Technology is a tricky thing, always changing. As we look ahead to the summer and fall, what types of new technology are you incorporating into the classroom?  Are you using YouTube?  Should you be?

Some educators are showing videos to their students while others are having them produce their own videos.  Either way, educators are using technology to engage their students.  See the video below about how to use videos in your classroom.

As mentioned in the last video, you can go to YouTube.com/edu. YouTube EDU as defined by the site as: “YouTube EDU brings learners and educators together in a global video classroom. On YouTube EDU, you have access to a broad set of educational videos that range from academic lectures to inspirational speeches and everything in between.Come here for quick lessons from top teachers around the world, course lectures from top-tier universities, or inspiring videos to spark your imagination.” This is a great site for educators. 

Many districts have blocked YouTube access.  Below is a blog, Free Technology for Teachers.  On this blog, Richard Byrne, has listed 47 alternatives to YouTube.  You can see all of these at http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/09/47-alternatives-to-using-youtube-in.html.

We know that video is a big part of student’s lives today outside of the classroom, and hopefully inside as well.  Are you going to use this technology for engagement, differentiations and creativity?  What other forms of technology are you linking with curriculum?

To access more information Click Here. 

The Reporter News in Abilene is reporting on too much testing done in schools today.  While standardized testing is important, many feel our current way of testing induces unneeded stress on our children and teachers.  To learn more about what the Wylie Superintendent, the Anson Superintendent, the Abilene Superintendent and others are saying, click here for the article: http://www.reporternews.com/news/2012/feb/02/as-staar-approaches-area-educators-concerned/

On the website thechron.com, blogger Kolten Parker writes about the Association of Business taking out a full page ad in the Austin American Statesman asking parents, administrators and legislators to support the 2009 bill about rigorous testing.  The opposition to this support on the bill, that Kolten is stating on the blog, is that students are not prepared due to the budget cuts at TEA and that parents are concerned with how the test will affect their child’s final grade.  To read this blog, please click here: http://blog.chron.com/texaspolitics/2012/02/new-standardized-testing-draws-support-and-criticism/. 

Lubbock Online, is reporting that Frenship ISD is working heavily with their students, teachers, and parents to address the STAAR testing.  They are offering timed tests throughout the year to help students prepare.  The district is also informing parents of how the STAAR testing will affect their student’s GPA and offering information on the transition to this new form of assessment.  Teachers throughout the year have been analyzing their student’s performance in preparation.  To learn more about what Frenship ISD is doing to prepare for the testing, visit: http://lubbockonline.com/not-web/2012-02-02/staar-testing-uncomfortable-frenship-will-do-great-job#.TzKn3F1q2RB.

There have also been reports of parents keeping their students out of school during testing.  They are stating that too much testing is affecting their child’s development.  With the testing affecting 15% of their child’s grade, what are schools doing to help prevent parents from taking this action?

It seems like everyone is weighing in on the new STAAR testing.  Even the Commissioner of Education is speaking out about concerns for the STAAR testing. Read more about what he had to say at the TASA Midwinter Conference at the texastribune.org: http://www.texastribune.org/texas-education/public-education/. Since Commissioner Scott’s comments last week, legislators are asking for an explanation.  They are saying that he has been talking about assessment for years and after his repeated testimony during the 2011 Legislative Session, they were surprised by his comments.

Are there concerns in your district among teachers, students and parents? As we move closer and closer to March, many of us are facing the same questions and concerns about the assessment.  Is the STAAR going to help further our children’s education and make them competitive in the real world?  I guess we will have to wait and see.

The conference kicked off with Rick DuFour presenting on, “Once Upon A Time: Confronting the Mythology of Public Education.” The session focused on the premise that the world’s best school systems embrace the professional learning community (PLC) process with the most effective school systems using PLC concepts to provide the ongoing, collaborative, data-driven, job-embedded professional development essential to continued adult learning. Dr. DuFour used mythology as the basis for his presentation stating that mythology in an organization is found in the unexamined assumptions, beliefs, and expectations that we hold as true.

