Education Dreamer

Do Not Disturb: Thoughts on the ISTEP mess in Indiana #edchat #INeLearn

2013-04-30T23:27:00.000-04:00

Well, this has been a fun week. This was suppose to be the week our students in Indiana took the ISTEP exam. The exam that is suppose to measure how much our students have learned over the course of the year and how well our teachers have taught them. As a former classroom teacher, I've gone through the speech with my students time and time again.

"Go to bed early. Eat a good breakfast. Take your time. Read each problem carefully. Do your best!"

I've sat through all the speeches from administrators and test coordinators.

"Don't leave the test unsupervised. Make sure students work on every problem and take their time. Make sure all test material are returned and locked away at the end of day."

The multiple choice portion of the test was online this year. The state spent at least three years preparing for this day. Then a funny thing happened...it didn't work!

For the past 2 days students have watched globes spin on their screens while the test remains in limbo. I'm on an email list with other technology directors and watching the emails come in has been both frustrating and slightly entertaining.

Here are some stories that have come out the last couple of days on this disastrous event.

Frustrated Ritz pulls plus on ISTEP-Plus testing for Tuesday

ISTEP glitches lead to state-wide halt in testing

Day 2 of ISTEP Glitches

DOE ask schools to decrease ISTEP testing load by 50%

I could go on and share 100+ articles on the issue but I won't. However, I do want to share a couple of my thoughts on this issue.

Is this year's ISTEP test a valid test?

I have a hard time believing any ISTEP test, past or present, is valid. It is impossible to get a clear picture of what students actually know and/or what teachers have taught on a test that only takes up a "few days" out of 180 days of school. I put few days in quotes because all teachers know that high stakes test take up more than just the days we administer them.

Actually, I would actually say that high stakes test steal days away from our students. Days that our students could be spending exploring their interest, creating something, working on a service project with their classmates, or finding their voice in a space by themselves.

Now I bring into question the validity of this test because of all the interruptions. How many test questions were discussed among students or with parents? Maybe even googled when they got home. What kind of testing environment did this epic fail create for our students and teachers? Do you think people are more stressed or less stressed? Do you think students care more or care less about the test now?

Point being, schools have spent all of this time prepping kids for this test, that counts for a school's "grade" and a teacher's evaluation/pay, and now it's pretty easy to question the validity of this test.

Which brings me to my next and final question?

Should we, as educators and/or parents, capitalize on this blunder and push for the removal of standardized test?

Is this the right time to stand up and say, "look what has happened here and how it's harmed our schools and robbed us of days we could be spending following our passions?" Should we take advantage of this platform and point parents/guardians to Opt Out Indiana? Maybe it's time we buy copies and of "One Size Does Not Fit All" by Nikhil Goyal and pass them out at the next PTA meeting.

This could be the right time, while the media in Indiana is looking our way, to show the world that there is a better way to do this. One thing for sure, we can't give CTB/McGraw-Hill a free pass on this one and we can't let the IDOE just have us return to "business as usual".

This "high stakes" test has become a "high stinks" test and it's time to throw it out.

Dreaming About Joy in Learning #12DOD #StuVoice #Choose2Matter

2013-04-16T04:00:00.000-04:00

Editor's Note: I am so excited to bring you our first post in our Student Edition of The 12 Days of Dreaming. As I talked about in my last post, this has not come together as I had hoped. I am completely okay with this for a couple of reasons. One, I love learning and I can find a great deal of learning when I struggle. Two, I still have some amazing post to share with you! I plan on spreading these out over time.

I hope you enjoy!

Our Dream for Education is Joy in learning.

What does joyful learning looks like to us? Having fun while learning. We think that crafts would be a great way for kids to have joy while learning because we get to really connect with learning through creative expression. Making paintings would be a good way for kids to show what they’re learning through art. Another good way to have fun while learning is sewing, not for just girls, but boys too. We believe that art would be a good way for kids to connect to learning.

Another way to have joy in learning could be to have more fieldtrips. Fieldtrips would be a good way for kids to interact with what they’re learning about. It would be better for kids to go to an art museum than for a teacher to make them write an essay about Picasso. One good field trip destination could be a camp like Camp Tecumseh. Camp Tecumseh is a summer camp, Girl Scout camp, and a history camp. They teach you about the past while letting you interact and pretend that you are a pioneer. They let you bake Johnny Cakes, build log cabins, go fishing, visit a fur trappers cabin, and even spend the night in a cabin. We think you should experience what you’re learning firsthand.

We believe that games are a good way for students to learn because it triggers our minds to learn and we have better focus. One way to do that would be to have a math game day. It would help students by making the want to learn more about math so they could excel in the math games. At our school, we have math at the end of the day, and we are tired. Since we are tired, we have a short attention span, which does not enable us to learn as well. Therefore, we should have a math game day, so we will want to pay attention even if we are tired.

Literature games are also a good idea. They will help kids who have trouble understanding literature. They will also have fun. They will make kids want to learn more about literature. It will also make kids want to read and write more. A fun game option that will also trigger the mind is to design a game based on a book that you like. It is a fun stretch of the brain and other people can play it. Kids will be excited to work on this fun project. It will help develop creativity. And, best of all, kids will find joy in doing it.

One last fun suggestion is to have an educational/strategy game day. It will stretch kid’s minds into thinking hard. It will also give them the joy of picking their own game. They can have freedom in their choices. They will be able to have fun while they learn which our main goal in education is.

We think students should have free education time to do what they want, as long as it is educational. One option is reading for fun. We believe that reading for fun is an awesome way to expand vocabulary. Another fun choice is free-write. We like to write letters, books, or stories. It helps the imagination grow and develop. One last fantastic idea is to free-draw. You could also draw up posters to raise awareness of events or important tests.

Our dream for education is to have joy in learning and interactive experiences. We hope that you enjoyed our post. Where do you find joy in learning?

This post was written by Sophie and Claire. Two students from Sara Hunter's class. Thank you Sophie and Claire for sharing your dreams with us!

Pushing Forward #12DOD

2013-04-11T04:00:00.000-04:00

This past December I ran a very fun series called The 12 Days of Dreaming. It featured some great guest bloggers talking about their dreams for education. It was so much fun that I thought it'd be great to do it again but I wanted it to be more. I wanted our students to have a voice.

So I talked to some of Zak Malamed of #StuVoice and Angela Maiers of #Choose2Matter and launched the idea of doing The 12 Days of Dreaming: Student Edition. Initially, it was a big hit and people were excited.

The idea was the same as before but with students. Get 12 students to write post about their dreams for education. I even through out some other ideas on how we can tap into student dreams on two different post you can read here and here. However, for whatever reason, the idea never really took off.

I didn't have people submitting ideas. I had people who told me they loved the idea but then no submissions came. I'll be honest, it was discouraging at first but it has also pushed me to reflect on this process. Here are some of my thoughts on why this has struggled.

1) I just didn't push it hard enough and in the right way. For whatever reason, it just didn't connect enough with people and they didn't push it out to their students.

2) My job change and relocation didn't help. I moved two hours east and I didn't have that group of people I could reach out to have them share this with their students yet. We have some amazing teachers and students in my new district. I just didn't have the relationships in place that I needed to help make the successful.

3) Not being in the classroom anymore. I love what I do now but I do miss my classroom full of students. I would have loved to have done this while still in the classroom.

4) People are busy and the school year can quickly get away from you. Especially the second semester.

5) Maybe it just wasn't a good idea. I'm not saying I agree with that but not every idea I come up with is a good one.

Part of me wanted to just burry this idea, remove these post, take down the banner, and pretend this never happend. However, that would do all of us a disservice.

Especially since, even though this hasn't come together liked I hoped, I do have some post to share with you. It won't be 12 days worth but we will get some post to you from students on how they'd like to see education.

I am excited to share these ideas with you. I hope you will find them engaging, comment on them, and share them with others. Our students have a voice and it deserves to be heard.

Look for the post to begin next Tuesday!

Come one! Come all! #GCCC13

2013-04-02T04:00:00.000-04:00

Everyone! Listen up! I have a very important announcement!

This week, 4/1 - 4/5, we will be opening up registration for The Greater Clark Connected Conference!

I know what you're thinking. Why should I attend #GCCC13??

I'm glad you asked.

First of all, dynamic speakers!

As I stated in my last post about the conference, we will have the amazing #EduBros, @thenerdyteacher and @tgwynn, as our keynote speakers. Plus they will be around all day presenting sessions, making people laugh, and autographing babies. Ok, I might have made that last part up...

Also, Tom Whitby will be around all day talking about what it means to be a connected educator. Learning about being a connected educator from Tom is like learning how to make movies from JJ Abrams.

Other speakers are yet to be announced. We have a couple more folks who we will announcing throughout the month of April. Trust me, you won't want to miss who else we have joining us for this great day of learning.

