Worth Reading

Here is some weekend reading/viewing material....


1. The Story of a 3D Printed Whistle (Crosby)- elementary students working on developing a whistle- much harder than one might think to engineer a high quality whistle

I’ve seen many examples of figures printed out on a 3D printer … and they are impressive. Students have to figure out and problem solve coding the design to get it just right. But this is different in that students aren’t just printing out a figure that looks like a whistle, they are using the engineering design process to make a whistle that actually works 

2. Marymount’s ‘Come Alive’ Event Inspires Student Creativity, Ingenuity (Seguel)- coverage of Marymount of Santa Barbara "Creativity, Engineering and Coding Come Alive" event

Marymount Head of School Andrew Wooden explained Marymount’s new Design Thinking program in more depth: “Design Thinking is not just about kids building things, but about learning to approach challenges of all kinds, learning to use and trust trial and error, and finding creative solutions to problems.”

3. For Students the Importance of Doing Work That Matters (Richardson)- does the work we do with students matter in that matters in the real world and has a purpose outside of the classroom

Still, we can start small, can’t we? What if we took 10% of what we’re currently doing and handed it over to our students, asking them to meet the standard or the outcome we’ve set for them in a way that they care about and that had a purpose beyond the classroom? What if we created opportunities for them to educate, entertain, inspire, or connect with people from all over the globe who might be sincerely influenced by the work they’re doing? And what if we asked them to assess their own work in ways that matter to them, ways that inform them what worked, what didn’t work, and how they might do it differently down the road?

Schools and classrooms should support a deep culture of “doing work that matters,” where the adults in the building serve as models for the type of creating and learning we might expect from kids.

4. Beyond Laptops and The Power of Vulnerability (Cofino)- as teachers we all have something to share and something to learn

When we all appreciate that each of us has something to share and something to learn, we really do open ourselves up to the possibility of becoming better than we were when we started.

5. Design for Extreme Affordability- is a two quarter, multidisciplinary, project-based course open to Stanford University students. Students work in teams, using design thinking methods, to develop products and services that serve the needs of the world's poor 

Extreme will be a class that I talk about for the rest of my life, and will undoubtedly influence my future career choices, management style and approach to problem solving. 

6. Schooled (Russakoff)- inside look at leadership of a large urban school district

7. Stanford’s Dave Evans & Bill Burnett on Using Design Thinking to Address the “Wicked Problem” of Designing Your Life & Career- 

The research says that maybe only two or three out of ten people actually have a passion that they’ve identified, that they can work into. We believe that actually, passion turns out to be what you develop after you find the things that you enjoy doing.

8. Chris and Jon Boggiano on Radius of Play

Commencement Address

I had the chance to observe a 5th grade class today.  The teacher was showing the class  Naval Adm. William H. McRaven's commencement remarks to the 2014 graduating class at the University of Texas.  The speech delivered by Admiral McRaven was used as a mentor text for students to assess figurative and literal language.  At various times during the remarks (see below), the class stopped to talk about the speech and the language choices made by Admiral McRaven.  Furthermore, the class discussed the overall message and how a small moment can serve as a metaphor or a touchstone for a more philosophical statement about life. Students openly debated technical aspects of the speech and also engaged one another in exchanges about how one individual possesses the power to make a positive difference in the world.

 I'm looking forward to see what happens next.  The teacher shared how the commencement address could serve as a springboard into students mirroring the Admiral's approach to storytelling by coming up with their own phrases/stories about changing the world.  The thought was also shared that students could be challenged to write their own commencement speeches.  

  

Thinkers vs. Producers

Loved this thought posted on the Dangerously Irrelevant blog:

In How Children Fail, John Holt makes the following distinction:

• producers - students who are only interested in getting right answers, and who make more or less uncritical use of rules and formulae to get them
• thinkers – students who try to think about the meaning, the reality, of whatever it is they are working on

A great question to ask ourselves: What is the ratio of thinkers to producers in our school(s)? In most schools, I’m guessing the ratio is fairly small, even for our high-achieving students.

Another great question to ask ourselves: What is an average school day like for those students in our school(s) who ARE thinkers?

Worth Reading....

Passing along a few interesting reads.

1. The Confidence Gap (Kay and Shipman)- Evidence shows that women are less self-assured than men—and that to succeed, confidence matters as much as competence. The article states why and what to do about it.

