Passion Project

Have you read Sir Ken Robinson's book, The Element, yet? The subtitle is "How finding your passion changes everything."
For me it was a total mind-opener on many levels. It is everything you already know on a deep level. But I suggest you read it anyway.

For me it was that very satisfying experience of having a very articulate person with a whole lot of credibility do a very good job of saying all the things I have wanted to say and tried to say for many years of working with kids.
We're all "gifted". It's a question of finding one's passion.


I decided to implement a "passion project" with 5th grade. I've done something similar before and was pleased with the results. It's taps into the user-generated education idea.
The "task" I have set forth to the students is to create a multimedia project about whatever they want to explore or share in a creative way.

I introduced the project today. First I showed them this video from the Imagine It Project:

Then I showed them student work samples from the last time I did a similar project a few years ago. I challenged them to take it up a notch, citing the fact that they have more tech skills than their older siblings and friends who did the earlier projects. They should be able to use multimedia authoring tools to create work that would show the results of their explorations and allow them to share their passions with others.

I also allowed them to work with partners of their own choosing.

I gave them this short survey to complete:

Before I even had a chance to go over the survey results, they were ready to get started. Although I know my students and have worked with them for 4 years now, it is always a revelation to me to learn more about them. What makes them tick? What do they want to create, to learn, to do? A few of the topics I could have guessed, but some were a surprise.
I threw in the last survey question, about what motivates you to do your best work, for my own edification, but also to get them thinking more about motivation. The answers were varied and interesting. One student chose "other" and wrote: "having fun and doing what I like."
Sir Ken would approve.

Classroom Innovation

This was my first attempt at making an animated film. I made it as part of my entry into Google Teacher Academy in Washington DC in November. I didn't get in to the GTA, but I like my movie, so I figured I'd share it here for fun. I made it using Frames4.

The Cost of Copyright Confusion

The future of intellectual property in a remix generation

facilitator: Kristin Hokanson

copyrightconfusion.wikispaces.com

Essential Understanding -instead of telling students "these are the rules" we must get students to think critically about the issues

What is your understanding of copyright? small group discussion.

common themes-

what is law vs. what is ethics?

public vs. private use

using certain media to enhance your message (the importance of teaching this to kids)

contextual and intent-driven

where do you draw the line on educational use?

citing sources, attribution

The intent of copyright: "to promote creativity, innovation and the spread of knowledge"

-Article 1, section 8 US Constitution 1787

Fair Use is the exemption to the law. How are we teaching kids to make the distinctions?

Range of comfort with use of copyrighted materials:

"see no evil" teachers who say go ahead and do it, I don't see it. sends kids mixed messages

"close the door" - I'll just close the door and we'll go ahead and do what we want.

"hyper-comply"- teachers who want exact rules, times, etc.

all of these examples fly in the face of critical thinking around the issues.

Discuss:

What do kids understand about...

•copyright

•fair use

•public domain

•creative commons

•understanding the difference between authorship and ownership

•creative commons

-challenge of giving credit, challenge of school filters

•what is the purpose of your work? are you analyzing the piece or simply restating something?

example of importance of purpose: Bill Graham Archives vs. Dorling Kindersley, Ltd. (2006)

Bill Graham sued DK for using their poster in a book about rock posters. DK won. The purpose of the original poster was to promote the rock concert. Purpose of the book was to document the time period, etc.

Codes of Best Practices:

Book- Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education (available from Media Education Lab)

video at http://mediaeducationlab.com/video-overview

The effective use of copyrighted materials enhances the teaching and learning process.

Context and situation of the material (user's rights video. available on temple site, embedded in the wiki, linked above).-

fair use depends on the benefit to society. does benefit to society outweigh the costs of the copyright holder.

Ask yourself: Did I

*add value?

*repurpose?

also on the wiki: scenarios for discussion, fair use reasoning sheet to help students develop the critical thinking skills around fair-use

"Mashups are an opportunity for students to really look at the media they consume-- to take it and give it their own spin. It helps show kids how they can present their own point of view."

-Faith Rogow

Watch: Larry Lessig's TED talk (How the law is strangling creativity)

The above are notes I took during the session. I just want to add that this session really opened my mind to a new understanding of this topic. There are no hard and fast rules. It really is about critical thinking and developing media literacy and a true understanding of intellectual property. And the best news of all is that there are incredible resources (check out the links) available to teach yourself and your students about copyright and fair use.

Leadership 2.0- Who do we need our leaders to be?

Chris Lehmann

Session Description:

If we assume that the schools we need are inquiry-driven, technology-infused and communities of care, what do leaders have to be to engender and nurture those ideas?

Big ideas!

