Saturday, October 31, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
New Web Stuff 10/30/2009
Podcast Genres on PodcastAlley.com -- The place to find Podcasts
JamStudio.com - Create Music Beats - The online music factory - Jam, remix, chords, loops
100+ Google Tricks That Will Save You Time in School | Online Colleges
I Want to Teach Forever: 20 Free Web 2.0 Tools for Educators
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
New Web Stuff 10/25/2009
Research on the Effectivness of Classroom / Audience / Student Response Systems ("Clickers")
Create Your Own Comic | Marvel Super Hero Squad | The Official Web Site
Teachers Love SMART Boards: SMART Boards and the Tips-and-Tricks Phenomenon
How I create and publish podcasts » Moving at the Speed of Creativity
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Protocols for Professional Learning Book Review
This is a repost of a review I wrote of Protocols for Professional Learning by Lois Brown Easton for the Teacher Leader's Network, which was originally posted here: http://www.teacherleaders.org/node/4519 (You may have to be signed in to TLN to access.)
A Book to Inspire a Culture of Trust and Build Teacher Community
Author: Teacher Leaders Network Forum
Keywords: Book Reviews Coaching & Mentoring Prof. Communities Prof. Development teacher leadership teacher_leadership Teaching Quality
Protocols for Professional Learning (The Professional Learning Community Series)
By Lois Brown Easton
(2009, ASCD)
Reviewed by Michael Fisher
Instructional Coach and Consultant (New York)
Teacher Leaders Network
I appreciate the opportunity to read and review Lois Brown Easton’s book on Professional Learning Protocols. It is a book that I know will have an impact on my own practice as a staff developer, and I’ve already used and shared many ideas from the text.
Because I work with schools helping teachers to set up Professional Learning Networks, both in-house and digitally, this book is specifically geared to my work with fellow educators. Many times, when I go into schools, teachers have not had much of an opportunity to meet in collegial groups, and they are satisfied with the “island mentalities” they have been allowed to cultivate over many years. This leads to not only missed opportunities, but also to feelings of inadequacy and a sense of constantly being under attack for failing to do this or that.
Easton’s career includes 15 years as a teacher, and long service as a curriculum leader and professional developer in Arizona and Colorado, including work with the Coalition of Essential Schools. In her introduction, she promises that through the use of protocols, teacher communities can “achieve trust and create a culture that is essential for collaborative work on issues of substance.” Schools can’t wait for a perfect culture to begin using protocols, she says. Instead, “it is through their use that the culture will develop and trust will emerge.”
Protocols, Easton tells us, are:
• Processes that help groups achieve deep understanding through dialogue.
• Structures for groups that allow them to explore ideas deeply through student work, artifacts of educator practice, texts relating to education, or problems and issues that surface during the day-to-day lives of educators.
• Guidelines for conversation based on norms that everyone agrees upon in order to make the dialogue safe and effective.
• A facilitated set of steps which everyone understands and has agreed to that permits a kind of conversation that people don't usually have when they discuss things.
• A constructivist approach to discussion that allows for deep development of ideas as certain people talk while others listen and then the talkers listen and the listeners talk, with each round characterized by reflection and exploration.
• A way for educators to build collaborative communities, sometimes called critical friends groups (CFGs) or professional learning communities (PLCs).
Over the course of six chapters, Easton then explores the whats and whys of protocols and how they can be put to use to examine student work and professional practice, to address learning issues and problems, and to promote effective professional discussions. Each chapter describes various protocols in step-by-step detail. (See sample chapters here.)
The protocols in this book help to inspire the atmosphere and culture of trust and collegiality that is necessary to open and maintain conversations among teachers. When there is a framework of understanding, and a foundation of value for everyone’s participation and unique voice, it helps everyone move forward.
Besides the great examples she describes, Easton creates a defining framework around protocols and how they should be used. This supplies teachers and meeting leaders with detailed tools from which they can choose to facilitate different types of gatherings, whether the purpose is to share ideas, analyze a specific problem, or deal with something unpleasant in an honest but supportive way.
I especially liked that the author included a section on protocols to use with students. I am always being asked what I think about the peer review or peer collaboration process and what resources I have. Using protocols is a perfect way to examine, review, revise and discuss student work. The protocols listed facilitate both student to student interactions and teacher to student interactions.
This book also contains protocols for examining professional practice and for addressing issues and problems. Out of these, I found the Success Analysis protocol to be immediately useful, and have used it several times in professional development recently with wildly successful results. In fact, I just proposed to another staff developer that she may want to include a reference in her new book to this particular tool, as the content she is writing about is quite conducive to using protocols.