Speaking of learning, that's what this day is all about and it's another reason you should join us.

Learning, Learning, and More Learning

We're trying to take advantage of the entire day without overwhelming anyone.

Rocking Keynote: We'll kick off our day with the keynote message from Nick and Tim.

Learning blocks: We will have two 2-hour learning blocks. Here is how they work.

Option 1: Attend a 2-hour workshop on a variety of topics. More on this in a later post!

Option 2: Attend two 45-minute concurrent session with a 30-minute collaboration break in the middle. The 30 minute collaboration break is yours to talk with your colleagues, new friends, visit our vendors, or hang out in a collaboration room with one of our speakers. Stay tuned for more on this in a later post!

Lunch: Lunch is provided and we have something special planned for our lunch period. Lunch will take place between our two learning blocks.

Panel Discussion: We will end our day back in the auditorium with a great panel discussion with some of the best connected educators around. Plus we will have some prize giveaways!

Bang for your buck!

The cost for our non-Greater Clark employees is only $25 per person. You can pay by check, PO, or credit card! However, there are only 100 seats available at this time! We may open up more seats later but there's no guarantee!

What should you do?
It's simple, follow @GCCC2013 on twitter, check out our website, and pay attention over the next couple days so you don't miss the announcement for when we open up registration!

Also, it's not to late for you apply to be a presenter at the conference! We still have some spots open and are looking for a few more amazing presenters! Just fill out this form!

I really do hope you'll consider connecting with us on July 25 for a great day of learning! It will only be a great conference if you show up!

Hey, high school...

2013-03-19T10:52:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I was on Facebook when the post below came across my screen from a former student of mine. With her permission, I now share it with you:

This was my reply to her: (It's not perfect but it was what came to mind in that moment.)

I agree with the majority of what you're saying. I also think a great number of classes we offer in high school should be optional. The only part I disagree with is that "nobody needs to know the height of an airplane from the ground" part of your post.

While the vast majority of people will not need to know that, some people will need to know. However, those things should be taught to those people who are wanting to go into that field of work.

Unfortunately a great deal of what teachers teach is out of their control. We teach what the state tells us to teach. It's unfortunate that the state doesn't listen to those of us who see the need for the changes you've mentioned.

I then told her about the website for StuVoice and encouraged her to get involved beyond just a Facebook post.

Agree with me or my student or not, there is often a huge disconnect between what is taught in schools and what our students are interested in.

So here is my question for you, reader.

How do you tap into your students interest, either as an individual or as a school, while still teaching the mandated overstuffed curriculum that you are required to teach?

#GCCC13 - A Connected Conference

2013-03-13T04:00:00.000-04:00

There are few things more beneficial to me in the work I do than being a connected educator. Being connected gives me a place to learn, share ideas, collaborate, give and receive inspiration. So when I had to the opportunity to put on a conference, I wanted to help create a conference that highlighted the power of being a connected educator. I also wanted to have a strong focus on technology integration.

With the blessing of my school district and the help of the Indiana DOE's Summer of eLearning, we announced The Greater Clark Connected Conference earlier this month! (Side Note: Just to clarify, the conference is named after my school district, not after me. Ha ha!)

Here are some of things we've announced so far.

Keynotes: The EduBros Nick "The Nerdy Teacher" Provenzano and Timothy Gwynn!

These guys were my number 1 choice from day one. I wanted to have speakers who were connected educators, great at leveraging technology for learning, and would inspire our attendees. Nick and Tim do all of that and more! Just listen to their podcast: Hooked on BamRadio and you'll know why we wanted them to keynote our inaugural conference. Also, check out The Nerdy Teacher and Edtech State of Mind.

We are all so thrilled that The EduBros will be kicking off our morning and be with us throughout the day!

Spotlight Speaker: Tom Whitby

If you ask any connected educator for their top 10 people to follow on Twitter, I almost guarantee that they'll all have Tom Whitby in their list. Most will probably have him in their top 5. He's the epitome of a connected educator, a life-long learner, and a friend to all educators. I encourage you to join Tom on The Educator's PLN, read My Island View, and listen to #edchat Radio. Plus, check out SmartBlogs on Education, for whom Tom is a contributing editor and I'm fortunate to write for every now and then.

I am so pumped that Tom has agreed to come and our attendees will benefit greatly from him being there!

Now for some quick details:

When: July 25, 2013 from 8 am to 4 pm

Where: Jeffersonville High School, Jeffersonville, IN

Cost: $25 for Non-Greater Clark County School employees. Includes all sessions, workshops, breakfast and lunch! Registration opens up the first week of April!!

Sessions: Conference will be broken into 2 hour learning windows. During a 2 hour learning window attendees can go to one 2-hour workshop or two 45-minute concurrent session with a 30-minute collaboration break in between.

Propose a session: We are now accepting proposals for sessions! We will notify you if your proposal has been accepted the middle of April. The conference fee will be waved for our presenters.

We are also looking for more partners and sponsors! Learn more HERE.

I hope you will fit us into your schedule! It's going to be a great day of learning. Please follow our official twitter account, like us on Facebook, and check out our conference website! If you tweet about the conference, use our official hashtag #GCCC13!

MORE ANNOUNCEMENTS TO COME! #STAYTUNED

Why go 1:1?

2013-03-05T04:00:00.000-05:00

Why go 1:1?

As I'm answering this question for my own district and preparing for the upcoming summer conferences I thought it would be neat to collect some responses from my wonderful PLN!

How do you respond when asked, why do/should schools go 1:1?

There are two ways you can respond to this question:

Leave a comment in the comment section and/or reply to a comment.
Make a 30 to 60 second video response and put it in my dropbox.

http://www.dropitto.me/bclark
password: elearning

Once I've collected some responses and some video clips, I'll put them together in a presentation format and then share it on my website.

Thanks for your help! I truly believe that there are people (teachers, principal, parents, and students) who would struggle to adequately answer that question.

All of this 1:1 talk made me think of this great photo prompt from John Spencer.

http://visualwritingprompts.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/the-world-at-your-fingertips/

What Life is About

2013-02-19T04:00:00.000-05:00

Wow...hard to believe that it's almost been a year since my grandmother passed away. Not sure I could say much more about her than the day I wrote Everyone Needs A Hero.

I can tell you that reading that post at her funeral was both the most rewarding and hardest thing I've ever been privileged to do.

I can tell you that I have often thought about how she would have responded to the news that I was named Director of Technology for Greater Clark County Schools. The only thing I could say for sure is that at some point in the conversation she would have said, "Oh Brett Alan, that's wonderful." My grandma is the only person on this planet that ever called me "Brett Alan", and the only person that ever will.

I can tell you that I think of her often and even put her number in my new cell phone after I moved. Even though if I called it now it would either ring somebody else or tell me it's been disconnected for the first time in who knows how long. I'm almost 100% certain it was the first 7 digit number she ever had and it also happened to be the only one she would ever need.

I can tell you that it put a smile on my face and a tear in my eye to see my wife using my grandma's old flour sifter while making a cake for my oldest son's 10th birthday.

I can tell you that one the best things about my new house is that I had room to get out the coffee table that used to belong to her and my grandpa. I can't remember exactly how I ended up with it but I'm glad it's sitting in my living room, covered with their great-grandchildren's toys. Although, I'm not entirely certain my grandpa would approve. :)

So why do I tell you these things? Why do I sit here with a box of Kleenex, cry my eyes out, and make myself type this post?

Because people are worth remembering. They deserve to have their memories passed on. In all the hustle and bustle of life we need to stop and remind ourselves about what's important.

Life is about preserving the memories of those who have passed on. My grandma was the keeper of my family history. Everything in her house had meaning and everything had a story. Her house didn't just tell her story but in many ways told the story of every member of my family. Going through things in her house after she passed was like watching a silent movie of the Clark/Haskell family history.

Life is about the people around you. Life is about belonging to a community and being part of a family. Life is about living and pursuing your dreams with reckless abandonment.

My grandma taught me so much. Even a year after her passing, I'm still learning from her.

Love you Grandma,

Brett Alan

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What Really Matters

Putting my money where my mouth is

2013-02-12T10:17:00.002-05:00

http://images.sodahead.com/polls/001290215/money20and20mouth_answer_1_xlarge.jpeg

Am I the only one who struggles with saying I want one thing but then not putting my money where my mouth is?

Got home from work yesterday and sat down on my couch. My wife brought me a couple of pieces of paper and told me this was my oldest son's homework. One of the assignments was a book report and the other was a scrapbook page. The book report was all laid out on what he had to write. Each paragraph had specific expectations and instructions. The scrapbook page was a "tradition" for this class and every student gets to have a page in the scrapbook.

