is what they remember about great learning?  Or what they dream about?  Because passion comes from wanting to learn each day

And if it doesn't come up, maybe it's time to rethink.  Because I want all kids to dream big dreams.   I want them to make things.  Program apps.  Do real work. Not be confined to desks.  And if I can't structure the classroom to help those kids reach for the stars, I'll need to look for better options.

Things like authentic presentations with community partners

                  Online courses to meet the needs of different sets of learners.  

24/7 access

Collaborating with other students in other districts

      Flexible student content

Buildings open from 8-8 with sliding teacher and student schedules

Creating, not just consuming

 

When we start looking at what we need for kids,  maybe then we can design the system.

Last year, I took one statement from Twitter to heart:  Iowa, do we want to be a series of buildings or a system of schools?"  I'm still trying to find that answer.

Let's Think Relevant Transformation

I remember a conversation I had with an administrator,  "Your problem, Marcia, is that you expect people to give up the lecture and the worksheets.   That's a perfectly fine way for lots of learners to learn the material.  Besides, the teachers aren't comfortable with new ways."

A second administrator, years later, disagreed,  "Word searches are no way to inspire anything but temporary knowledge.  If your books are all lost in a fire tonight,  what really matters?  What will you teach?"

And of course, one of the more influential voices in my head in the last five years has been through virtual conversations.  Specifically, I am referring to Scott McLeod, who has always reminded me about the students across the world who compete with my own.

It's time for Transformation.  Pick a direction.  


Using Your Cell Phone Navigator vs. Garmin vs. Mapquest



Students today are different. Teach them differently.  Trust them.  Get out of the way.  


How Accurate is Google Maps?
   w


Tap Their Interests

An Easter Egg Hunt Using Google Earth

KMZ file


Make Sure What they Learn is Connected to their Life

How Foursquare Works




Move up the Bloom's Taxonomy

Which is Better?




Don't Teach Your Content in a Silo

Military Drones and GPS




It's 2013.  Don't Our Kids Deserve Relevant Learning?

Damn the Torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead

My New Year's Resolution was to blog and tweet again.  This was not easy for me. Of course, being a loud voice never is easy. Bucking the status quo requires difficult, uncomfortable discussions. It opens up conflict.   But this debate on school reform in Iowa needs to move to ACTION  We've been swinging this pendulum of dialogue like an incense thurifer.  Let the smoke clear already--PLEASE.


Will this be the year that LEAs change?  Will PLCs be the magical transformation?  Well, it's a start, but my thought is:  probably not.

Teachers tend to be loyalists, and often look for 20+ year careers in one system.  In return, they care deeply for their local community, but that limits their time searching for that new strategy or learning. They coach, they are on the council, they share their talents at everything affecting the school and the communities to which it is attached. Their children go through the school, and they look at their schools through dual-lenses of parent and professional.  Without them, Iowa would be much poorer; without them, the lack of stability would hurt our schools and our kids.

But in every building, there are a few teachers that take a different path, searching for that best-practice, that new study, that extra tool. These teachers see this as part of their vocation as much as the coach sees teamwork as part of his or her passion.  These are the teachers that inform others of best-practices.  Their classes are different, and you can see it in a five-minute walk through.  They are often the people who cause the consternation for administration.  They challenge others, and they are willing to challenge superiors.  Their pathway is less visible than that of the winning coach, but they are just as important.  They can also be very uncomfortable to those in charge.

Finally, an administration exists, and in my experience at multiple schools they are an either/or proposition. Fitting the 'district profile' may mean that they will not challenge the system, but a new shock to the system often means that well-done programs are cast aside for a new innovation.  No wonder we have such difficulty finding administrators, who are asked to be everything to everyone, and have a difficult time navigating treacherous waters.

This triad tension means that there will always be a difficulty in reform on a local level, because no one stakeholder can fill all the roles needed.  The partners are not equal in power, and it's easy for comfort to triumph innovation.  It focuses us on small changes, but not transformative ones.

Will this be the year the the next layer of bureacracy realizes how complex things are?  Will they be the driver for transformative change?  Probably not.

This triad tension is not much better on a state level, with businesses, reformers, and politicians taking the respective roles of personal loyalist, innovators, and admin.  Just as in the local triad, they mean well, but the two systems are separate, and it is difficult to make reform happen on the state level when policy trumps personalities.  Regional staff, like AEA members or college education professors are often ignored, even though they have the knowledge of best-practice.  The process destroys school spirit and it often paints educators with a broad brush, assuming we are too ignorant, too insular, or too stupid to understand what kids need to succeed.  STEM has been alive in many schools for a long time, but has been discovered by politicans in the last 18 months.  Engagement strategies and relevancy are not new ideas, but yesterday's business summit was a series of speeches and lectures, which do not lead to a true construction of knowledge.