Overall, I see Protocols for Professional Learning as very necessary to the field and unique in its delivery. It’s short (70 pp.) and to the point and written in such a way as to be immediately useful to practitioners, be they teachers or administrators. It could also be useful, in part, to students, as they construct ways to be mutually supportive but also understand that all voices are necessary and needed. I was impressed and excited by what I read, and look forward to more from Lois Brown Easton and ASCD’s Professional Learning Community series.
A Book to Inspire a Culture of Trust and Build Teacher Community
Author: Teacher Leaders Network Forum
Keywords: Book Reviews Coaching & Mentoring Prof. Communities Prof. Development teacher leadership teacher_leadership Teaching Quality
Protocols for Professional Learning (The Professional Learning Community Series)
By Lois Brown Easton
(2009, ASCD)
Reviewed by Michael Fisher
Instructional Coach and Consultant (New York)
Teacher Leaders Network
I appreciate the opportunity to read and review Lois Brown Easton’s book on Professional Learning Protocols. It is a book that I know will have an impact on my own practice as a staff developer, and I’ve already used and shared many ideas from the text.
Because I work with schools helping teachers to set up Professional Learning Networks, both in-house and digitally, this book is specifically geared to my work with fellow educators. Many times, when I go into schools, teachers have not had much of an opportunity to meet in collegial groups, and they are satisfied with the “island mentalities” they have been allowed to cultivate over many years. This leads to not only missed opportunities, but also to feelings of inadequacy and a sense of constantly being under attack for failing to do this or that.
Easton’s career includes 15 years as a teacher, and long service as a curriculum leader and professional developer in Arizona and Colorado, including work with the Coalition of Essential Schools. In her introduction, she promises that through the use of protocols, teacher communities can “achieve trust and create a culture that is essential for collaborative work on issues of substance.” Schools can’t wait for a perfect culture to begin using protocols, she says. Instead, “it is through their use that the culture will develop and trust will emerge.”
Protocols, Easton tells us, are:
• Processes that help groups achieve deep understanding through dialogue.
• Structures for groups that allow them to explore ideas deeply through student work, artifacts of educator practice, texts relating to education, or problems and issues that surface during the day-to-day lives of educators.
• Guidelines for conversation based on norms that everyone agrees upon in order to make the dialogue safe and effective.
• A facilitated set of steps which everyone understands and has agreed to that permits a kind of conversation that people don't usually have when they discuss things.
• A constructivist approach to discussion that allows for deep development of ideas as certain people talk while others listen and then the talkers listen and the listeners talk, with each round characterized by reflection and exploration.
• A way for educators to build collaborative communities, sometimes called critical friends groups (CFGs) or professional learning communities (PLCs).
Over the course of six chapters, Easton then explores the whats and whys of protocols and how they can be put to use to examine student work and professional practice, to address learning issues and problems, and to promote effective professional discussions. Each chapter describes various protocols in step-by-step detail. (See sample chapters here.)
The protocols in this book help to inspire the atmosphere and culture of trust and collegiality that is necessary to open and maintain conversations among teachers. When there is a framework of understanding, and a foundation of value for everyone’s participation and unique voice, it helps everyone move forward.
Besides the great examples she describes, Easton creates a defining framework around protocols and how they should be used. This supplies teachers and meeting leaders with detailed tools from which they can choose to facilitate different types of gatherings, whether the purpose is to share ideas, analyze a specific problem, or deal with something unpleasant in an honest but supportive way.
I especially liked that the author included a section on protocols to use with students. I am always being asked what I think about the peer review or peer collaboration process and what resources I have. Using protocols is a perfect way to examine, review, revise and discuss student work. The protocols listed facilitate both student to student interactions and teacher to student interactions.
This book also contains protocols for examining professional practice and for addressing issues and problems. Out of these, I found the Success Analysis protocol to be immediately useful, and have used it several times in professional development recently with wildly successful results. In fact, I just proposed to another staff developer that she may want to include a reference in her new book to this particular tool, as the content she is writing about is quite conducive to using protocols.
Overall, I see Protocols for Professional Learning as very necessary to the field and unique in its delivery. It’s short (70 pp.) and to the point and written in such a way as to be immediately useful to practitioners, be they teachers or administrators. It could also be useful, in part, to students, as they construct ways to be mutually supportive but also understand that all voices are necessary and needed. I was impressed and excited by what I read, and look forward to more from Lois Brown Easton and ASCD’s Professional Learning Community series.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
More "Data Informed" Conversation...