Here's the thing: I'm not a believer in homework. You can read about some of my thoughts here. However, I'm not interested in ticking my son's teacher off. He loves to read but I'm not interested in forcing him to write about it when a five minute conversation about a book will give his teacher the same information. If it's about writing, then why can't he write about something he wants to write about, like becoming president. Just ask him (@3Clark_Boys) and he will tell you where he stands on the issues and why he should become the first kid elected president. If the scrapbook is something that every student gets to have a page in and it's a class tradition, then why make it homework? Why attach a grade to it? My new job keeps me busier than ever and I'm not sure I want to lose any more time with my son while he works on assignments that are not going to benefit him in the long run.

Let me be honest with you. These are easy questions to ask here in my space. This is actually a very safe place for me to express myself. I would say that the majority of you reading this have similar feelings on homework, test, and grades. However, I struggle with picking up the phone, calling my son's teacher, and explaining my stance on this issues?

Does that make me a hypocrite? If I won't stand up for my own family, should I stop taking such a strong stance against homework, test, and grades? Why is it easier to give advice to other teachers and parents but then struggle with the same advice for my own life?

The comment section awaits your response.

You may also like:
Thoughts on Homework: Survey Results
Are We Talking About Practice?

Driving But Not Steering #leadership #edchat

2013-02-05T11:32:00.000-05:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anto164/2454925189/

I was thinking about leadership last night as I was getting ready for bed and the role I play in it. Here I am in a district that I'm leading towards effective appropriate use of technology in our classrooms. I've been asked to help start a 1:1 program and we will be hosting an eLearning Conference this summer. I have certain things I want to see in our classrooms and more importantly in the lives of our staff and students. However, I think the journey of learning is a personal one.

I found myself asking this question: Can I drive our district without steering it?

Because that's what I really want to be able to do.

I want to be able to help us accelerate by pressing on the gas sometimes. I feel like it's part of my role to continue to push us and stretch us. I want to be able to brake as needed because there are times when we really need to slow down and think about what's ahead or just enjoy the view around us.

However, I'm not sure how much I want to steer. I'm not here to take people where I think they should be but I'm here to make sure they get where they want to be.

Eventually, I'd like to just be a passenger. Just along for the ride.

Does this make sense to anyone beside me? How much driving/steering should leaders do? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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10 Ways to Tap Into Student Dreams

Dreaming about Growing Pains by @bennettscience

3 Keys to Leadership

10 Ways to Tap into Student Dreams #12DOD #StuVoice #Choose2Matter

2013-01-29T05:00:00.000-05:00

I can not even begin to imagine the number of dreams I have had over my lifetime. There are those times that I awaken from sleep and the dream feels so real and I can recall every detail. Then there are the dreams that just fade away with the darkness as the sun rises. There are times when I dream all night but remember none of them.

That's the thing about dreams, if we don't capture them, then we run the risk of the losing them. That's exactly why I started The 12 Days of Dreaming. I wanted to tap into the dreams of my colleagues. Now, #StuVoice, Choose2Matter, and Education Dreamer are pushing forward #12DOD: Student Edition. Since it was launched on January 21, 2013 I have had numerous questions about what we're looking for and what age does a person have to be to submit an idea.

I wanted to write this post to set the record straight, this project is for any student, any age, any nationality. If a student wants to write it by him or herself or collaborate with others.

Actually, it doesn't even have to be a traditional blog post. During the first #12DOD @okmbio wrote an amazing poem that was one of my personal favorites.

Here are some ways we can tap into students' dreams.

Traditional Blog Post - Preferably 400 - 600 words
Poem - There are few things more captivating than a well written poem.
Song - Lets just try to keep it shorter than a Dave Matthews Band live performance. :)
Speech - I have this image in my head of a student giving his/her stump-speech for better schools.
Press Conference - Make it look like a Presidential press conference about your dream school.
Drama - Get a group and act out your dream school.
News Report - If you already go to your dream school, then tell us about it and why it's your dream school!
In Plain English Video - Those fun videos like this one about Twitter.
Art - Want to paint a picture of your dream school? Why not? Submit it!
Wild Card - There are 1000s of creative ways you can share your dream! Just don't keep your dream to yourself!

We all have dreams and hopes for the future of this world. They deserved to be heard and they deserved to be pursued!

There's no wrong way to share your dreams!

Dream on!

You might also like:
Photoprompts: 12DOD Student Edition
Dreaming about Education by @Stumpteacher
Dreaming about Better Space by @Johntspencer

All ideas can be submitted by filling out this form:

Photoprompts: 12DOD Student Edition

2013-01-24T05:00:00.000-05:00

It pays to be friends with the amazing @johntspencer. Not only is a great person and enjoyable to talk to but he's also a great resource. #StuVoice, #Choose2Matter, and Education Dreamer recently launched The 12 Days of Dreaming Student Edition. I reached out to John and asked if he had some photoprompts that would work for this project and he sent me these from @lukeneff and himself.

These are just ideas that students and teachers could use to get their creative juices going as they think about how they would reimagine schools.

Again, these are just possible starting points for students as they explore submitting an idea for the project. Thank you John and Luke for letting us use these for this blog post!

Dream on!

12 Days of Dreaming: Student Edition

2013-01-21T20:42:00.000-05:00

This past December I ran a series on Education Dreamer called The 12 Days of Dreaming. Over a course of three weeks I posted twelve different blogs by fourteen guest bloggers. Each blogger was an educator and he or she wrote about her dreams for education. Some covered broad topics such as assessment and the physical structure of the school. While others focused on their personal classroom or subject area. It was a great experience with great results.

Now it’s time to take the project to the next level. That’s why I’m excited to announce that Education Dreamer is teaming up with the people at Student Voice and Choose 2 Matter to bring to you The 12 Days of Dreaming: Student Edition! This will be a collaborative effort to highlight the dreams of the students who enter our schools.

We are looking for a minimum of 12 guest student bloggers. The series will run in February. At the end of the series the post, along with some special guest post, will be released in the iTunes bookstore. The books will be sold with all proceeds going to the Sandy Hook Scholorship Fun!

If you are a student, or know of one, who would like to submit a blog post for this project, please submit your idea for a 400-600 word blog post by filling out this FORM by February 8. All you have to do is answer this question:

What are your dreams for education?

Thank you for taking the time to be a part of this project! We look forward to sharing your dreams with the world!

#YouMatter #DreamOn
If you'd like a badge for your website: Here it is courtesy of @ktvee, who is amazing!

<a href="http://www.educationdreamer.com/p/this-past-december-i-ran-series-on.html"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8363/8384312753_30cf83bdef_m.jpg" border="0" /></a>

A Month of Learning

2013-01-15T06:20:00.000-05:00

One week into my new job and I am really enjoying myself. I know things won't always be perfect and I'm certainly still in the honeymoon phase. For the time being let me live in my fantasy world. In coming into a new town and a new position I decide the best thing I can do is make my first month here a month of learning. My focus so far has been on three things.

What do schools have?

What do they need/want?

How can I help?

These three questions have given me some insight into the school that I've visited so far. It's been fun checking schools out, talking to principals, teachers, and students about learning. Each conversation I have had we've focused on learning over devices, teaching over technology, students over standards, and future over past. One principal looked at me and said, "Well you certainly have an ambitious agenda." I don't know any other kind of agenda to have.

It's an exciting time in our district and I'm glad to be a part of it. Follow along if you'd like on Twitter. I'm using #ClarkTechTour as I visit the schools in my district. What will I learn today?

6 Things to Look Forward to in 2013

2013-01-08T06:00:00.000-05:00

I'm back!! It feels like forever since I wrote a blog post. I ended 2012 with an interview with Arne Duncan and then The 12 Days of Dreaming Project. Both of them were a lot of fun and I appreciate all of the great feedback I've received. There is more to come with The 12 Days of Dreaming and I hope to be announcing that soon. #teaser

The end of 2012 was a crazy and exciting time for my family. I am now the Director of Technology for Greater Clark County Schools in Jeffersonville, IN. I am sure that I will be writing a lot about my experience leading a district in this position. Consequently my family and I moved two hours east to a new city.

Now that the second semester has started, we're all moved, I'm at my new job, and my kids are in their new school I plan on getting back in the habit of blogging. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning there will be a new blog on Education Dreamer. I will write most of them but I did enjoy having some guest bloggers and I hope to have some more in the future.

I just wanted to write this post to say that I'm glad to be getting into a new routine. I want to say a big THANK YOU to all of my Evansville friends, family, and coworkers. I was blessed to live in that great city for the last 7 and a half years. It was an amazing time and I learned so much during my time there.

As I move forward there are several things I am looking forward to the rest of this school year and throughout 2013. These are in no certain order.