Inquiry-

all of our classrooms should start with the questions we ask together- CL

What does this idea mean?

What does this idea mean for education?

How could this idea affect our schools and communitites?

How does this idea inform my personal practice?

•teacher guided questions leading to self-guided exploration

•inquiry as a pedagogy continues beyond school. is a real skill, process.

•not just asking questions but getting to the answer or an answer.

•teachers asking questions they don't know the answers to "What do you think?"

shared process of inquiry between teacher and student

connection between inquiries and communities of care. We know the content but they (students) know themselves. We can inquire about them.

What does "technology infused" mean?

•technology not independent of the content/pedagogical structure

•how do we leverage what kids are already using/doing with tech?

•can't be "the schools we've always had + technology"

•ubiquitous and invisible

•learning experiences going on that demand technology and can't be done without it.

•saying "I want my kids to be able to do something, what's the tool?"

"tools are transformative"

•release of control by the teacher

The ability to have these conversations and come to common ground requires a good leader. Get to common ground and then move on.

Communities of care-

difference between "I teach math." and "I teach KIDS math."

Students should never be the implied object of their own education.

mutual transparency- true motives are available to each other

care is at all levels. You can not bully teachers into caring for kids.

teachers have to feel cared for, trusted, listened to. top-down mandates will never get us to communities of care.

even when you care for people, you occasionally have to have hard conversations. caring means setting boundaries, being the adult (when talking about adults caring for kids, imposing structure and discipline).

Enabling is not caring.

Leadership- in order to transform a school where do you start?

Start by listening.

what do we do well?

what do we all want to do?

people want to make meaning together. someone who will take their ideas and synthesize them. Then lead.

You have to carve out the time and space for care. It doesn't fit neatly into the academic calendar, but you must make time for it. Structural change- at SLA every student has an advisor, someone whose job it is to know and care for that student. "The curriculum is the community."

"managing up" -teach our leaders how we want things to be. coming to people with solutions they can own. building trust and bridges.

Visioning: Developing Ideas

Modeling: How can leaders publicly live these ideas?

-articulating vision and starting discussion around vision, values

Whatever we want our kids to do, we have to allow our teachers to do.

Servant Leadership: Top Down Support for Bottom Up Ideas

We should be able to say to teachers "How can I help?"

Leading? How do we get everyone on board?

consensus-driven decision making doesn't mean we all agree completely. It means we are all willing to come to consensus and move forward around a shared decision.

requires:

honesty

transparency

a subjugation of ego

Sustaining:

How do we build systems and structures?

go into a school, ask what their mission statement is and ask them to prove it.

what are the systems and structures that support and sustain it?

Good leadership says, "Here are the systems and structures that will enable any teacher who is willing..."

Dream Job?!

My school is currently in the market for a new "head of school" for next year and beyond. Today, the second of three candidate finalists came to visit and tour the school. Teachers were given the opportunity to sign up for a 10 minute meeting with him on Tuesday, which I did.

Then I got a few minutes to meet with him today. I shared with him some thoughts about my job, the school in general and my hopes and challenges for the future. He gave me a "homework assignment" for our meeting tomorrow, which was to imagine my "dream job" at the school. If I could shape my role to be whatever I wanted it to be, what would that look like?

Ok, first of all, how much do I already like the guy for giving me this homework assignment?

You might think I have an easy answer to this question of a dream job, but I do not. So, I thought I would use my blog to explore my ideas. And then, if I haven't alienated all my readers by neglecting the blog for so long, maybe I could get some helpful feedback, too.

Currently, in my "technology coordinator" role I do the following:

•teach weekly resource or "specials" technology lab classes K-5

•teach a STEM pull-out, enrichment class for first graders, twice a week (and about to start a similar, once a week group for 5th graders)

•provide support for teachers in the area of tech integration

•with a LOT of help from a wonderful assistant, I oversee the network, troubleshoot problems, install software, order supplies, fix anything tech related, help teachers with technical problems, act as administrator for edline (our school's web portal)

•with Silvia Tolisano, our 21st century learning specialist, host monthly "parent coffee talks" to educate parents on relevant issues

•meet weekly with Silvia to collaboratively plan and strategize. Work on various projects or parts of projects with her.

•teach 8th grade weekly Jewish Lens class and technology resource classes in the middle school

•maintain my own Personal Learning Network and devote regular time to my own professional development through reading articles, blogs, exploring multimedia, commenting and otherwise engaging in the network, writing, reflecting, planning and exploring online resources, taking

classes and attending conferences. This takes time, but I believe it is a necessary and vitally important part of my work as an educator. The vast majority of this time is after school hours.

