As much as anyone I look forward to March Madness. Even though I seem to be one of those rare basketball fans who enjoys the NBA game more than college, the NBA takes a backseat to tournament games over the next three weeks. I genuinely enjoy watching tournament games. The intensity inherent in a game where so much is riding on every single play and or coaching decision is enthralling. My daughters are incredulous when they ask who I am rooting for and most times I do not care. It is about the organic authentic drama unique to each game.
Over the years I have become less and less interested in the brackets. I can't remember the last time I actually filled out a bracket. It seems as if joining a pool and completing brackets has become an American pastime up there with the likes of fireworks on the 4th of July. Again, it is about the games regardless of which team is playing. For that matter making sure I am in front of the television when the tournament field is announced has also become a trivial occurrence. Last night, however, we had family over who wanted to watch the brackets unveiled so we watched.
I missed most of the brackets and came into the room when ESPN's roundtable of commentators were discussing the fate certain "bubble teams" and in particular those schools which failed to make the tournament. After discussing amongst themselves the merit of several bubble teams as well as the seeding of top tier teams, NCAA Men's
Basketball committee chairman, Ron Wellman was interviewed by ESPN. The exact interview is not shared below but another conducting after the selection program has ended. At one point during the interview one of the ESPN commentators asked a question about some of the teams who failed to make field. In multiple cases Ron Wellman referenced strength of schedule as a factor used to determine the merits of at-large teams and in the case of those schools which failed to qualify for the tournament, their out of conference schedule(s) was weak.
I could not help but laugh every time I heard the committee chair reference a school's out of conference schedule. So basically, the selection committee was either rewarding or punishing schools based in part by who they played on a Wednesday night in December. As an educator ( and even as a former college basketball coach), I could not help but laugh at the hypocrisy associated with big time college athletics. Here we were last night with a representative from the NCAA chiding teams for who they played out of conference. So forget about classes and if need be criss cross the country to make sure your strength of schedule can be checked off on your tournament resume. I know this sounds hypocritical on my part. If I were so enraged I would boycott March Madness. This is not going to happen. I was more taken back by the flippant nature with which the NCAA reasoned about who one should play regardless of how this impact academics.
Monday, March 17, 2014
Friday, February 28, 2014
Bridging the Gap
Last week I had the chance to attend Social Media Week in New York City. I got a day pass to Thursday's string of presentations, demonstrations and discussions. Five minutes into Meredith Kopit Levien's (she is the Executive Vice President, Advertising for the NY Times) on the "Art and Science of Storytelling" a long-held personal belief was reaffirmed. I have always believed that a barrier cannot exist between the professional world and education. Furthermore, education cannot exist in a fiercely protected bubble, isolated from changes happening outside the walls of a school building.
I'm sure I am not alone when it comes to this opinion. In fact, justification for the Common Core is to ensure that K-12 students are developing college and career readiness skills. Even though there is an intense effort underway to make sure our students can successfully compete on a global level, what is being done or what should be done to make sure educators truly understand how the business world is changing? There are educators who come to teaching from "industry" but this is not the case for what I assume are most k-12 educators. I would imagine (having never done any official study) that a majority of k-12 teachers have only worked in education. This reality presents an issue when it comes to making sure students are career ready upon graduating or after 2/4 years of post-secondary schooling.
Finding ways to bridge the divide between education and commerce is critical. For me, last Thursday was a perfect opportunity to gain insight into the world beyond schools. The presentation by Meredith Levien was more thought-provoking than deconstructing reading and writing anchor statements. In sharing how the Times views storytelling, Meredith Levien juxtaposed an article posted on the Times website from the 2004 olympics in Athens, Greece to articles posted about the games in Sochi. For an example from the 2014 games Meredith Levien referenced a profile the Times did on American skier Ted Ligety. As opposed to the piece from 2004 which relied heavily on text to express a point, the profile on Ligety relied on a multimodal approach to demonstrate the way in which Ligety has come to dominate Giant Slalom racing. Through leveraging a variety of communication mediums, the Times is able to present to readers Ligety's significance to the sport of skiing.