Learning - Every time I have "moved up" in my career it has simply meant that I have had to become a better learning. I can not imagine what I'm about to learn this year.
Promoting - For me, there is nothing more fun than promoting the amazing works of teachers and students.
Starting a 1:1 - One of the big task that I've been asked to do is to lead our district into a 1:1 initiative. It's going to be exciting!
Failing - This ties into the learning because as much as I learn during my times of success, I often learn as much, if not more, from my failures. Plus if we are failing at some things then that means we are truly stretching ourselves.
Introducing - I am going to have the great pleasure to introduce you to some amazing folks in my new district. Also, I'm going to get to introduce them to all of you.
eLearning Conference - The Indiana Department of Ed has awarded us a grant to host a summer eLeraning conference. More to come on this in the future!

Needless to say, I am pumped! Thank you to all of you who have followed along in 2012! There is a lot of things to look forward to in 2013!

Dream on!

Brett

12 Days of Dreaming Week 3 Recap #12DOD

2012-12-21T05:00:00.000-05:00

Well, all good things come to an end. This has been an amazing three weeks for me. I have enjoyed everyone's post. It is such an inspiration to see so many great educators from all over North America share their dreams with us! Thank you Kelley, Tim, William, Carolyn, Josh, Shira, Allison, Jeff, Jennifer, John, Cheryl, Andrew, Brian, and Shelley! All of your post touched my heart and inspired me! You can find this week's post and all of the post from the series here.

This week's post were a great way to finish our 12 Days of Dreaming. John started off by laying out some ideas about how we can better design the physical structure of our buildings. I've often thought I wish I could start off each year with an empty classroom, a budget, and my students. The first thing we would do design our classroom. Talk about a great way to kick off the year and think about the math they would learn.

Then Cheryl and Andrew shared their story about how they collaborate in such a unique way and team teach on opposite sides of the country. What I love about their post is it really shows how far teachers are willing to go to help provide great education for their students. I know they will continue to evolve and do even greater things. I'm excited about what the future holds for these two!

The 12 Days of Dreaming wouldn't be complete without a post from Brian Bennett. Brian pursues his dreams with all of his strength. His post comes from the voice of man who has pushed himself to be the best he can be. There isn't a more reflective educator out there than Brian. You can feel it as you read his words. Brian has felt the pain, struggles, failures, joys, and victories of a dreamer. His post reminds us that there is a price that comes when we pursue our dreams but it is a price worth paying.

I thought Shelley's post was the perfect way to end our series. This paragraph from her post really hits home with me.

I say learner-centred, rather than student-centred, because there’s much more to life than being a student. There’s more to life than being academic. I’ve come to realize that being good at school really only means you’re good at school. I dream that education systems will begin to realize this. Too many of our kids complete their education without having any idea what they love or what they’re really good at. Instead, too many need to recover from their experience.

As a parent and an educator I want my kids/students to love learning the way I do. I want every day to be about helping them find themselves. I want them to dream the way we have dreamed these last few weeks. I love how Shelley talks about how she would go about seeing her dreams come to pass. It's a fitting way to end the series by showing us that dreaming alone won't change anything. We must act on our dreams!

Then after the last post we had a #12DOD chat on Twitter. It was a great conversation. You can read the archives here!

Thank you so much for being a part of this series! I hope you have enjoyed this as much as I have! I hope to do this again in the future!

Dream on my friends!

Brett

Day 12: Dreaming about Learner-Centered Schools by @wrightsroom #12DOD

2012-12-20T05:00:00.000-05:00

Editor's note: Wow! I can't believe that it's the final post already! I will have one more recap tomorrow with some final thoughts and some thank you's! I hope all of you can join us tonight (12/20) at 7:30 PM EST for the 1 time #12DOD chat! We will be discussing our hopes and dreams for education and how to make them a reality.

I dream of one day being the administrator of a school that is entirely blended and learner-centred. But more than this, I dream kids will experience this from Kindergarten, through to grade 12. I know this is a reality in a few places, but it’s far from the norm. The average child’s school experiences are drill and kill and stand and deliver, but I digress.

I dream of classrooms that are alive with student conversations, questions, and inquiries, regardless of their age. I dream of learners who are able to craft questions they are curious about and who have the tech ability and network connections to chase them, or teachers who have the know-how and learning network to facilitate the process. Furthermore, I dream of kids who are able to take the outcomes of their curriculum, and decide what they’re going to learn, how they’re going to learn it and how they will show their learning. As part of this, I dream of kids who are able to thoughtfully articulate their thinking, who can evaluate their mistakes and design projects with purpose and impact. I dream of classrooms where teachers and learners share ownership of the learning environment.

I say learner-centred, rather than student-centred, because there’s much more to life than being a student. There’s more to life than being academic. I’ve come to realize that being good at school really only means you’re good at school. I dream that education systems will begin to realize this. Too many of our kids complete their education without having any idea what they love or what they’re really good at. Instead, too many need to recover from their experience.

How would I begin this dream? With my students, we start with unlearning, so with teachers, I plan to start the same way. My students often don’t question their education because they don’t know what they don’t know. I think teachers are often the same way. For many years, I was the stand and deliver teacher because I didn’t know any other way. Changing what you know can be frightening and threatening. Consequently, I have a dream that teachers will take risks, regardless of their fears, not always knowing the direction or the outcome because their students need them to.

What would it look like for teachers to go through a process of unlearning? Too often what we do in our classroom is simply perpetuating the way we were taught. What would it look like to begin to imagine different possibilities? I dream of teachers who are willing to peer into the classrooms of others who have begun the voyage, and who are willing to imagine how it might change their own teaching. I dream of a staff who is willing to critically evaluate what they don’t like about school, and use this to begin to purposefully design classrooms that empower learners.

What I propose isn’t simple. The road is long, difficult and messy. And yet, I believe, it’s worth every moment.

Shelley Wright is a teacher and education blogger living in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan in Canada. She teaches high school English, science and technology and works with other teachers interested in connected, inquiry-driven learning. Her passion is social justice and helping her students make the world a better place. She blogs at Wright’s Room. Follow her on Twitter at @wrightsroom.

Day 11: Dreaming about Growing Pains by @bennettscience #12DOD

2012-12-19T05:00:00.000-05:00

Editor's note: Tomorrow is the last day for the 12 Days of Dreaming! I am so honored that so many people have participated! We will cap off the series with a Twitter chat about the different post and our dreams for education using #12DOD at 7:30 pm EST on December 20.

If you have kids, know people with kids, or work with kids, you know that they will face some painful days as they grow. First comes teething, which I’ve heard is a nightmare. Then, the awkward pubic years when bones are stretching faster than the brain’s balance centers can keep up. Years pass, our joints begin to ache when the weather changes, and we can’t heal up from injuries as fast or as completely as we used to.

The business of growing is difficult.

But, through all the pain, we learn a valuable lesson: pain and growth have to come together to be meaningful.

I don’t know many cyclists that learned to ride a bike the first time their parent let go of the seat. A scraped knee from falling off of a bike helps us learn that balancing is much easier when we’re moving forward. As we move through the pain of growth, we come to expect better things when it’s over.

Schools are a prime example of pain and growth. Students, you have stories about working through very difficult classes. Teachers, what about the student that tested you every day of class? Administrators, you can tell us about the first year teachers that have come through your building.

Pain is an indicator of growth.

Education is in a painful place right now. Schools and governments are polarized against one another over education. We are being blamed for many social problems, and there isn’t much trust in the state or federal leadership. Teachers are fearful for their jobs and the role testing will (or won’t) play in how we are evaluated.

Within the frustrations and the stress, though, we have an opportunity to implement better schools.

It is our responsibility to model growth to our students. Brainstorm with your colleagues on how to implement changes. Work with student advisory groups to solve problems. Encourage someone more frequently than you complain about a particular circumstance.

The attitude shift begins with recognizing that if there is no pain, there is no growth..

Don’t be soured by painful situations. Recognize the opportunity for growth and focus on the goal rather than the immediate. There is no silver bullet for any single problem. But, we can turn a lot of silver BB’s into a comprehensive solution.

Let us know in the comments what growing pains you’re having and what you’ve learned as you’ve worked through them.

Brian E. Bennett (@bennettscience) is a science teacher living in South Bend, Ind. He has spoken nationally and internationally on flipped learning, most recently speaking at ISTE 2012 in San Diego and as the opening keynote speaker at the 2012 Flipped Learning Conference in Chicago. Bennett writes frequently about flipped learning on his blog,Educator, Learner.

Day 10: Dreaming about Connections by @guster4lovers & @Thomasson_engl #12DOD

2012-12-18T05:00:00.000-05:00

Editor's note: We will have a #12DOD chat this Thursday, December 20, at 7:30 PM EST. We will be talking about our dreams and how to make them a reality. In the meantime, enjoy this great post about the power of collaboration!

This August, as each of us finished our first day of school, we collapsed into chairs and stared at our computer screens, much like we had on every first day of every previous school year.