Today I read a posting on a popular Social Networking site that was a response to a teacher saying he was not looking forward to an upcoming workshop, as it dealt primarily with data. The response said, and I quote, "I don't like the data workshops either, I'm a teacher, I didn't sign up for all that data stuff."
It made me think.
In the evenings, perhaps in the mornings if I wasn't ready the night before, I check the weather forecast to decide what I'm going to wear. I don't want to be uncomfortable if the weather calls for, say, a sweater, and I choose to wear a thin, short sleeve button up.
I also tend to check the traffic report. If I know the highway is backed up, I plan an alternate route to my destination before I ever leave the house.
On Sunday's, we get all the coupons in the paper and as my wife and I sort through them, we try to make informed decisions about where we will shop that week to get the best deal on the products and foods we use.
Does any of this sound familiar? We all make dozens, if not hundreds, of data informed decisions on a daily basis. Rain in the forecast? Perhaps I should mow the yard today. Is that the mailman in the distance? Perhaps if I hustle, he can take this letter so that I don't have to drive to the Post Office. Could that icy glare from my wife signal that I may have said the wrong thing? Perhaps flowers would be a good idea today!
Wisdom guides us to make decisions based on circumstances and previous experiences. It's thinking. It's cause and effect. It's human.
Why would someone not want that same mode of thinking to have an impact on instruction? If we KNOW that a kid is struggling with the understanding of a particular skill, why would we not target instruction toward proficiency in that area? If we know that a group of students is bored with what we're doing, because it's below their high cognitive level, how hard is it, really, to find something that will challenge those students?
It's not easy. Nothing worthwhile ever is. And if you are not overjoyed with numbers and what they show, it can be mundane and tedious. But it's still important. Vitally important. As important as water to fish.
Think about it. If you go to the doctor and have a bunch of tests; don't you expect the doctor to pore over those numbers to determine the best course of treatment for whatever ails you? Sure, he could choose to be as "fair" as possible, I mean, he didn't "sign up to deal with all this data stuff;" he just wanted to help people. But if he's fair, and does the same thing for everyone--aspirin, for instance, then everybody with a headache or minor affliction is okay the next morning. But everybody else is dead.
It made me think.
In the evenings, perhaps in the mornings if I wasn't ready the night before, I check the weather forecast to decide what I'm going to wear. I don't want to be uncomfortable if the weather calls for, say, a sweater, and I choose to wear a thin, short sleeve button up.
I also tend to check the traffic report. If I know the highway is backed up, I plan an alternate route to my destination before I ever leave the house.
On Sunday's, we get all the coupons in the paper and as my wife and I sort through them, we try to make informed decisions about where we will shop that week to get the best deal on the products and foods we use.
Does any of this sound familiar? We all make dozens, if not hundreds, of data informed decisions on a daily basis. Rain in the forecast? Perhaps I should mow the yard today. Is that the mailman in the distance? Perhaps if I hustle, he can take this letter so that I don't have to drive to the Post Office. Could that icy glare from my wife signal that I may have said the wrong thing? Perhaps flowers would be a good idea today!
Wisdom guides us to make decisions based on circumstances and previous experiences. It's thinking. It's cause and effect. It's human.
Why would someone not want that same mode of thinking to have an impact on instruction? If we KNOW that a kid is struggling with the understanding of a particular skill, why would we not target instruction toward proficiency in that area? If we know that a group of students is bored with what we're doing, because it's below their high cognitive level, how hard is it, really, to find something that will challenge those students?
It's not easy. Nothing worthwhile ever is. And if you are not overjoyed with numbers and what they show, it can be mundane and tedious. But it's still important. Vitally important. As important as water to fish.
Think about it. If you go to the doctor and have a bunch of tests; don't you expect the doctor to pore over those numbers to determine the best course of treatment for whatever ails you? Sure, he could choose to be as "fair" as possible, I mean, he didn't "sign up to deal with all this data stuff;" he just wanted to help people. But if he's fair, and does the same thing for everyone--aspirin, for instance, then everybody with a headache or minor affliction is okay the next morning. But everybody else is dead.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
New Web Stuff 10/12/2009
Free Technology for Teachers: 10 Places to Make and Find Flashcards Online
PLN: Your Personal Learning Network Made Easy « Once a Teacher….
The Best Places To Learn About Education Grants | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...
The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education — 2008 | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...