While sitting in on Levien's presentation and certainly afterwards, I was inspired to think about we approach storytelling with students. Here was the NY Times, a globally recognized figure in the field of journalism, showing how storytelling has evolved. I kept thinking about the idea of college readiness or whether we were creating an environment where students told stories in the same spirit as what Meredith Levien shared. Having the chance to "live" outside of a school, even if it was for one day, provided the chance to view teaching and learning through a different and truly needed perspective.
I'm sure I am not alone when it comes to this opinion. In fact, justification for the Common Core is to ensure that K-12 students are developing college and career readiness skills. Even though there is an intense effort underway to make sure our students can successfully compete on a global level, what is being done or what should be done to make sure educators truly understand how the business world is changing? There are educators who come to teaching from "industry" but this is not the case for what I assume are most k-12 educators. I would imagine (having never done any official study) that a majority of k-12 teachers have only worked in education. This reality presents an issue when it comes to making sure students are career ready upon graduating or after 2/4 years of post-secondary schooling.
Finding ways to bridge the divide between education and commerce is critical. For me, last Thursday was a perfect opportunity to gain insight into the world beyond schools. The presentation by Meredith Levien was more thought-provoking than deconstructing reading and writing anchor statements. In sharing how the Times views storytelling, Meredith Levien juxtaposed an article posted on the Times website from the 2004 olympics in Athens, Greece to articles posted about the games in Sochi. For an example from the 2014 games Meredith Levien referenced a profile the Times did on American skier Ted Ligety. As opposed to the piece from 2004 which relied heavily on text to express a point, the profile on Ligety relied on a multimodal approach to demonstrate the way in which Ligety has come to dominate Giant Slalom racing. Through leveraging a variety of communication mediums, the Times is able to present to readers Ligety's significance to the sport of skiing.
While sitting in on Levien's presentation and certainly afterwards, I was inspired to think about we approach storytelling with students. Here was the NY Times, a globally recognized figure in the field of journalism, showing how storytelling has evolved. I kept thinking about the idea of college readiness or whether we were creating an environment where students told stories in the same spirit as what Meredith Levien shared. Having the chance to "live" outside of a school, even if it was for one day, provided the chance to view teaching and learning through a different and truly needed perspective.
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Worth Reading..
Sharing highlights from the past week.
1. Creativity Becomes An Academic Discipline (Pappano)- growing number of degrees undergraduate and graduate in creativity
2. Forget Coding, Let's Change Up How We Teach Math (Burt)- leveraging Math (as a space) to teach code and to eternally address questions of will I ever use this outside of school...
1. Creativity Becomes An Academic Discipline (Pappano)- growing number of degrees undergraduate and graduate in creativity
Traditional academic disciplines still matter, but as content knowledge evolves at lightning speed, educators are talking more and more about “process skills,” strategies to reframe challenges and extrapolate and transform information, and to accept and deal with ambiguity.
2. Forget Coding, Let's Change Up How We Teach Math (Burt)- leveraging Math (as a space) to teach code and to eternally address questions of will I ever use this outside of school...
One of the most common obstacles we hear about why schools don’t teach computer science is that there aren’t enough qualified educators out there to meet the demands. But there’s a trained army of math teachers out there willing to find new and better ways of delivering their content, that with a small amount of preparation could no doubt be leading the way. So, how can we make time in their curricula and schedule to make it happen?
3. Passion-Based Learning, Day 1: Probing Minecraft's Appeal (Renwick)- thoughts about why Minecraft appeals to students and what lessons to learn from why there is an intense interest in Minecraft.
When someone enters Minecraft, the world is their’s to create. They are in control of their destiny. What a stark contrast to our students’ lives in school. The standards are set, the assessments are pre-determined, and the plans have been prepared. All without the students’ input. If this is their learning to own, we don’t always do a very good job of including them in the process.
4. Making Ourselves Vulnerable (Richardson)
Walk down the vendor floor of any big edu-conference and you’ll see our obsession with making learning less messy and less “vulnerable.” Struggle, patience, courage, persistence, failure, passion…none of these are quantifiable to the degree that reformers or most edupreneurs need them to be to “count.” Yet schools will spend time and money (lots of it) on stuff that organizes, compartmentalizes, personalizes, standardizes, and captures “learning” in order to be compared “successfully” to other districts down the road.
5. Rethinking Education With Design Thinking (Pfau)-highlights schools in the Bay area where design thinking influences work with kids
Students not only master the concepts embedded within each project, they also exercise their skills of collaborating with teammates, investigating their topic thoroughly, using empathy to generate ideas for solutions, prototyping, testing and most importantly, they learn that failure is not a setback. As Gever explained in his talk, the retention of information that kids have as a result of this process is significantly higher. More significantly, learning to identify the need for and acquire skills in response to problem solving situations is a life long skill set that will better shape these kids to confront productive careers that address real world problems.
6. School In the Cloud Report- A brief introduction to the School In the Cloud project
7. Art, made with coding: calling future interactive artisits- In between creating masterpieces like the Sistine Chapel and “Madonna and Child,” Michelangelo dissected cadavers in the hopes of understanding how the human body worked so he could paint it accurately. He’s not the only one: there has long been a connection between science and art. And it’s true today more than ever, as modern artists use technology for inspiration, inventing ways to give life to code, letting it spill from the screen and onto the canvas.
Monday, February 3, 2014
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Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Here We Go Again
I have been reminded over the past several days that it is midterm season. On the way into work several high schools have the midterm schedule posted on their electronic billboard. Teachers have also shared commentary about the growing stress level amongst students. Like in previous years around this time I wonder why is this still happening.
Why is there a need to ratchet up the stress level, create alternative testing schedules and sacrifice learning for the sake of exam prep? I have always felt there is something better we could be doing than adhering to the tradition of delivering midterm exams. For instance, I wonder if this time could be used for students to actual reflect on the first part of the school year. As opposed to cramming for a midterm exam could students spend time self-assessing progress since the start of school. Instead of carving out large block of time to deliver and grade exams, could that time be used for students and teachers to convene to discuss the first half of the school year and for both parties to work towards establishing goals for the second part of the year. Exchanges between students and teachers could stem from the examination of student work where collectively, a student and teacher(s) examine products that were part of a portfolio Personally, this would seem like a far better use of time and result in a more accurate assessment of growth than the stress charged atmosphere caused by delivering an avalanche of assessments in a condensed period of time.
Why is there a need to ratchet up the stress level, create alternative testing schedules and sacrifice learning for the sake of exam prep? I have always felt there is something better we could be doing than adhering to the tradition of delivering midterm exams. For instance, I wonder if this time could be used for students to actual reflect on the first part of the school year. As opposed to cramming for a midterm exam could students spend time self-assessing progress since the start of school. Instead of carving out large block of time to deliver and grade exams, could that time be used for students and teachers to convene to discuss the first half of the school year and for both parties to work towards establishing goals for the second part of the year. Exchanges between students and teachers could stem from the examination of student work where collectively, a student and teacher(s) examine products that were part of a portfolio Personally, this would seem like a far better use of time and result in a more accurate assessment of growth than the stress charged atmosphere caused by delivering an avalanche of assessments in a condensed period of time.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Worth Reading
Passing along a few interesting posts from the past few weeks.
1. Launching the Workshop School: How technology can support radical redesign (Riggan)- how technology is leveraged at the newly opened Workshop School in Philadelphia
The sense that maybe schools teach the wrong things—or teach the right things in the wrong ways—is what gave rise to the Workshop School (the Workshop), a new high school in Philadelphia. The Workshop opened in September 2013 with an inaugural class of nearly 100 students in grades 9–12. The curriculum is organized around projects rather than subjects, and students build content knowledge through their project work. Equally important, they learn how to decide what work needs to get done and create a plan for doing it. They learn how to work together and to be aware of themselves inside the classroom and out—when they are at their best and when they struggle. This awareness is what helps them grow and self-correct.
2. Making The Community The Curriculum (Cormier)- free ebook about rhizomatic learning. In rhizomatic learning, knowledge is composed through connecting with others and in a sense sees the community/world as the curriculum.
Learning is a messy journey. We are all different, and we skip, slip and jump our way towards becoming knowers... towards creating our own sense of meaning in any discipline. The abundance of information we now have at our fingertips combined with the indefinite capacity for making new connections, has opened new avenues for structuring our classrooms.
3. Are We Missing Something (Canales)- thoughts on creating and healthy and productive learning environment for all stakeholders
Which is why modern educational leaders have to be committed and (connected) if they are going to engage and acquire the learning and skills necessary to lead their organizations forward, especially at the pace of change that today’s society is pushing. Which means moving beyond the walls of our schools, the walls of our districts, and even the walls of our state and country. We have to take on a global perspective to learning.
4. CVHS Mosaic- One high school's view of redesign
And yet the mammoth institution of public education remains largely unchanged. To “do well” in school often means students must detach from real-world problems and opportunities in order to learn isolated and seemingly useless bits of information. Many teachers continue to simply lecture content to students, which completely ignores the ever-increasing number of verbal and nonverbal signals our students continuously send us. They’re practically begging us to stop and let them explore, discover, and connect in real, authentic, and meaningful ways.
5. NASA's plan to build homes on the Moon: Space agency backs 3D print technology which could build base (ZOLFAGHARIFARD)-
1. Launching the Workshop School: How technology can support radical redesign (Riggan)- how technology is leveraged at the newly opened Workshop School in Philadelphia
The sense that maybe schools teach the wrong things—or teach the right things in the wrong ways—is what gave rise to the Workshop School (the Workshop), a new high school in Philadelphia. The Workshop opened in September 2013 with an inaugural class of nearly 100 students in grades 9–12. The curriculum is organized around projects rather than subjects, and students build content knowledge through their project work. Equally important, they learn how to decide what work needs to get done and create a plan for doing it. They learn how to work together and to be aware of themselves inside the classroom and out—when they are at their best and when they struggle. This awareness is what helps them grow and self-correct.
2. Making The Community The Curriculum (Cormier)- free ebook about rhizomatic learning. In rhizomatic learning, knowledge is composed through connecting with others and in a sense sees the community/world as the curriculum.
Learning is a messy journey. We are all different, and we skip, slip and jump our way towards becoming knowers... towards creating our own sense of meaning in any discipline. The abundance of information we now have at our fingertips combined with the indefinite capacity for making new connections, has opened new avenues for structuring our classrooms.
3. Are We Missing Something (Canales)- thoughts on creating and healthy and productive learning environment for all stakeholders
Which is why modern educational leaders have to be committed and (connected) if they are going to engage and acquire the learning and skills necessary to lead their organizations forward, especially at the pace of change that today’s society is pushing. Which means moving beyond the walls of our schools, the walls of our districts, and even the walls of our state and country. We have to take on a global perspective to learning.
4. CVHS Mosaic- One high school's view of redesign
And yet the mammoth institution of public education remains largely unchanged. To “do well” in school often means students must detach from real-world problems and opportunities in order to learn isolated and seemingly useless bits of information. Many teachers continue to simply lecture content to students, which completely ignores the ever-increasing number of verbal and nonverbal signals our students continuously send us. They’re practically begging us to stop and let them explore, discover, and connect in real, authentic, and meaningful ways.
5. NASA's plan to build homes on the Moon: Space agency backs 3D print technology which could build base (ZOLFAGHARIFARD)-
Creating structures in space that astronauts can live in has become a priority for Nasa. With a manned mission to Mars on the agenda, and plans for lunar exploration underway, scientists are increasingly looking towards unconventional construction methods. The most promising of these is 3D printing, which could make building a lunar home in space a matter of pressing a button and letting a robot do the work.
6. 50 Things 5th Graders Wonder (Reilly)- list a things a group of 5th graders are wondering about
- Is the Earth be duplicated?