But there was one major difference on this first day of school:

On that screen was a person, a partner, a friend, a collaborator, one who understood us and understood exactly what had happened in our classroom because they were the one who helped to plan and prepare it.

Three months after meeting on Twitter, we decided to team-teach. This meant starting over with curriculum maps, syllabi and methodology. This meant finding a way to work together from 2,500 miles apart without ever meeting face to face.

As a result of that decision, we discovered that we now had access to a collaborative partnership where lessons were planned, frontiers were traversed, troubles were shot, and problems dealt with jointly. And slowly, the difficulties and challenges from previous years began to disappear.

But we needed to know why, needed to be able to explain the machinery at work behind the scenes. We knew that collaboration was important, but our transformation entailed much more than that. Both of us had collaborated in the past, and we even had an extensive PLN on Twitter, but no collaboration had ever fixed the root issues: teaching isolated us; creating an effective learning environment was difficult; meeting the needs of each individual student was near-impossible; we weren’t doing well enough, and often, we weren’t even doing enough, period.

Those problems still exist and will probably always exist. Unlike past collaborations, however, this one gave us direction and insight. Now we had someone to accompany us on the journey, where we could face problems together, plan lessons together, and even work with students together.

In trying to figure out how this worked, we stumbled upon a way of thinking about teaching, learning, and collaboration that mimicked the process we had gone through and provides a way of replicating that process. We call it The Equation:

Develop Relationships → Ignite Passion → Build Skills → Take Ownership

On the first day of school, we were not aware that the equation even existed. We just lived it and figured it out along the way. As we discovered The Equation, it gave us the ability to see it as a transformational process, but one that can happen in any classroom or collaborative partnership.

With The Equation, our process, the one that made us less isolated, and allowed us to be better teachers, can happen anywhere.

If only we had known that from the beginning.

**

Despite having the most solid curriculum and plan we had ever had for the start of school, at six weeks into the year, we kept running into the wall. Our heads hurt from ramming the brick wall so many times, without getting any closer to breaking through.

We just didn’t understand why all the things that had transformed us - relationship, passion, skill and ownership - wasn’t working in our class the way we knew it could. We searched for answers, but it felt like throwing a dodgeball against the same brick wall; for everything we would try, the ball just kept sailing back at us with no visible improvement, not even a loose brick.

Instead of breaking down the wall together, that wall started to break down our relationship, our passion, and our ownership over the situation. We, of course, didn’t have the perspective to see that, so we just assumed it must be our own lack of skill that was the problem. Many times, we wondered if this was even worth it; with the amount of time and energy we were spending, our classrooms should have been magical places of transformation. And they weren’t. This collaboration was difficult, perhaps the most difficult thing either of us had ever done in our career.

For every step forward, it felt like we were pushed back five steps. Every victory was marred by some failure or imperfection.

Added to that, we were both already broken when we met. But the collaboration we discovered and nourished over those first few months was helping to heal those deep wounds left from years of failure.

And now, the first six weeks of school reopened those wounds and nothing we did could make them go away again.

So we ignored it. And things just got worse. We were still friends, and we still planned and de-briefed lessons together. But the alchemy that our collaboration brought us over the first few months had disappeared and we didn’t know how to get it back. We wondered if it was even possible, or if it really had been a dream...one that ended with us waking up, being back to where we had started.

**

Frustrated, broken, exhausted and overworked, we stumbled into Thanksgiving break. In that state, Cheryl took a day trip with another Twitter friend and high school teacher, Karl Lindgren-Streicher. They met up for lunch and then drove to some of the vineyards in the Napa Valley. Along the way, they called Andrew and within minutes, a day off became the spark that reignited everything: the passion for our students, our flipped class, and our relationship.

That is when we realized that we had been Doing It Wrong. The equation never was meant to stop with us.

It had to be flipped too.

Our students needed to experience what we experienced over the summer. And just like with teachers, the equation doesn’t work on people in isolation; no, our students needed to be transformed through their relationship with us, and with each other. Only then could our classrooms become the kind of community that in and of itself had the power to transform.

It was then that we finally understood that we had neglected building relationships with our students. Yes, we were working with them one-on-one, and talked to every student, every period, every day. But they didn’t really know us, and we didn’t really know much about them, apart from their academic ability in reading and writing.

We had done it backwards. We were so frustrated by how little ownership the students had over the course that it blinded us to the truth: before they could be responsible for their learning, they needed to care about us, care about the subject, and build their skills.

Just like we had to do when we started working together.

We have a term for when what we do matches the process we expect of our students: it’s the MetaFlip. In the MetaFlip, we deconstruct the actual process we as collaborative partners had gone through, and then plan backwards to ensure that our students can repeat our process successfully. And this time, being successful meant starting over at the beginning.

So we deliberately built activities that would allow our students to get to know us, and for us to get to know them. We threw in the most high-interest and real-world-relevant content to engage their passion for literature, writing, and arguing. Then we used that content and leveraged that relationship to build their skills in all those areas.

Although it’s taken an entire semester to get there, our students are finally back to where we wanted them to start: taking ownership of their learning. During the most recent project, not a single student asked how or even if they would be graded. Students are designing the final unit and preparing all the content, as well as making the assessment and reflecting on their learning.

So how did it take this long to figure it out? Well, there’s a darker side to the equation. The darker side is the anti-catalyst. The forces that we can’t control, but that affect us every day, whether we are in the classroom or not.

There is the Socio-Emotional anti-catalyst. This one can be a death in the family. An accident or injury. A break-up. A physical or mental health crisis. A traumatic memory resurfacing. A friendship in decline. These are the things that our students carry with them daily, often unnoticed to anyone else, but that weigh them down under the force of sorrow, anger, or fear. These are the things we carry as well, both for ourselves and for our students.

There is also the “I Know How To Play School” anti-catalyst, which actually often works in tandem with the “I Don’t Know How to Do School” anti-catalyst. Much like socio-emotional issues, these affect teachers as much as students. We have all been conditioned into the factory model of education, and flipped learning represents a major departure from that model. We are now asking for critical thinkers, not machines to rival Google’s knowledge. We now want creative, innovative thinkers, not someone who can twist a knob or pull a lever on the assembly line.

But neither we nor our students know what it’s like to not live in that model. So when grades aren’t all that matter, and when learning is the focus, the transition is going to be challenging. There are lots of questions for which we don’t have definitive answers:

How do we grade?

What are we assessing, and what SHOULD we be assessing?

How do we develop intrinsic motivation?

How can we measure creativity and innovation in an A-F world?

How do we build academic behaviours but still keep the focus on the Real World?

These anti-catalysts are so dangerous because they are often ignored; when you are neck-deep in the ocean, you’re working hard not to drown.

The truth is, we’re all drowning.

But that’s why we need each other.

The equation starts with relationship for a reason. The most powerful solution for any problem in the classroom, or in life for that matter, is relationship. It is what saved us from throwing in the towel on this collaboration when it got difficult. It is what motivates our students to keep going after they fail. It is often what gets us and our students to school every morning, whether or not we feel like it.

Relationship and community are what gets us through unspeakable tragedy, loss, and grief. It is what gives us the strength to keep going, and hopefully, to heal.

Relationship has to be the glue of a classroom, and our flipped classroom, with cross-country team-teachers, needs a hell of a lot of glue. Our country and our fellow educators also need a hell of a lot of glue right now.

**

Once our students believe in us and we invest in them, our community can then shift to finding and developing passion for learning. We can get them excited about thinking, reading, writing and speaking about the Big Questions in life, and about the stories that make up our cultural heritage. Through that passion, we build their skills so that they can not only understand but participate in that culture.

Finally, we transfer ownership for the learning from teacher to student. At that point, we finally flip our class - after all, if a flipped classroom is student-centred, the real flip must be in giving students the responsibility to succeed or fail together, as a community of learners.

And through this process, we keep pushing back against all the anti-catalysts - the narrative that reminds us we aren’t good enough, that there is too much broken, that no one cares, that we are wasting our time, talent and treasure. In pushing back, we are creating space for grace, hope, and possibility.

It is that sacred space - where there is affection, passion, skill and responsibility - that takes our dream and makes it a reality.

The equation creates alchemy. And what is alchemy, if not taking a dream and making it tangible?

Dreams can only guess at what is possible. But what seems possible isn’t always what’s real.

Instead, our dream of what we wanted our classroom to be, and what we wanted for our students, is nowhere NEAR as powerful, as beautiful, as transformational as what we have now, together.

We couldn’t dream up a relationship where who we are matters more than what we do.

We couldn’t dream up a passion that inspires each of us, unites us together, and drives our students.

We couldn’t dream up a person who would help us get better at teaching and would help our students get better at learning.