The major initiative that we could consider, CompEd  has transformed from it's earliest painful process (outcomes) to standards and benchmarks, but I don't even see it listed as a priority on the agenda for this year. Sure we need to build, but we continue to speak on a state level as if all stakeholders are at ground zero.

Let's shift the conversation.  Let's look for the transformative change.

As we head into the 2013 Legislative Session, could we please look for the center of both triads?  Jason Glass spoke at the Business Summit today and called for a need for interdependency between business and education.  It's more than that.   As I look at the Branstad 5 point plan, I see much that matters, but if the legislature gets stuck in minutiae, nothing will get done.

Terry Branstad has 5 reform proposals on the table.

1. Teacher compensation. 
2. Expansion of online education through Iowa Learning Online.  
3. Expansion of TEACHIowa.  This is an innocuous thing, since most schools use IAReap, but it won't really harm anything.
4. Redo diplomas to have seals that indicate career readiness.
5. Redo teacher and administrative evaluations.

4 and 5 probably need to be addressed, but they seem to be a small part of the picture, and they are focused on system evaluation.

I can get behind proposals 1, 2, and 3.   1 and 3 are concerned with the recruitment and retainment of talented young teachers, which is critical to the future.  2 is concerned with the fact that Iowa is way, way behind in online education, and our students are going to college without needed skills to be successful in their first semester of college. This push for Iowa Learning Online is really the only one that affects students and has the potential  to transform their lives.



Why am I bothered?  Because we are missing the BIG picture here.  We arguing for system evaluation, not system transformation.  Iowa has ok schools, but ok is never good enough.

Can we please focus change on the CENTER of the triad?  Focus on the needs of the stars of the show: the kids.



Transformation 1:  Could we try to fashion the way forward based on skill sets rather than lock-step movement and seat time?  It is time for Competency-based education.


Transformation 2:  Is it possible to look at research as we develop policy focused on mastery of content? Can we build shared professional development as we did with the Communities of Practice project last year?  This also is part of the same rationale for Iowa Learning Online 

Transformation 3:  Can we leave last year's contentious fights on 3rd grade retention, and school start dates?  Focus on meeting the needs of kids using RTI. Develop the common core collaboratively.  Set hours for Iowa schools or set a certain number of days, but then let's move on and develop our teachers. 


I started working with the idea of educational reform when my oldest child was in 1st grade; she's now a college sophomore with a business internship in a STEM-related major. Her youngest sibling is in 3rd grade. How long are we going to do this repetitive dance?  Move already.

Damn the torpedoes.  It's time for full speed ahead to meet the needs of Iowa kids.

Shaking the Meme Tree on Epiphany

My family belongs to a small Episcopal church, and so it is difficult to use elaborate programs for Christmas. What do you do when you have less than six kids available to participate?  For the last few years, we've written my own, and the kids have had the opportunity to doing a choral reading.

This year, kudos to Episcopal Memes, which gave me the majority of the materials that the five kids 'discussed' with the congregation this morning.  We read, shared the Good News (and pictures), and laughed with all the participants at the puns.  Unusual...perhaps.  Tinsel-free, certainly.  But timely and best of all, the kids--from 8 to senior in high school, participated and 'got it'.  I'm in awe of the way the Spirit moves.