•maintain a classroom blog to share student work

In previous years I have run an after school tech club and keyboarding classes for students and an after school tech club for teachers. Before the addition of Silvia Tolisano to our faculty, I provided more professional development for teachers and tried to get into classrooms to work with teachers and students on unique, tech-infused projects. This year, Silvia has taken on more of the role of professional developer and tech integrationist.

So, that's the past and present. What about the future?

What does our school need and how can I use my time, energy and talents to best help?

There's a bit of a tug of war going on in my mind...

First of all, there are the weekly computer lab classes. A big part of me feels that it is time for those to change or to disappear altogether. As much as I enjoy my time with the students and my freedom to explore without many boundaries (no grades, no set curriculum, etc), I feel that the model of once-a-week computer resource classes conveys a message that computers are a "class" instead of a tool. We all know that kids don't really need to learn computers, right?

Well.....I think that's basically the case. But I still believe there are skills that the kids get from my class that they might not get without my class. File management, troubleshooting, that type of thing. Ok, I admit, they probably could get those skills without my class.

So then what about the things I do in my class that I know are valuable for students but that don't fit into a typical lesson plan? The creative, playful, open-ended explorations; the "educational free choice" time, the public sharing and presentations? Some of these can (and probably should) be brought into the classroom, but my fear is that some of the activities that don't have an easy to recognize curricular goal (but are still incredibly important) will get lost. Think Scratch, for example.

Then there is the issue of how teachers see me. Most teachers see me first and foremost as tech support (weird because I am an educator NOT a techie, I just learned the tech stuff because there was no one else in the building to keep the network running). And though they are often, but not always, too polite to admit it, the K-5 teachers view me as relief so that they can have a break from the students. While I think every teacher deserves prep time, bathroom time, make a phone call time, whatever....I am not a babysitter. And I really resent the implied notion that whatever happens in my class is not REAL learning.

So why do these things matter? It's because my dream job as a teacher is to be a true collaborator with my colleagues. I do have the tech skills, but I have much more than that. I envision a coaching type of job- going into classrooms and working together with teachers and students. Embedded professional development. But for it to work I think that teachers would have to view me differently than I think they do now. Because it's not about me demonstrating a SMARTboard lesson. I would want to be a team teacher and if I went into classrooms and the teacher just "tuned out" and started checking email, grading papers, etc. which happens all the time at this school then I would rather keep my lab classes the way they are.

So, potential new head of school, as you can see I need some help with this decision. I thank you for asking me about my dream job. But my dream job might not exist. I guess if I was the right person for the job I would figure out the way to make it work, but I think I would need your help.

image credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/starforlifeorg/3565572491/

Taking. Play. Seriously

Facilitator: Brian C. Smith

session wiki

Conversation Description: Diane Ackerman's quote, "play is the brain's favorite way of learning" is oft used to describe the learning that takes place in elementary schools. Despite that belief, a simple visit to any school in the country will reveal a picture that flies in the face of Ackerman's statement. We know why play is being squeezed out of schools, but bringing it back will take creative thinking ideas and sharing. Together we will discuss and construct ideas for bringing the aspects of play into more learning experiences.

Framework of Play-

•anticipation- expectation

•wonder

•curiosity

•anxiety

•uncertainty

•risk

•surprise-a-ha! moments

•discovery- a new sensation or idea or shifting perspective

•pleasure- it feels good

•understanding- new knowledge, application of ideas

•strength-empowerment, confidence, new skills

•poise-grace, state of balance, composure, contentment

What is your play history?

What do you think you learned from play?

Types of play-

creative

object

social

body and movement (rough and tumble)

spectator

imaginative

storytelling-narrative

Images: Brian C. Smith's flickrstream

User-Generated Education

Jackie Gerstein

http://jackiegerstein.wikispaces.com/User-Generated+Education

Idea for the Conversation: Once kids get the K-3 foundational skills let them create their own educations.

Is it possible, etc?

The problem: Should a student-centric, user-generated education be the predominant learning model for this era of the 21st century?

The protocol: Technology-Enhanced Socratic Seminar

Socratic- based in the idea that deeper understanding of complex ideas occurs through rigorously thoughtful dialogue.

*dialogue not debate*

•4 elements: text, questions, leader and participants

•Leader's job is not to present material. Leader listens and define additional questions.

•you should leave with more questions than answers.

•based on reading a text or texts.

•Leader: "I wonder if..."

if we can google the answer to a question we shouldn't be talking about it.

see wiki for texts: Disrupting Class

Anderson, J. Remaking Education

Furedi, F. Let's Give Children a Store of Knowledge

User generated education assists the learner in selecting the best tools for individualized learning.

problem: those who are naturally more vocal and extroverted have a voice. use tools to give all kids a voice. let kids pick the tool that they want to use.

honor people's different styles and ways of contributing to a conversation. Not everyone likes to talk.

social media increases options for participation.