We couldn’t dream up a classroom where our students are partners in their learning, where we get to learn as much as our students, and all together, we make our classroom into a collaborative community.
And while we couldn’t dream of a world where our collaboration is possible, we couldn’t dream of a world where what happened in Connecticut this past week was possible either.

Where this kind of transformational relationship and community is not just possible; it’s essential. Where isolation is only a memory, and in community, we somehow find the strength to deal with tragedy.

Unlike that teacher we both were once, standing alone on the first day of school, we no longer need to face trouble and tragedy on our own. By reaching out on Twitter to someone we still have never met in person, we found the only thing that has the power to change us, our students, and our lives.

We found an end to isolation. Someone else who would stand with us through our darkest hours, and remind us that we are not alone. But fixing us and our relationship isn’t enough.

Our dream is that all students can find the same thing. And for that to be possible, our dream has to start with our fellow educators.

We want all teachers to feel the strength of community supporting them, encouraging them, challenging them, and helping them heal.

Our dream is that none of us feel isolated. And none of us has to be alone.

Our dream is that the equation starts transforming lives now.

Just like it has transformed ours.

Both Andrew Thomasson and Cheryl Morris teach English at the high school level. Andrew is a 10th grade teacher at Forestview High School near Charlotte, North Carolina, and blogs atwww.concertedchaos.com (on Twitter – @thomasson_engl). Cheryl teaches 11th and 12th grade at Redwood High School in Marin, California, and blogs at www.morrisflipsenglish.com (on Twitter – @guster4lovers). They operate a website for their students at www.tmiclass.com and can be reached through their joint email at tmi@tmiclass.com. More information on how they are team-teaching from across the country can be found at their blogs and www.tmiclass.com, and their instructional writing/reading videos are on YouTube.

Day 9: Dreaming of Better Space by @johntspencer #12DOD

2012-12-17T05:00:00.000-05:00

Editor's note: My heart is heavy as we start the last week of the 12 Days of Dreaming. As we move forward with our dreams, there are 20 children who will never see their dreams fulfilled and countless people effected by this great tragedy. As we move forward this week, I hope we will all love a little more, reach a little further, and dream a little longer. This world will never be perfect but I refuse to think that we can't make it better. Take time today and hug a child, thank a teacher, encourage a parent, and remind somebody that they matter.

Dream on my friends.

“Ditch the Astrodome”

I remember watching baseball games in the 1980’s. I couldn’t tell if the Giants were playing in Pittsburgh, Cincinatti or Philadelphia. Every stadium was the same – a giant, donut-shaped behemoth meant for concerts, baseball games and football games. It was a one-size-fits-all mindset that ignored the nuances of the game.

Perhaps the worst of these stadiums was the Astrodome. Built in the sixties as a futuristic prototype of stadiums, it featured the world’s largest Jumbotron in the outfield and the trendiest yellow, orange and blue colors throughout. However, when the light blinded players, they painted the tiles and brought in Astroturf. The l turf injured players. The fans had horrible sightlines. The stadium grew into a modernistic relic.

So, it has me thinking about our donut-shaped behemoth schools systems. Some say we should crush them and build new places with iPads and Chromebooks and STEM centers. Think outside the box. Go futuristic.

I wonder, though, if we are simply setting ourselves up for a new Astrodome. See, I don't want to think outside the box. I don't want to demolish school altogether and start out with something new. I want to repurpose the box. I want to redesign schools so that they fit the purpose of learning.

My favorite ballparks are the ones designed with the baseball experience in mind. AT&T Park in San Francisco and Camden Yards in Baltimore come to mind. They are both high-tech without featuring tech as the driving force. There is an aesthetic and a purpose to the places that respects both the current context and the vintage past.

So, my dream for education is a little more like AT&T Park. Here’s what I mean:

Respect the vintage while also thinking about the future: We need to recover nuance, paradox and a reconnection to the land. Some of the best ideas are vintage. Reformers need to be mindful that relevance is not the same as novelty.
Open up the spaces: I’m struck by how open the best ball parks tend to be. Fenway and Wrigley fit this concept well. Why not open up the schools a little more? Create gardens. Allow for windows that open. Don’t tear down all walls, but maybe create some half-walls.
Reconnect with the community: The newer ballparks open up to the community. They don’t feel as gated and guarded. You can see the beach or the skyline of the local community. What if schools were more open? What if they fit the identity of the community? What if we had more mentors, guest speakers and community experts?
Be intentional: My favorite stadiums are built, not as stadiums, but as ball parks. They are designed for the game. We need to rethink the purpose of education and design schools that fit the purpose of learning. I would love to see more integration between subjects, more projects, more problem-solving and more critical thinking. I’d like to see fewer tests, packets and homework.
Embrace creativity: The best ballparks have creative dimensions. Whether it’s the Green Monster or the ivy-covered fences or the home run porch, there is something creative to the place that fits the identity. I would love to see schools thinking creatively about space, curriculum and instruction.

John Spencer is a sixth grade ELL teacher in Phoenix, Arizona. Over his nine years of teaching, his students have been involved in documentaries, murals and community service. He has also worked in doing professional development and coaching in technology integration. He blogs at edrethink and writes a column for Kappan Magazine.

12 Days of Dreaming: Week 2 Recap and Week 3 Preview #12DOD

2012-12-14T05:00:00.000-05:00

Well, week two is in the books and just like that we are heading into the final week of the 12 Days of Dreaming. Thank you again to our amazing guest bloggers, our readers, those who shared out the post, and those who commented! What good are dreams if we don't share them with others and pursue them with all of our might?

Week 2

The week started off with an amazing post from Josh Stumpenhorst! I get excited every time I read it.

This is my hope… the day when we will stand together as parents, teachers, and students and know that learning will one day be free. It will be free of curriculum, free of standardized testing, free of grading, free of unhealthy competition, free of financial restraints, free of textbooks, and free to be whatever the learners need and when they need it.

It is my hope that we push and fight for this! This is the message we need to be pushing in our schools and our community. It's one that we should fight for in our classroom. Those of us who are also parents, should be seeking this for our own children. Thank you Josh for capturing my dreams!

One of the things I have enjoyed the most about this project is just seeing how creative people are when they write. My good friend Shira Leibowitz took a great approach to her dream. I love how gave us insight into her personal journey as a learner. I think we can all learn from that. I think teachers are at their best when they are sharing their personal journey with their students. Dr. Leibowitz captures the shift we need to see in this paragraph.

We’ll need to envision education anew - shifting our focus from teaching to learning; from curriculum to feedback on practice; from standards to core values. These shifts will require us to think differently about potential ways of utilizing learning spaces, schedules, personnel, student groupings, and technology in order to improve the quality of learning. The possibilities are limited only by our imaginations and will require collaborative, creative exploration and dreaming.

There are so many blog post we can branch out of this paragraph. However, it's not overwhelming when we take her advice and we strive for "collaborative, creative exploration, and dreaming."

Next we had Allie Holland reminding us what education is really all about, relationships. I can't say enough good things about Allie. Even though I have not known her for very long, I know she is a passionate and compassionate learner.

Moments that remind us why we teach are what we need to focus on; not the pile of papers we have to fill out or the other requirements that come bombarding our way. It’s very hard to see beyond all of this many times, but our students deserve our best, no matter what.

Thank you Allie for reminding us to look past the bureaucracy of education and to focus on what matters most!

Finally we got to end the week with a double post from Mr. & Mrs. TeacherCast. Jeff has been a great friend to me. I'm not sure there is a person who works harder at delivering great content to educators than Jeff. Jennifer is a great educator and an awesome wife for listening to her husband record countless podcast. ;) Jeff talked to us about redesigning the media hub of a school and Jennifer talked about music education.

I firmly believe that there needs to be a distinction in schools between a Media Center and a Library. A Library is a place for books. It is concept as old as the books themselves. It is a place for students to sit down with physical materials, put their thoughts on paper and learn. It is a one-way place for knowledge. For more than 100 years, students have entered libraries to take knowledge away from pieces of paper that have all the answers in the world. The Media Center, however, is a place for students to sit down and not only gain knowledge, but share it as well.

Jeff's point is clear. We need design schools that encourage and empower collaboration!

I wear many hats as a professional musician and educator. Those terms are interchangeable for me. As a musician, you innately teach and as an educator you create and change the people around you. My daily goal is to teach, perform, and learn with my students as if I had my ideal classroom.

You can feel Jennifer's passion for music education. It always breaks my heart when I hear of schools cutting the fine arts. It's such a great opportunity for our students to express and find themselves.

Week 3 Preview

We are going to finish strong next week with post from Shelley Wright, John Spencer, Brian Bennett, and the collaborative team of Cheryl Morris & Andrew Thomasson!

Finally we will have a 1 time #12DOD chat Thursday, December 20th, at 7:30 PM EST! We will be discussing how to make our dreams a reality!