95 websites you should totally bookmark today | News | TechRadar UK
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
New Web Stuff 10/08/2009
YouTube - Digital Native at 2 1/2 Years Old
Teachers look out: this is coming your way soon!Recorded on October 6, 2009 using a Flip Video camcorder.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
"The Simpsons," Social Media, and Education
This was originally published on Mashable's BLOG to highlight the inclusion of Social Media in the Mainstream Media, specifically as it relates to kids in schools.
I just thought it was interesting that the SUBSTITUTE teacher was the one that embraced the social tools, but ultimately was fired for drinking on the job. The original traditional teacher was brought back at the end of the episode.
The metaphorical subtext seems to be that "anything goes" social media or educationally useful tech tools are ultimately bad and fad-like. I noticed that the environment for learning didn't change, and except for a video that one of the kids watched in a coffee shop, the technology pretty much stayed in the classroom.
Obviously, there was a lot of engagement when the kids were using the technology, but there wasn't a lot of LEARNING. In fact, the substitute teacher at the end of the episode emphasized that the kids don't need to learn, that school was just a giant "hamster wheel," and that they could find any piece of trivia or information in seconds on the internet.
This suggests, to me anyway, that "Memorizing" or "Covering" material is just as bad as integrating technology on a purely entertainment level. Is Education about "FACTS" or is it about "THINKING?" Sure, kids can look up the answer to anything on the Internet in seconds, but can they effectively evaluate and synthesize information and solve problems in divergent ways?
I'm not saying this episode wasn't funny...I just thought it raised quite a few questions as well. What do you think?
Friday, October 2, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Text Support?
If you say it fast--it sounds more ambiguous.
I observed a teacher today doing a lesson on volume. I was in there to see him in action using his Smartboard, as a "field trip" for the teachers I was doing some instructional coaching with.
During the lesson, in which students were expected to measure several different objects and use the formula for volume to do their calculations, this teacher did something I thought was awesome.
He held up the textbook. Then he said, (and I paraphrase here) "Anybody recognize this? It's our textbook--I know you haven't seen it before but here it is." The textbook was one of the objects students could choose to measure.
I talk to teachers A LOT about standards based content and skills. Often, that is confused with the RESOURCES that one might use to TEACH the content skills. This comes up in curriculum mapping all the time--teachers are comfortable with a particular resource, and have a hard time separating the "HOW" from the "WHAT." A resource is a part of curriculum practice, but it is NOT the cornerstone of curriculum design.
Traditionally, the book is the only resource a teacher considers in order to teach the content and skills necessary to master what is outlined in the standards.
This teacher today gave a very concrete example to the teachers I took to his classroom AND to his students, that the LEARNING is not resource dependent. In fact, the textbook was almost a joke rather than a real consideration for learning support in this classroom. (Although this particular text DOES have some good points--it's just that this particular teacher had the skill to make better points that transcended the text.)
I think this is significant. I wondered to myself what would happen if we cleared the school of books. (We don't have to "Bradbury" them a la Fahrenheit 451, just move them...) What would THAT class look like? If it was the teacher I observed today, the class wouldn't look any different.
I think I'm going to start using that as my new catch-phrase and say things like, "What if you 'Bradburyed' the situation?" or "You know, we could 'Bradbury' this whole scenario and start fresh from the ground up."
Just thinking out loud today...oh, and thanks Mr. Scully...
I observed a teacher today doing a lesson on volume. I was in there to see him in action using his Smartboard, as a "field trip" for the teachers I was doing some instructional coaching with.
During the lesson, in which students were expected to measure several different objects and use the formula for volume to do their calculations, this teacher did something I thought was awesome.
He held up the textbook. Then he said, (and I paraphrase here) "Anybody recognize this? It's our textbook--I know you haven't seen it before but here it is." The textbook was one of the objects students could choose to measure.
I talk to teachers A LOT about standards based content and skills. Often, that is confused with the RESOURCES that one might use to TEACH the content skills. This comes up in curriculum mapping all the time--teachers are comfortable with a particular resource, and have a hard time separating the "HOW" from the "WHAT." A resource is a part of curriculum practice, but it is NOT the cornerstone of curriculum design.
Traditionally, the book is the only resource a teacher considers in order to teach the content and skills necessary to master what is outlined in the standards.
This teacher today gave a very concrete example to the teachers I took to his classroom AND to his students, that the LEARNING is not resource dependent. In fact, the textbook was almost a joke rather than a real consideration for learning support in this classroom. (Although this particular text DOES have some good points--it's just that this particular teacher had the skill to make better points that transcended the text.)