Douglas Reeves warmed us up for a day of learning on Monday with his session on, “Leadership at Every Level: From the Classroom to the Boardroom.” Dr. Reeves began his presentation by stating how educators should be looked upon as revenue sources as opposed to an expense.  Citing the cost of one class of dropouts in the state of Texas exceeding 35 billion in lost wages and productivity and 1.6 million in medical costs, educators make a huge positive impact on this statistic. Major challenges faced by teachers and leaders were addressed with explicit guidelines on how schools and systems can improve.  Three essential strategies were highlighted: monitoring teaching and leadership practices, building high degrees of efficacy among staff members, and focusing on a smaller number of priorities. As educators we have a ‘to do’ and a ‘not to do’ list but should have a  ‘conscious’ and ‘unconscious’ list in order to make conscious decisions in our roles that positively impact students.

The conference closed with a wonderful session presented by Thomas Guskey, “Grading and Reporting Student Learning.” Tom Guskey provided enlightening insight into effective grading practices focusing on grading and reporting student learning. Reflecting on the purposes of grading grounded the conversation through the topics of grading elements and general conclusions from research on grading. Guskey pointed out many of the questionable practices prevalent in our schools and reinforced that grading and reporting must always be done in reference to the learning criteria. Stressing the importance of fairness and honesty in grading, a variety of ways to report student-learning progress to parents and the community were discussed. Ultimately, the message to participants was to take on a ‘new vision of what leadership means’ when it comes to grading and as educators we need a clear, comprehensive grading system that shows how students are truly measuring up to the standards.

The conference was a great success!  Our attendees walked away with lots of ideas/thoughts and how to implement them.  If you couldn’t attend this year, we hope you can join us in 2012.

Join us next October in the DFW area at the Hyatt Regency Hotel!

On Wednesday, February 4th, the Texas ASCD Board of Directors and staff met with the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and key people from Texas associations and businesses. The meeting consisted of learning about the framework for 21st Century Skills and how to incorporate these themes into our core subjects. The whole idea of 21st Century Skills is to have our students on the same top competitive field as other students throughout the USA as well worldwide.

The 21st Century Skills framework is a rainbow of the following skills:
• Life and Career Skills
• Learning and Innovation Skills
• Information, Media, and Technology Skills
The above skills are held up by school core subjects and the 21st Century Themes.

The 21st Century Skills Themes are:
• Global Awareness
• Financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy
• Civic Literacy
• Health Literacy
Each of these themes can easily be incorporated into our current curriculum.

The outcome of incorporating these skills, and themes is for students:
• To be able to be create, innovate, critically think, problem solve, communicate, and collaborate
• To have information literacy, media literacy, and information and communications technology literacy
• To be flexible, adaptive, self-directed, initiative, social, cross-cultured, productive, accountable, responsible and a leader.

These are the skills our students need to be competitive in the work place. Are our schools meeting the needs of our students? Can your students compete in a global economy? Texas ASCD and other Texas associations and businesses are considering working together to bring this type of framework to Texas and to our students.

*The source for the above information is The Partnership for 21st Century Skills organization.

Please feel free to comment or answer any of the questions below.
1. Is your school currently adapting these skills to the curriculum and instruction?
2. Should Texas be one of the states that is adopting this framework and how?

We have all heard about engaging students in your classrooms, digital natives and peer learning, but have you considered putting it all together?  Dr. Mazur of Harvard University has.  Dr. Mazur is a Professor of Physics and Applied Physics and Area Dean of Applied Physics for Harvard University.  Dr. Mazur was questioning the idea of learning facts and knowing concepts in his classroom.  This is when he turned things around and started implementing technology and peer lead learning.  To learn more about Dr. Mazur, view his video at right.

Come and see Dr. Mazur at the Southwest Building Learning Communities Conference (Southwest BLC) June 20-22, 2012 at the Embassy Suites in Frisco, Texas!