Discussion ideas:

everyone is a learner, some are "lead" learners. reconfiguring the role of the adult. making learning transparent.

What is/should be the role of the adult?

talk of guide, talk of creating and manipulating the environment

discussion about core or foundational skills. what are the core skills? core ideas? cultural literacies?

How do we blend approaches? (I think this is an important question)

Do we have enough faith in kids?

Why do we (adults) get to decide for children what they should know?

What matters? (my question)

Alvin Toffler: "Let's throw it out and start all over again."

Thinking Creatively: Inventing the Possible

Educon Session 1: Facilitator: Linda Nitsche

http://inventingthepossible.wikispaces.com

Conversation Description: If schools kill creativity, then what hope do we have of helping our students be prepared to devise creative and imaginative solutions to problems in their futures? Come examine frameworks for thinking and working creatively. Explore and experience creativity, innovation, and imagination in action. Reframe your problems into opportunities.

We each contributed to a wall of the "bricks" that inhibit creative thinking-

Frameworks for Creativity:

Paul Torrance-

-incubation formula for stages of creativity-

1.heightening anticipation: warm-ups, arouse curiosity

2. deepening expectations - apply to content curriculum but look at differently. no rigid path.

3. keeping it going- stretch. go beyond. apply outside of specific area.

research: children who scored high in creativity were more successful than those with high IQ (over 40 years of watching, testing).

elements: innovative, adaptive, creative strengths

Fluency:brainstorming. rules. as much as possible. open up to all ideas. avoid criticism!!!! no comments (+ or -). piggybacking on someone else's idea. practice hearing others' ideas and use them. oddball stuff-want kids to feel comfortable going beyond. taking risks.

Flexibility: flexible thinking, ability to get past your set perceptions of the first picture that popped in your head. takes practice. notice that you're stuck there.

Originality: the result of good fluency and flexibility. that one good idea that comes out.

Elaboration: a creative process isn't just the idea, it's how you elaborate on the idea. example: think up a cool car, be able to give all the details of it.

Scamper: ideation strategy

S=Substitute (other ingredients, materials, etc. )

C=combine (blend)

A=adapt

M=modify (magnify,minify?)

P=Put to other uses

E=eliminate

R=Reverse (roles or rearrange patterns)

start with a question and move through the "SCAMPER" to look at possible answers from different perspectives. OR start with a statement of fact and use scamper to generate questions. look at knowledge, ideas from a variety of perspectives.

"What if?" -"classic phrase. use it!"

Lateral Thinking: from the mind of Edward De Bono

(youtube video edward de bono on creative thinking). will embed here whenever I am able to get onto youtube :)

challenge the process.

provocative statement- look at the problem in an "impossible, contradictory way"

random words- strategy where you choose a totally random word. (from anywhere). attach it

and use it to brainstorm. does it help solve the problem in any way. (takes your mind away from its' preconceived notions of something and helps you see it in a new way).

parallel thinking- 6 hats, take on different viewpoints

So what?

imagine it project- fascinating collection of videos. watch video and record thoughts

creativity

imagination

innovation

curiosity

Behaviors we want to encourage:

•imagination

•awareness

•curiosity

•risk taking

•complexity

•playfulness

Now what? Remember the barrier wall we created at the start of the session -

Name a bridge. How can we knock down the barriers?

Educon Keynote: Marilyn Perez

notes from the keynote speaker at Educon- Marilyn Perez (district admin in Philly)-

•Think of schooling as opportunity to provide access and equity for all, regardless of background, etc.

•It begins with the principal of a school.

•high expectations for all students

•believing that every student has innate talents and can reach their potential

•Teachers-believe the power of your words. It is possible to achieve and learn regardless of circumstance.

•Education can transform quality of life for poor children

• a sense of order. if students don't come with it, we must provide it for them.

rigor! high expectations for all children! homework...

relevant. fun.

desire to make things different, courage to challenge the status quo. have a relationship with students. "attitude of servitude" serve others (your students) with love. don't judge your students b/c of their backgrounds.

reflect on your expectations for students.

What is the purpose of schooling?

teach students to communicate, contribute, find solutions, have a successful life, be productive.

4th Grade Book Trailers

Each 4th grade student read a biography on a person of interest. After watching and discussing several examples of video book trailers, each student created a storyboard for a book trailer about their biography. We used Frames to create the trailers. After they were complete, parents were invited to come to the classroom and watch them. Here are a few examples of our students' work: