What is good and right about schools today?

We are constantly barraged with books and posts about what is wrong with schools today and what we need to do to fix and change our schools. What if we take a moment to look at what is right about our schools.


Think about the school you work in or a school you went to,

• what about the institution really "works/worked"?
• what does/did the school do really well?
• what do/did the faculty do really well?
• what is/was most effective about the administration?
• what are you most proud of?

I believe that, in all of the schools where I have worked and where I have attended, the first priority of the faculty and administration has been to provide the best education possible to all children. I am extremely proud to be part of this true and honest commitment to doing what is right for students. It is the common thread that connects me to great educators around the world.

Perhaps we can learn more from what we are doing right, rather than from focusing on what we need to change. These are my thoughts. I hope you will share yours.

image source: Success from kevinthoule's photostream on Flickr

Gr8T Quotes from #NAIS09

I've just returned from the National Association of Independent School's annual conference. It was a wonderful experience. I had the opportunity to meet face to face with many people from my online network (always the highlight of a conference), to attend several very good sessions and to learn a lot.

Throughout the conference there was a very active back channel. People tweeted from a variety of sessions and shared some great quotes. In trying to pull together my learning from the conference, I did a twitter search for the hashtag #NAIS09 I've pulled out some of the highlights from several sessions.

Thanks to my Tweeps above for taking the time to share with the rest of us!From right to left: sarahhanawald, dcinc66, raventech, cookp, nandikerri, antonioviva, JonathanEMartin, tiomikel, specialkrb, samandjt
Sarah Hanawald and Jason Ramsden also live blogged several sessions!
Revitalizing the Veteran Teacher with Peter Gow

• Raise your hand if you have a teacher in your school who just doesn't get it
  
• You have to talk to the "undead" at your school. 
  
• Change the physical space, change the team, change the responsibilities of the veteran teacher - keep them engaged.
  
• Culture of our society does not value age - our schools mirror these attitudes. 
• We all are going to be the "senior teacher" someday.

Enhancing Team Performance

• When working with teams being a 'good listener' is not enough. One MUST contribute.
  
• Teams often confuse activity with results masking effectiveness.
  
• With teams Trust + Intimacy = Cohesion
  
• Discussions on teams are often considered personal. Set the expectation that it is OK to disagree.
• To avoid conflict most teams manage agreement. Take on the squeaky wheel head on!
  

Dan Heath's Keynote

• Sticky ideas are simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, and stories 
• Dangerous situations don't come with "dangerous situation" labels, they just Happen
  
• The more you know about something, the harder it is for you to understand what it is like not to know about it
  
• Sticky ideas use concrete themes to make things tangible. Details make things tangible.
• Details cling to us
  

Michelle Rhee's Keynote

• If you don't like the rules - change them 
  
• Public education should be the great equalizer, yet skin color and zipcode still dictate how we educate.
• We will continue to have brick and mortar schools, but the limits of the walls will and are dissolving through digital connectivity

Guy Kawasaki's Keynote

• No one voluntarily uses a Windows machine
  
• Most organizations make mission statements and quite frankly, most mission statements suck.
  
• We need a mantra for our school not a mission statement
  
• Don't be afraid to be crappy - to be wrong - to take risks.
  
• Do not be afraid of polarizing people. Great products do polarize people.
  
• To be an innovator you need to be in denial – Don't let the Bozos get you down
  
• Teach students how to figure out ANYTHING by themselves.
  
• Teach students how to explain ANYTHING in 30 seconds. 
  
• Teach students how to do a one page report.
  
• Teach students how to work as a group
• Teach students how to negotiate win wins.
  
• Learning is a process, not an event.
  

The Impact of Technology on the Lives of Boys with Michael Thompson

• Girls dominate written content creation online, boys dominate video uploading.
  
• Parents prefer kids inside playing vid games, "safe" rather than going Outside unsupervised, "unsafe."
  
• Laptops are the new outdoors 
  
• There is no evidence that video games translate into aggressive behavior. 
  
• Boys are trying to get dates Online, Girls are trying to get friendships
  
• We must change how we assess and test kids rather than try and ban technology that "gives the answers
  

Digital Storytelling and Curriculum with Marco Antonio Torres

• Quit, complain or innovate. Success predictor=attendance. Get kids to want to come to school.
  
• Digital storytelling makes kids aware of process & product
  
• Product= emotion and process =experience in working w/kids and media
  
• Plan, Produce, Present & feedback
  
• Is schooling getting in the way of learning?
  
• New question, not "what kind of learner are you?" rather,"what kind of producer are you?"
  
• Value is in the verbs not the nouns. In schools we focus too much on the nouns
  
• What makes you an expert? Can I google everything you shared?
  
• Are you an expert because you collect information or because you create info?
  
• Experts have one right answer, others see many possibilities
  
• Don't ask questions you can look up
  
• Studio-->stage-->community is complete
  
• Media levels the playing field in terms of 'who's on stage'- everyone can produce
  
• Core values of today's workplace are collaboration, innovation not mindless repetition
  
• Networked = Connected; often teacher networks are tiny. Branch out and make wider connections and networks

Surviving and Thriving in Challenging Times with Robert Evans

• People can cope with all kinds of terrible things once there is predictability
  
• Most schools practice conflict avoidance. We are good at the nice stuff, not good at the hard stuff.
  
• Learning comes from loss, failure and disappointment.
  

Oprah's Closing Keynote

• If you are not careful, your daydreams become a reality. 
  
• The importance of educating woman: educate a woman & change a community
  
• You don't have a visionary school without visionary teachers. 
• You don't have a leadership school without leadership.
  
• The job is not only to enlarge and illuminate the lives of our girls, but also of our staff and our teachers.
  
• The only way to deal with a crisis is to stay in the moment.
  
• I want them to speak up for the rest of their lives, to speak up for their community.
  
• Oprah's goal for girls: "To be seated at the table where the decisions are made about the future."
  

Gr8Tweets - One a Day Keep the March Blues at Bay

If you read my blog then you already know how I feel about Twitter, just look here, and here, and here and here and here. We all know that actions speak louder than words, so to help illustrate the power of Twitter:

For the month of March,
You are invited to

Pick a
“Tweet of the day”
and Re-Tweet it with the tag: #gr8t

Thanks to David Truss for masterminding this event and for inviting, Sue Waters, Laura Deisley, Bud Hunt, Darren Kuropatwa, Heidi Hass Gable, and myself to help publicize it. We hope you will join us.

Just pick one great Tweet a day, it could be

• something interesting
• something thought provoking
• something useful
• something funny

What you retweet is up to you. When you have found something good, retweet it and add the tag #Gr8T at the end. Find out more by checking out the Gr8Tweets wiki, add your name to the participating list, and check out the Gr8T Resources. You can follow all of the Gr8Tweets here. I hope you will join us!

Two For Tuesday 2/17/09

1. The Big Picture: News Stories in Photographs
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday Alan Taylor chooses a photograph and posts it on this Boston Globe/Boston.com photo blog. Each image is connected to a news story of the week and is chosen for its visual impact. Last weeks images related to NASA's Constellation program, Tibet's Great Prayer Festival and China's Lantern Festival.

2.You Tube: The White House Channel
Each week Barack Obama records a 5 minute video addressing the issues of the week and posts it to this YouTube channel. In addition, you can view videos of special events, the transition and scenes from the inauguration. Subscribe and get the videos delivered to you each week.

Advice for Teachers New To Twitter

Each day several new people start following me on Twitter. As I click through each profile, I make a decision whether or not to follow these people back. I generally follow all teachers back and will sometimes follow others depending upon what they do and the kinds of things they share on Twitter. As I was going through new followers on Saturday night, it occurred to me to Tweet some basic suggestions for teachers new to Twitter.  The first 3 are really essential to building your network of followers.

1. Go to settings and fill out your Bio! This is essential to getting followers.
   
2. Tweet a few things - share a link, an idea, a resource, a blog post, anything.
   
3. Don't protect your updates. People often hesitate to follow back if they can't see your tweets.
   
4. Use your real name and your real picture. You will eventually have to say "Hi I'm "xx" on Twitter."
   
5. Look for people who will follow you back - that is what makes a conversation.
   
6. Check out this spreadsheet of educators on Twitter add yourself: http://bit.ly/xfUn
   
7. If you Tweet a question and no one answers, Tweet it again later. It is OK to ask more than once.

I also asked others to share their suggestions. Check them out below.

• nycrican2: More advice for new teachers on Twitter, become familiar with the vocabulary on this site: http://twictionary.pbwiki.com/
  
• JPerino: A friend who set me up on Twitter suggested using http://search.twitter.com/ to find others by topic...like EduCon 2.1
  
• prodev: My best advice and I wish I'd discovered it sooner is http://TweetTree.com!
  
• nycrican2:  How about the advice that new teachers on Twitter should click on their replies and direct messages links frequently.
  
• adewitt2: Use it as a prof. development tool. Use it for getting info. from others.It's like the mgc 8 ball.
  
• raventech:  I try to DM once it gets to be more personal/give & take. I @reply for general convo and definitely for thanks for RT's
  
• ScottElias When u ask for advice & someone obliges, common courtesy dictates that u thank them. How that looks (@ or D) is up to u.
  
• mwacker: join the twitter freaks group on diigo..there's some tremendous resources there
  
• cfanch: My advice for connecting with students is NO to Twitter, Facebook, Myspace. Just my two cents on that.
  
• ScottElias: Stick with it a while. There is a learning curve until you reach that "critical mass" where your feed starts to get interesting.
  
• MagistraM: Ask questions, give answers, share challenges AND successes. Don't just lurk, but join in.

Do you have advice for teachers new to Twitter? Do you have questions? Please share them here.

Image Credit:  Alan Levine, SPLJ 2.0: http://cogdogblog.com/2007/04/26/splj-20/

Two For Tuesday 2/10/09

1. Facebook In Reality
A real life depiction of Facebook. This is pretty funny. If you are an adult new to Facebook you can probably relate! (Beware of some slightly unseemly language towards the end of the video.) Thanks to @Deacs84 for sharing this one.




2. Jeopardy Labs
This website allows you to create your own Jeopardy games without using PowerPoint. You can also browse for and use other people's games. The software keeps score and can be shown full screen. Teachers can use this to help students study for a test. Students can use this to test themselves and/or can create games for their class to play. Another great link from Linda George!

Two For Tuesday 2/3/09

1. How to Friend Mom, Dad, and the Boss on Facebook...Safely

This is a great article from one of my favorite technology blogs, ReadWriteWeb, on how to manage your privacy and group settings on Facebook. What goes on Facebook stays on Facebook, so it is important to be conscious of what you are sharing and who can see it. I've also created this tutorial which shows you how to adjust your Facebook privacy settings.

2. Dipity Timeline: The Steelers Win the Superbowl

Dipity will automatically create a timeline of web and video references for your topic. You can view the results as a timeline, a flipbook, a list or a map. This is a great way to understand a topic chronologically. You can search other people's timelines, subscribe to updates on any topic, and share your own timelines. This Superbowl timeline goes back to February 2006.

Steelers Win Superbowl on Dipity.