Thank you so much for taking part in week 2 of the 12 Days of Dreaming!

Dream on!

Day 8: Dreaming about Music & Media by @TeacherCast & @bassjen1 #12DOD

2012-12-13T05:00:00.000-05:00

Editor's note: Today's special post is a double post from Mr. & Mrs. TeacherCast! I hope you enjoy both post, comment and share! Thank you for participating in the 12 Days of Dreaming! Don't forget to check out the other post! Only 4 more days left!

Dreaming about the Library:

Reimagining the Schools Digital Hub

I have often thought, "If I could design a school, how would I design it?" This isn't a very easy task. There are many things to consider. First, you would have to find a great location. The layout of the school grounds would include various sporting fields and space for additional out-door activities. The school building (itself) would be designed to accommodate thousands of learners. Second, there needs to be strong leadership that not only had an eye on the future, but a humble mind to learn from both the present and the past. Lastly, I would build this amazing establishment with several underground tunnels and passageways leading to the worlds greatest cultural establishments so students can take a field trip at any moments notice.

At the heart of this dream is the buildings particular shape and structure. This building would have to have a common meeting area for both students and staff to meet, work, and function in a collaborative space. In the perfect school, this centralized location would be the Media Center.

I have often spoken and wrote about the concept of a Media Center. I firmly believe that there needs to be a distinction in schools between a Media Center and a Library. A Library is a place for books. It is concept as old as the books themselves. It is a place for students to sit down with physical materials, put their thoughts on paper and learn. It is a one-way place for knowledge. For more than 100 years, students have entered libraries to take knowledge away from pieces of paper that have all the answers in the world. The Media Center, however, is a place for students to sit down and not only gain knowledge, but share it as well.

Students live in a world of Web 2.0. These small but important words are often pushed around the social media markets like they are nothing, but in reality, they mean EVERYTHING to society and to education. Web 2.0 as a concept gives students and educators the ability to do something they could never do in a Library. They have the ability to teach the book something it didn't already know. This concept is far overlooked as an educational option these days. This Interactivity between content curation and content creation would be the pinnacle reason behind making the Media Center the largest social space in my dream building.

Each Media Center would be outfitted in a similar fashion to the way an Apple Store currently is set up. An open floor plan where students entering the space can have a panoramic view of everything that the room has to offer. In the middle, would be a series of tables, each with a tablet device where students can access a complete catalog of the Media Centers Resources. Against the walls would be flat panel internet video screens where students would be able to approach and control by voice manipulation. Other stations would be equipped with audio and video editing stations. The Media Center would become the Digital Hub, Social Hub, and Educational Hub, not just for the school, but for the entire community. Students would be able to create content, and with a push of a button, upload it for the entire district to view and learn from. This model would completely revolutionize the concept of a "flipped classroom."

Is this a possibility or an improbability? I hope this question never guests answered. I hope that the day never comes where we have to question the desire for technological progress and collaboration power between staff and students, and school and community. In the mean time, I will continue dreaming and pushing forward with these dreams hoping to one day make them a reality.

I'm curious to know what you think? What would your dream Educational Hub be in your school?

Dreaming about My Ideal Music Classroom

First thing in the morning, my students drop their instruments and music books off into our room. The 4th graders are excited and can’t wait to learn about the new note or rhythm they will be learning because it will be their first time playing it, ever. Some proudly announce which family members they gave a performance for over the weekend.My favorite responses are students that tell me which notes they need help with or what is their favorite song (after only 7 weeks). All of these conversations, student-feedback, would ideally take place in our own classroom.

My ideal classroom has space for everything and everyone. The cello rack and violin/viola rack are against the wall,to the right of the door. The shelving units for band instruments are right beside them. The chairs are ergonomic, rehearsal chairs, not tiny children-sized chairs or over-grown slouchy folding chairs. The walls would have current sound proofing technology. Opposite the instrumental storage area are two mobile storage rack for the 20 black iron music stands. There is a bright bulletin board that proudly displays all of the new terms (English,German, French, and Italian). Another bulletin board has a colorful chart to show who is in the lead for turning in practice logs. Between the bulletin boards is a panel of mirror on the wall that is easily accessible to students and teacher to model correct posture for performing during a lesson. In the back of the room is a small Mac computer lab that is equipped to record students’ playing tests and save the files to their own Dropbox account so that they can have a digital portfolio of their progress that will follow them through high school and beyond. Whole ensembles will be able to Skype and perform for peers across the world.Along with an audio portfolio, students will blog with themselves by using an “in-house” network. They will compose short pieces based on their current knowledge of notation, theory and pitches. These pieces will be shared to the world in a Live-Binder.

What I have described above is a dream. Maybe some forms of this dream exists in some alternative to the current standard educational choices available. We all have pieces of the ideal classroom even now. Why not start kids on recorders in public school at an age earlier then 8 yrs.? As human-beings, all of us have a fundamental need to create. If we all learn how to speak at a young age by mimicking, listening and experimenting with what our family does around us, we can use those same skills and support to encourage a class of 1st grade violinists. What other discipline in school motivates students to become independent learners. Even as a musician on an elementary level, you need to hear/see/feel what you need to do to achieve the desired goal. However, if you do not get the response you want the first time, you truly do need to “look in the mirror”, experiment with the variables and teach yourself what you need to change.

Our reality is that tremendous sacrifice exists in education today in both the “Forrest” and “The Tree” perspective. School districts are cutting costs resulting in an exodus of highly qualified staff. There are political causes to some of this educational distortion but it all passes because the citizens of our country speak with their vote. In the broader perspective, education is running more stream-lined but according to the students’ achievment, this is not helping them. Anything that is not ‘common core’ gets hit the hardest. The visual and performing arts, physical education, and technology curriculums are vital in developing well-rounded productive citizens. The ancient Greeks knew this. Yet we ignore their wisdom by slashing and minimizing these programs in modern education. Children need to be taught to create and utilize all of the 21st century possibilities. This won’t happen when the teachers (adults) that they look up to are afraid or not allowed to incorporate mobile devices and 21st global methods of project learning into their classroom.

I wear many hats as a professional musician and educator. Those terms are interchangeable for me. As a musician, you innately teach and as an educator you create and change the people around you. My daily goal is to teach, perform, and learn with my students as if I had my ideal classroom. The longer I teach, the more I credit my student’s success to the natural resiliency of youth. Instruments and 1st year books in hand, they will play a lesson or rehearsal any place that is available in a school building. If my students decide to continue their participation in creating music or at least use their basic knowledge of music to have a greater understanding of the world then I know that my ideal classroom has been achieved and it has no walls.

Jeffrey Bradbury teaches in the North Brunswick Twp School District. He teaches Music Theory, Music History and has a wonderful high school orchestra that he is very proud of. Jeff earned his Bachelors and Masters Degree from West Chester University in Pennsylvania. In his free time, Jeff enjoys teaching, playing violin, conducting, web design, and podcasting. You can find him on his website www.TeacherCast.net where he writes blogs, creates Audio Podcasts, reviews apps, and provides Screencasts to help teachers learn how to use todays technologies. @TeacherCast. For Music Lovers, he can also be found at: www.BradburyMusic.com

Jennifer Bradbury is a professional musician and educator. Jennifer’s favorite performances include soloing with orchestra, the Dragonetti Concerto and Koussevitsky concerto under the baton of her husband, Jeff Bradbury. Jennifer Bradbury earned a Master of Music in Double Bass Performance from Peabody Conservatory in 2006 and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Double Bass Performance and Music Education from Carnegie Mellon University. Teachers have included Douglas Mapp, Paul Johnson, Anthony Bianco, and Boris Blumenkrantz. Jennifer serves as an instrumental instructor for the Pennsauken School District. In May 2010, under her direction, the Phifer Middle School Orchestra received a superior rating at the High Note Festival in Allentown, Pa. She resides in Pennsauken, NJ with her wonderful husband, Jeffrey.

Day 7: Dreaming about a Teacher Revival by @allieLholland #12DOD

2012-12-12T05:00:00.000-05:00

Good ol’ Fashion Teacher Revival

“You’re going into education? [long pause] Good luck...”

This is the reaction many college students receive when talking with (sadly) current teachers. Have a conversation with almost any teacher right now and they would tell you to pick another career. Now more than ever teachers need to reconnect with why they got into education.

It’s time for a good ol’ fashion revival, folks!

With assessments, teacher evaluations, standards, and deadlines, many teachers are quite overwhelmed. They feel because there are so many requirements, the other ‘stuff’ has to be pushed to the side. Well, that ‘stuff’ is what makes our job as teachers worthwhile! Moments that remind us why we teach are what we need to focus on; not the pile of papers we have to fill out or the other requirements that come bombarding our way. It’s very hard to see beyond all of this many times, but our students deserve our best, no matter what.

I’d love to share one of my most memorable experiences as an educator.