I think this is significant. I wondered to myself what would happen if we cleared the school of books. (We don't have to "Bradbury" them a la Fahrenheit 451, just move them...) What would THAT class look like? If it was the teacher I observed today, the class wouldn't look any different.
I think I'm going to start using that as my new catch-phrase and say things like, "What if you 'Bradburyed' the situation?" or "You know, we could 'Bradbury' this whole scenario and start fresh from the ground up."
Just thinking out loud today...oh, and thanks Mr. Scully...
Monday, September 28, 2009
Effortless Technology Integration
I was working in a district in Kannapolis, North Carolina—at their middle school—and I spent a day doing some classroom observations. I was trying to gauge the “pulse” of the building, but also find out what kinds of technology they had and how they were using it with their students.
This school system recently received a large technology grant and have been providing teachers and students with lots of different technologies, including Mimio boards, Student Response Systems, projectors, laptops, document cameras, lots of software, etc.
I’ve had the opportunity to observe teachers in many schools over the last few years, and anytime new technology is introduced, there is always that wave of fitting the content to the tool, rather than choosing the right tool for the content. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, let me say that right off the bat. There has to be a learning curve and time to become comfortable with all the new stuff that’s out there. Then, as time goes on, and the comfort levels go up, new technology hopefully takes its rightful place as a choice resource.
I look at it like this: at one time, a pencil was new technology.
It was created for a specific purpose and even today, still has a place as a tool for a job when a pencil is required. (#2 pencil requirement, anyone? Anyone? Bueller?) But then, wouldn’t you know it, the technology got better. After the pencil came the pen, then the multi-colored pens, then the magic marker, then the $2,000 Mont Blanc professional grade pens—all doing similar jobs, but for different purposes and in different contexts. Sound familiar?
When I walk into a classroom and see students writing with any one of a number of different writing utensils, I don’t “oooh” and “aaaah” over the different pens and pencils, because they are specific to the task at hand and show that students (and teachers) can have a preference over which writing tool they’d like to use and still come out with similar products or attain similar objectives. The report written in blue ink is no different, content wise, than the one written in green ink, or the one typed on a typewriter or computer and printed.
So, back to the beginning of the post, the point of all this—is that this is how I saw technology, meaning computers, student response systems, document cameras, etc. being used at Kannapolis Middle School—seamlessly and effortlessly. Content and skills were the dominant factors, and the teachers and students chose the right tools from their toolboxes to maximize learning and reach their collective objectives.
I watched a teacher use a Student Response system, and then question by question, regroup the students in the moment to work with proficient peers. I watched a teacher deliver Essential Questions through PowerPoint at the beginning of a class, which might sound a little pedestrian, but this teacher anticipated responses and uncovered additional information in the moment to redirect her students. I watched as a teacher toggled between maps and photos when delivering a Social Studies lesson on the naming of towns in the Southwest in regards to their proximity to established missions. I also got to see a couple of student teachers who were comfortable enough with different technologies (and allowed to pepper their instruction with them!) to take the plunge and use them, if for nothing else than to help engage and motivate the students.
All of these teaching moments could have been taught with a myriad of different resources and these teachers chose a technology tool over other tools and, in my opinion, looked like they made the best choice. In short, the technology did not seem like a forced tool. It was like a pencil. These teachers and students were choosing the right tools for the job they had to do, not just using technology because it’s the 21st century or because they had to.
Perhaps that’s what all this 21st century technobabble is all about: choice. It’s not about getting on every technology bus. It’s not about this laptop or that Flip cam. It’s about being comfortable enough to make the right decision (or maybe the habitual decision?) about what fits the content of the instruction in such a way as to make attaining your curricular objective easier. Perhaps that tool is a computer, or maybe it’s just a pencil.
Whatever it is, Kannapolis Middle School seems to be doing it the right way. Seamlessly. Effortlessly. Effectively.
Image from Flickr, Creative Commons, user: Stuart R. Brown
New Web Stuff 09/29/2009
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Wonders of Wordle, The MOVIE!
I'm working in a North Carolina Middle School this week and was blown away by a WALL SIZED WORDLE that a teacher had up on the wall in her classroom. I asked her to explain what she did and captured it on video. I think this is COOL! (And so do her students!)
Sunday, September 20, 2009
New Web Stuff 09/21/2009
Addictively-fun and simple-to-use online photo effects. Upload photos, create something funny, and share them with your friends.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
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