C	Hey T, watcha doing?
T	I'm playing Minecraft. What do you think I am doing? It's a great server on the multiplayer version where we build Dr. Who stuff. I'm building a snowman because of the Dr. Who Christmas special.
M	That was creepy. You had talking snow and an ice governness and blood thirsty snow people.
T	But the Doctor melted them. It was all good in the end.
K	T, is that all you did over break? Play minecraft?
T	Well, no. We went sledding, and M and C bugged me and Mom made us clean. But H left Wednesday and school started Thursday. It doesn't take long for Christmas to be over
G	I know that. That's why I have been looking at memes.
C	What are memes?
M	That's when you laugh at an internet thing, and it spreads really fast.. You know, like Zomby Cat.
C	Are there a lot of those out there?
G	Tons. You can make your own meme. There are some made every single day. It's one of the best ways to reach people our age who may not even have a church. And it's a great way to think about what is important about the days of Christmas.
M	Like We Three Kings?
T	M, do you even know who those Kings are?
M	Sort of. I know the one on the right is Larry King. Whose's the guitar-playing guy?
G	That's BB King. He used to sell diabetic supplies and he's a famous blues guy.
C	And the guy with the wild hair?
K	“Well, congregation, do you know?” (the right answer is Don King)
G	There have to be better pictures than that of three kings.
K	You mean like this one? I don't know if plastic light bulbs stuck in the back of the kings are all that respectful.
C	I like this one. Look. These guys got where they were going using a GPS, just like on a phone. I wonder what you would get if you typed in Jesus on Dad's navigator.
T	But the wise men didn't have a GPS, C. They followed a star. They were astronomers
G	We celebrate 12 days of Christmas, but really, a lot of theologians think Jesus might have been over a year old by the time the wise men arrived.
M	Does that mean Jesus' birthday wasn't on Christmas? I mean, if they got the whole wise men thing wrong, what about that day?
K	Or is just important that Jesus was born?
G	Does it really matter? We celebrate Jesus' birthday at Christmas time. It's the remembering that's important, not the date itself.
Tom	I don't always get why they make a big deal of 12 days of Christmas. I mean, most people take down their tree by the 27th.
Glyn	Well, it has something to do with people who are part of Orthodox Christianity....like the religion in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. So they link together two feasts—the Nativity and the Theophany, the celebration of John Baptizing Jesus in the Jordan.
Maire	But we don't do that. We celebrate Epiphany today. That's the twelfth night
G	That's true. Shakespeare wrote an entire play about the Twelfth Night. And we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus NEXT week.
C	But what do people do between day 1 and day 12?
K	They celebrate and remember other special days. New Year's is one of them.
G	That's also called Holy Name Day, because Jewish people named their child on day 8. They went to the temple, and Jesus was presented to the priests.
Tom	It all started with Advent. That let us think about how cool it is that God's Son came to earth. And that Star Wars is cool.
Maire	And how uncomfortable it was for Mary.
Tom	It wasn't much of a party for Joseph, either. Hey, is that Chuck Norris?
Glyn	And along the way, we remember some great saints....like the first martyr, Stephen.   And maybe some lesser saints, too.
C	And we have lots of time to sing carols and celebrate with family.
K	I guess the whole point it to tell people that God loves them. It takes time to believe that.
T	God saves the world.
C	God is the Light.
Everyone	May we join in the dance of God this day, And sing our praises to Christ our Saviour. Let us celebrate the joy of Christ’s birth, And shout aloud: Emmanuel, God is with us!

Hey! Where's the CHEM STEM?

photo credit: chrisfreeland2002 via photopin cc

A colleague on my personal learning network asked a fabulous question---How do we promote chemistry and chemical engineering in an age of STEM?   The question is well worth the time to consider.

As I look at the Iowa STEM initiatives, I see plenty of evidence of fun as well as learning.  Really.  It's a great thing to play with robots, build lego challenges, and design windmills.  As a physics teacher myself, I get excited by the energy efficiency technology that Pat Higby and the IEEE at UNI offer and ship to schools.

But...but....but.   When it comes to chemistry, we are failing.  Besides university-based summer or science camps like Camp Invention, where do we look? Besides Fizz-Bubble-Goo, an ISU Extension program for K-3, there aren't a lot of resources in the summer.  And that's only one season. Teachers need safe, reliable, easy chemistry programs available for kids to develop interest and passion for chemistry ALL year long.  That's a tall order.

Most of the resources that ARE out there are videos or demo-based, focused on the generosity of local colleges and universities.  Googling the term "chemistry engineering outreach" lists some great outreach, if you are in the right place:

http://depts.washington.edu/acesche/outreach/about-aces-outreach   (Seattle-based)

http://www.aiche-chicago.org/oldsite/Student_Outreach/index.html (Chicago-based)

http://www.eng.vt.edu/outreach/chemical (Virginia-tech)

http://www.che.utah.edu/community_and_outreach/k-12_outreach_program.php   (Utah)


On a more local level, you can check out Iowa State's Material Advantage Club, or the Univ. of Iowa Outreach, but again, these options are local, rather than state-wide, and are more demonstration-based than interactive. That is a problem.

=================
So, for my New Year's Resolution, let me challenge you to DO with your students.

DO chemistry.  Start with WATER, if you are uncomfortable about chemistry safety.  In particular, check out the water detective activities at the link.

COOK with kids.  It's one of the easiest ways to talk about reactions.

SHARE an activity with 4H extension that is chem-based but accessible to kids (the list on the website keeps saying,  "coming soon".

ASK your AEA to help organize a Maker Camp that includes chemistry.

INVITE Pella or 3M engineers into your classroom for a chemistry event.

EXPLORE nanoscales or ChemShorts.

RESIST efforts to cut science time from your class time.  Write about science, read about science current events, talk about science and history, count and measure for science experiments.   It IS a challenge with so much testing, and we know it, but our kids need this K-12.

Take Chem STEM to your 4H meetings, your scouting events, your planning for summer camps and after school groups.

SUBSCRIBE to the eGFI Newsletter and Blog to keep up-to-date on new opportunities.

DEVELOP a Maker-Faire with the regional STEM hub in your area, or within your community.  Let's involve Extension, and teachers, and kids, and communities.

I want my kids to love learning about chemistry.  I want them to model, and I want them to reflect.  Hobby Lobby sells ten dollar kids to make plastics and plaster of paris molds.   Why can't we do this for all kids?  I want students to have fun in a safe way that teaches them about the real world.   Why can't we do that?  Why aren't we?

photo credit: Old Shoe Woman  via photopin  cc