- I wonder about this quote: "Oh, my dear Miss Everdeen I thought we agreed to not lie to each other.
- Why do people say, "It's going to be okay," when it is not
- What is beyond our universe?
- How did scientists learn about the moon before traveling to it?
- How many different worlds are there?
7. Ira Glass On Storytelling- and key creative lessons for schools (McIntosh)- Ira Glass speaks to ideation and prototyping
You can't just do ONE or TWO drafts of thinking; you have to make it double-digit drafting, prototyping thinking, gaining feedback and doing better next time.
8. Success In The New Economy- Citrus College supported the production of “Success in the New Economy” to help a broader audience begin to understand preparation today for tomorrow’s labor market realities. The end result is a compelling case for students to explore career choices early, make informed decisions when declaring their college education goal, and to consider technical skill acquisition, real-world application and academics (career technical programs) in tandem with a classic education.
Monday, January 6, 2014
What All Children Need
Thanks to @KaraAlyson22 for sharing What All Children Need. Definitely worth reading the entire article. In particular I enjoyed the concluding stance:
From an education perspective we are reminded to value play and simple experimentation. Providing time for students to tinker is important but for some reason(s) seems to dissipate as learners progress through a K-12 system. The habit of experimenting /tinkering is critical in a world where rapid change is a defining characteristic. Experimentation and tinkering leads to asking more questions and seeking continuous improvement. "Some of the wonders and joys of childhood that fuel the best in our adult selves," is possible if schools value play across the K-12 spectrum. Additionally, the article is a reminder about the importance of failure. As opposed to failure carrying with it some irreversible negative connotation, iteration is to be embraced and an expected part of the learning process. I think the statement, "At both a conscious and unconscious level, the child has to feel secure here and now, but at the same time learn that the world out there is not an insurmountable risk, but a place that she can and will learn to manage, learn from, be a part of, and love." hits at this point. We want students to take risk, seek adventure and strive for unique intellectual experiences. Schools should provide a safe environment for students to explore new academic/intellectual possibilities without the penalty of harsh consequences.
That is our job as we design children’s environments, to create a nest for children as they navigate the demands of growing up and to make them believe that they can fly in the world which they will inherit. We help provide them security and the freedom to adventure. At both a conscious and unconscious level, the child has to feel secure here and now, but at the same time learn that the world out there is not an insurmountable risk, but a place that she can and will learn to manage, learn from, be a part of, and love.
The drive to protect our children is profound and easily can extend to scotchguarding their lives. Reality is difficult. It is messy and loud and profane. There are people with warts and frowns, and decidedly mixed virtues. But childhood is a time when we help children begin to live in the world and love the world; and we can’t do that fenced off from it in a world of two dimensional glowing screens and plastic balls and slides. Scrubbing and polishing every raw experience in the name of health and safety, or protecting innocence scrapes away the natural luster of childhood. Some of the wonders and joys of childhood that fuel the best in our adult selves is unavoidably birthed in bumps and bruises and tears.
From an education perspective we are reminded to value play and simple experimentation. Providing time for students to tinker is important but for some reason(s) seems to dissipate as learners progress through a K-12 system. The habit of experimenting /tinkering is critical in a world where rapid change is a defining characteristic. Experimentation and tinkering leads to asking more questions and seeking continuous improvement. "Some of the wonders and joys of childhood that fuel the best in our adult selves," is possible if schools value play across the K-12 spectrum. Additionally, the article is a reminder about the importance of failure. As opposed to failure carrying with it some irreversible negative connotation, iteration is to be embraced and an expected part of the learning process. I think the statement, "At both a conscious and unconscious level, the child has to feel secure here and now, but at the same time learn that the world out there is not an insurmountable risk, but a place that she can and will learn to manage, learn from, be a part of, and love." hits at this point. We want students to take risk, seek adventure and strive for unique intellectual experiences. Schools should provide a safe environment for students to explore new academic/intellectual possibilities without the penalty of harsh consequences.
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