Emma and Mariah were very sweet girls who just happened to be two of the most stubborn students I’ve ever had in class. Both girls were taken out of the general classroom for various subjects and when they were in my room, it took everything I had to convince them writing a story or solving a math problem was important. Many days, we were only successful in completing an eighth of an assignment or writing down only one sentence. It was definitely a combination of many things and I worked my hardest to get through to these girls. At the end of the year, I knew they’d had enough of me and were ready to move on. I honestly thought it was a lost cause and I prayed that their third grade teacher would be able to reach them in a way I thought I couldn’t.

Just this year, I stepped out of the conventional classroom and into another position at a different corporation. This was an extremely difficult decision. In the first few months of school, I was lucky enough to able to take a day and visit my class from last year. The reaction I received from my students completely melted me into a puddle. I wasn’t, however, expecting the same from Emma and Mariah. Well, I was completely wrong. The two girls I could barely get to write their name down on most days, the girls that would glare at me every time I assigned a project...wrote me the most beautiful letters and while they were reading them to me, broke down and couldn’t even finish. The three of us sat in the hallway and just cried our little hearts out.

This is why we teach. For moments when you thought you weren’t making a difference. For moments when you felt like you had nothing left to give then your students remind you just why you chose to become an educator. We have to remember these moments when the weight of the educational world is on our shoulders. It’s time to celebrate the good things teachers are doing! It’s time to bring the fun back to our classrooms! Celebrate each other! Share what you are doing in your classroom! Share what your colleagues are doing in their classrooms!

And remember that you were called to be a teacher. You are making a difference even when you think no one is listening.

My name is Allison Holland and I am currently an eLearning Coach for Plymouth Community School Corporation. This is my fifth year in education having taught second grade for John Glenn School Corporation for four years. I am extremely passionate about changing the mindset of teachers and do my best to bring enthusiasm back to education. You can find my blog at http://www.mrsholland.com/.

Day 6: Dreams from the Dojang by @shiraleibowitz #12DOD

2012-12-11T05:00:00.000-05:00

Dreams from the Dojang:

On Less Teaching, More Feedback, and Goals of Consequence

By Shira Leibowitz, Ph.D.

I am in training to become a martial artist.

In this goal I will face many challenges.

I dedicate myself to face them with honor, respect, and modesty.

I pledge that on this journey not only will I train my body to be strong, agile and flexible but

I will focus on being a Taekwondo practitioner with self-control desire and discipline.

These ideals and all aspects of my training are my responsibility to learn.

Student Oath, Master P.L. Edwards, Exceptional Taekwondo Center, White Plains, N.Y

Some of my best professional learning happens at the Taekwondo Dojang. As I train, I learn - not only about martial arts, but also about education, or more accurately, about learning. I’m not the strongest, the most agile or the most flexible - not by a long shot. Most of the other students are younger and more physically fit than I. Yet, with perseverance and good humor, I have earned my black belt. I have learned.

My successes are a direct result of a learning environment with less teaching, more feedback, a focus on core values, and a plethora of meaningful learning activities, serving both as practice and then as formative assessments that demonstrate to me progress toward my own goals. Some of my goals are significant (to become a martial artist); others are of ultimate consequence (to strive for excellence in all areas of my life), while many are small and specific (i.e. to turn my hip more to extend my reach in a kick.) Achieving my goals involves much more feedback than teaching and the responsibility for learning is entirely my own, although I benefit both from the skilled coaching of the master instructors and from the collegial support of the other students. It’s a learning environment I dream about for our K-12 schools.

Less teaching; more feedback, recommendations offered by Grant Wiggins in Seven Keys to Effective Feedback sounds simple on the surface, yet I believe represents an educational paradigm shift of potentially seismic proportions. Indeed, Everything you know about curriculum may be wrong. Really., Wiggins declares in his blog. He advocates a focus, not only on content knowledge, but rather on learning to perform in the world and even more, on learning “not just to know things - but to be a different person - more mature, more wise, more self-disciplined, more effective, and more productive in the broadest sense.” Performing well trumps content knowledge and striving to fulfill core values and make a positive impact is ultimately what performing well entails.

The shift to a focus on less teaching and more feedback grounded in core values will require thoughtful reflection. Synthesizing more than 900 educational meta-analyses, researcher John Hattie has found the average effect size of feedback to be a remarkable 0.79, which is twice the average effect of all other schooling effects. Indeed, Hattie found feedback to be among the top ten influences on achievement. But there is a caveat. While feedback is among the most powerful influences on how people learn, its effects vary considerably. (Hattie, John. Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning. Taylor & Francis. Kindle Edition)

To give effective feedback, we’ll need to understand what effective feedback is and what effective feedback is not. The insight may surprise. Feedback, according to Grant Wiggins in Seven Keys to Effective Feedback, isn’t grades for students. It isn’t evaluations for professionals. It isn’t praise. It isn’t constructive critique. It isn’t advice. Rather, “feedback is information about how we are doing in our efforts to reach a goal.”

I am dreaming of a K-12 educational system that functions more like the Dojang with less teaching, more feedback, and goals of consequence. The journey toward fulfilling that dream will not be easy. Much will shift and change. Yet, at the same time much will remain the same.

We’ll need to envision education anew - shifting our focus from teaching to learning; from curriculum to feedback on practice; from standards to core values. These shifts will require us to think differently about potential ways of utilizing learning spaces, schedules, personnel, student groupings, and technology in order to improve the quality of learning. The possibilities are limited only by our imaginations and will require collaborative, creative exploration and dreaming.

We’ll need at the same time to consider what must not change, but instead remain grounded in enduring core values. It will be vital to set goals of ultimate consequence connected to our core values and to identify clearly many specific benchmarks along the way to these aspirational goals. The journey will stretch us beyond standards and move us from a primary focus on what students need to know, or even on what students need to be able to do, to an emphasis on who students are becoming - individuals of character and moral grounding prepared to strive to make a positive impact in their communities and in the broader society.

I am dreaming of less teaching, more feedback, goals of consequence, and the society children who emerge from such an educational system will together be able to create. I invite you to dream with me and share your perspectives on ways of moving forward.

Shira Leibowitz is an elementary school principal, instructional coach, and a facilitator of on-line professional learning community. She holds a Ph.D. in education and a rabbinical degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America as well as a B.A. Magna Cum Laude and With Distinction in All Subjects from Cornell University. Dr. Leibowitz is a speaker and writer on educational topics with particular interest in instructional coaching and character and values education. Dr. Leibowitz trains in Taekwondo and has earned her Black Belt. She lives with her husband and two teenage children. You can follow Dr. Leibowitz on twitter @shiraleibowitz or on her blog, which you can find at: www.sharingourblessings.wordpress.com.

Day 5: Dreaming About Education by @stumpteacher #12DOD

2012-12-10T05:00:00.000-05:00

As Dr. Martin Luther stated so many years ago…

“I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.”

I have a dream that one day all kids will have access to technology in their homes and in their schools.

I have a dream that teachers are given freedom to determine what works best for their students.

I have a dream that students come to school and learn what they want and when they want.

I have a dream where student’s passion for learning is not squashed by a curriculum.

I have a dream where textbooks are a thing of the past and students have access to constantly changing and evolving information.

I have a dream that that one day parents and teachers and students all work together for the goal of student learning.

I have a dream that students from all walks of life and from every corner of the planet will be able to use technology to connect and collaborate.

I have a dream that a student will be as engaged in school as they are at home.

I have a dream when standardized tests are a thing of the past.

I have a dream that a student never feels isolated and the need to resort to school violence as an outlet.

I have a dream where grades don’t exist and students are not judged against one another but judged on their own growth.

I have a dream that teachers are viewed as the revered professionals they truly are.

I have a dream that students are judged by more than a symbolic letter on a piece of paper.

I have a dream where politicians listen to teachers and heed our advice on education policy.

This is my hope… the day when we will stand together as parents, teachers, and students and know that learning will one day be free. It will be free of curriculum, free of standardized testing, free of grading, free of unhealthy competition, free of financial restraints, free of textbooks, and free to be whatever the learners need and when they need it.

This is my dream.

Josh Stumpenhorst (@stumpteacher) is a 6^th grade Language Arts and Social Science teacher at Lincoln Junior High School in Naperville, IL. In addition to teaching, he is an athletic director, team leader, computer club adviser, track coach, basketball coach, and serves on numerous curriculum and technology committees at the school and district level. His work has been recognized by the International Society of Technology Educators as they named Josh a member of their “Emerging Leaders Class of 2011”. Josh has also been recognized as the Illinois Computer Educators, “Educator of the Year” for 2012 and he is the 2012 Illinois Teacher of the Year. He is an active blogger at Stump the Teacher and his work there has received recognition through numerous EduBlog Awards nominations.