{youtube}lBYrKPoVFwg{/youtube}

How are you preparing for next weeks lessons?  Are you sitting up on Sunday evening coming up with problems that students will be solving the next day or week?  Why not let students lead the way to solving the worlds problems and you, as a teacher, help guild them along their journey?  Ewan McIntosh is out talking about the 5 stages of the design thinking process.  By letting students come up with their own problems to solve, they are becoming innovative and excited about learning.  To learn more about Ewan McIntosh, view his video from the TEDx Conference at right.

See what all the talk is on June 20-22, 2012 in Frisco, Texas at the Southwest BLC Conference!

{youtube}JUnhyyw8_kY{/youtube}

Is teaching just done in your classroom or building?  Are you reaching out to other schools in the United States…or globally?  Why should we be reaching out to others?  Join Alan November, Kathy Cassidy and Michelle Anderson as they conduct a forum with audience participation about taking learning global.  Below is a video of a presentation in which Alan November talks about global learning.

Register today to take advantage of the early bird rates at the Southwest BLC!
Click Here for more information on the conference.

Rick DuFour will be kicking off the conference with his keynote on New (and not so new) Insight for Improving Schools.  Join Rick as he goes in-depth on professional learning communities (PLCs), formative assessment, student learning, and new/ improving strategies to improve schools.  Following Rick DuFour is Debra Pickering.  Debra will present on Leading and Supporting the Highly Engaged Classroom. Debra Pickering will discuss how planning and executing specific tasks will get your students engaged in their learning. You don’t want to miss this keynote address.  Douglas Reeves will be presenting on Leadership at Every Level: From the Classroom to the Boardroom.  This session applies to every educator from teacher to superintendent.  He will address relationships, technology, grading, priorities and practices. You will be able to apply immediately!  Join Alan November as he takes us on an adventure through global communication in his keynote address on Empathy: the 21^st Century Skill.  Thomas Guskey will be closing the conference with his session on Grading and Reporting Student Learning: Effective Policies and Practices. Tom will talk about purposes and solutions for grading students, as well as letter grades, percentile grades and best practices.   Join these five nationally known keynotes as we address Bridging the Future to…NOW.

Other informative sessions that can be attended at the conference are the variety of the special sessions.  Ervin Knezek will discuss the most up-to-date information on STAARs, Ann Smisko will be talking about school improvement and TEA, Steve Barkley is discussing teacher collaboration and student improvement, Thomas Guskey will not only be doing a keynote but also a special session on differentiated instruction, while Joe Renzulli talks about the high tech approach to personalized learning.

Texas ASCD doesn’t stop there.  There will also be 4 set times for educators to learn from one another during the concurrent sessions.  During this time you will learn best practices in areas such as curriculum, innovation, readiness, collaboration, relationships, assessment/accountability and change.

Texas ASCD can’t wait to learn, network, and explore new ideas in the Exhibit Hall with you!  If you haven’t signed up, you still can!

See you October 30 – November 1 at the Renaissance Hotel in Austin!

State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) the new assessment program for the state of Texas and one of the most talked about issues in Texas education. From our understanding the STAAR assessment testing will include the end-of course (EOC) testing as well. The new assessment will cover the same core subjects in grades 3-8 and EOC of STAAR’s will cover the core content areas at the high school level as the TAKS did. The high school EOC will be a series of 12 assessments. The EOC testing is going to slowly be phased into the graduation requirements. Students starting 9th grade in the 2011-2012 school year will be required to pass the assessment to graduate. For grades 3-8, STAAR’s testing will begin this year.

The STAAR assessment is different from the TAKS assessment in that the STAAR assessment will be aligned within a content area across courses. Information for the assessment will also be gathered from other states, national assessments and international assessments. It is proposed that the majority of the test cover what is learned that year in the classroom, so that they can better align what is taught and tested. The STAAR will focus on Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Readiness standards taken from the TEKS will be emphasized. The following are the proposed readiness standards:

• Preparedness for the next grade or course.
• Support college and career readiness.
• Necessitate in-depth instruction.
• Address broad and deep ideas.

Not too much is confirmed about the STAAR testing. This month (December) a detailed plan with the transition from TAKS to STAAR will be posted on the TEA website by the Texas legislature.
For more information on the STAAR testing, please visit the TEA website at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/staar/.

Please feel free to answer the following questions:
1. How do you feel about the new STAAR testing?
2. Have you heard any more details about this assessment?
3. How do you think this new assessment will effect students and teachers?

Are you up-to-date on reforming your district? The Obama Administration has laid out reform priorities for education:

• Higher standards and better assessment;
• More effective teachers and more equitable teacher distribution;
• Enhanced data systems and improved collection and use of data; and
• Turning around low-performing schools.

Texas ASCD hosted its first of 5 one-day institutes, at the beginning of December, focusing on critical issues for influence. Are you taking advantage of the funds available through stimulus money? In this session we discussed:

• Who is leading the U.S. Department of Education – their roles and priorities
• ARRA – American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – to help with state budgets and to prevent teacher layoffs
• Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) – known as No Child Left Behind during the Bush Administration
• Stimulus dollars - where they are going
• The Race to the Top Fund – to help promote state reform programs based on the reform priorities that the Obama Administration has laid out
• and the Innovation and Improvement Fund (i3) – promising and innovative practices in the reform priorities.

This influence institute is a new program Texas ASCD is doing to help districts get the information they need. To find out more about these funds, please visit the U.S. Department of Education website at http://www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html. Texas ASCD is trying to help you lead the way in influence. Stay up-to-date on critical issues and to be notified of legislative issues. Join the Texas ASCD’s Educator Advocates Action Center: http://capwiz.com/ascd/tx/home/.

Commissioner Scott announced on Wednesday, February 22, that school districts have the option of deferring, for a year, the application of the 15% requirement for the STAAR EOC assessment.  As stated in the House Bill 3 Transition Plan Highlights: “The STAAR EOC assessment scores will account for 15% of a student’s final grade in the course…To graduate under STAAR, a student must achieve a cumulative score that is at least equal to the product of the number of EOC assessments taken in each foundation content area (English language arts, mathematics, science and social studies) and a scale score that indicates satisfactory performance.”  To read more on the highlights of the House Bill 3 Transition Plan, please visit the TEA website at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/student.assessment/hb3plan/.  There are 12 end-of-course exams that are affected by the STAAR 15% requirement, they are Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, English I, English II, English III, World Geography, World History, and U.S. History.  The STAAR assessment applies to all students entering ninth grade in the 2011-2012 school year.

Robert Scott said in his letter to administrators that he hopes to “help reduce some of the confusion and provide a smoother transition to the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR).”  In order for school districts to take advantage of this opportunity, the Superintendent or someone authorized by the superintendent must submit an email to the commissioner letting him know of the decision to defer the 15% EOC requirement no later than May 1^st.  To read the full letter from the commissioner, please visit the TEA website at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=2147505601.

Is your school district prepared for the STAAR test?  Will you be electing to start the end-of-course 15% of a student’s final grade requirement this year or will you be deferring this till the 2012-2013 school year?

With this new bill comes new wording/references to textbooks.  Instead of textbooks, the language now reads instructional materials.  This is because districts no longer need to purchase a new set of classroom books each year; instead they can focus their funds on additional/updated assessment and accountability materials.  Instructional materials cover items such as textbooks, supplemental material, open-source content, on-line resources, digital media (DVDs, CDs, and magnetic media), workbooks, computer software, and digital course work.  The IMF money can be used to purchase instructional materials both on the SBOE list and the commissioner’s lists; however these items do not need to be on the SBOE list.  Districts can also purchase consumable materials, supplemental materials and state-developed open-source materials.  The money in the IMF can be used for salaries of employees providing technology support, training for staff that work with these new instructional materials or technology, and for technology equipment.  Any unspent funds can be carried over to the following year.

TCEA provided a great blog discussing frequently asked questions concerning this bill.  To read more about this bill, visit its blog at http://tceaadvocacy.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/hb-6-goodbye-technology-allotment-hello-instructional-material-allotment/.

You can also read the HB6 at http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=821&Bill=HB6.

Please feel free to respond to the questions below:
1.    What types of instructional materials are (were) top on your list to purchase?
2.    Besides textbook purchases, how much will this change what you purchase this year?