A growing body of evidence shows just how devastating this lack of confidence can be. Success, it turns out, correlates just as closely with confidence as it does with competence. No wonder that women, despite all our progress, are still woefully underrepresented at the highest levels. All of that is the bad news. The good news is that with work, confidence can be acquired. Which means that the confidence gap, in turn, can be closed.

2. How Failure In the Classroom Is More Instructive Than Success (Sobel)- giving students permission to fail while maintaining a high standard in the classroom

There is a popular meme called "Famous Failures," featuring quotations on overcoming rejection, failure, and loss from Michael Jordan, Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, the Beatles, Oprah, and Albert Einstein. The message is familiar: Abundant success lies on the other end of failure. Could guiding our students through their own failures inspire the next groundbreaking physicist, talk-show star, or iPhone inventor? Possible … but not likely. Even if the results end up being a little less grandiose, I think they are just as important. Learning to fail could help our students become more resilient, self-aware, innovative, and compassionate. Not bad for a bunch of "failures."

3. My First Shot At Perplexity- crafting truly meaningful math activities for primary elementary students

I found myself on Google Earth, using the measuring tool to see how far away my house is from my school in a straight line (I was bored…). It dawned on me that I could measure anything from the perimeter of Fenway Park, to the radius of Madison Square Garden. What if the students were shown a picture of something they knew with lines and no numbers. Could they ask the right questions for us to figure out the area of their school’s gym? How about the handball courts in the back of the school? Why would we need to do this?

4. Inside Google X: The New Bell Labs (WNYC)- look at the conditions Google is creating to spur invention

• How Google X Employees Deal With Failure

5. Empathy In Education (Gray)- occasioning empathy in our classrooms

It was a very grim day, when I began to notice the profound lack of empathy in education, particularly in public education. That story can be found here: Educational trauma is a term I coined to capture the lack of empathy I was noticing. It is the inadvertent perpetration and perpetuation of victimization by educational systems against consumers and producers of the system.

6. Made In The Future- explanation of how things will be made

Made in the Future is an effort to capture our musings about what a not-so-distant tomorrow might look like. Our tools—faster, cheaper, and more out of control than ever—have triggered seismic shifts in how we design, manufacture, and distribute. And that has us asking lots of questions: What new tools or technologies will we create? How will they change the way we behave and learn? How will they shape our world?

7. How To Do One thing Really Well (Renwick)- a principal pushes the envelope in his school

While the two of us were becoming more learners than teachers, we also wanted to move our students to become teachers for each other. Our learning environment needed more balance. We kicked off our new week by showing students how to create tutorials using Screencast-o-matic, a free web-based tool.

Is Technology Dangerous

Love this reaction from a pre-service teacher to a university lecturer in education about the dangers of technology.

However, the many benefits of e-learning are actually beside the point. The reality is that this is the direction that the world is ever more rapidly moving in, whether we think it is a good thing or not. I feel that we actually do a disservice to students by neglecting to develop their e-literacy, for in the future it will almost certainly be an integral part of their studies, employment, and indeed their social lives. Does the Internet pose certain dangers? Of course it does. That’s even more reason to be having conversations in our classrooms about Internet safety, bullying, and the nature of one’s digital footprint. As teachers, we have to prepare students for a future we cannot envision. The least we can do is educate them using tools from the present, instead of recycling the education of the past.

So why do some of my lecturer’s discourage me from using “technology”? I can’t say for sure, but I would guess that, as is so often the case, they fear it because they do not understand it. And that is fine. Long gone are the days where the teacher is the beacon of all knowledge. But if you don’t understand something, you need to be open to learning about it, and if you can’t manage that then you should probably stop trying to train pre-service teachers.- Is Technology Dangerous

The Freedom to Compose

I want to share something that struck me the other day.  In the morning I sat in on a few classes sitting for a PARCC field test.  High school students were taking the literature analysis section of PARCC.  After analyzing a few passages and a video, students had to address a prompt in a text box.  I imagine students were required to cite evidence from the various texts to support their claim.  The question mirrored everything we have been hearing about the types of questions students will face on PARCC.

In the afternoon I joined 4th grade teachers for a PD session on informational writing.  As part of the workshop the presenter had all of us spend time examining several informational texts.  The purpose was to develop an understanding of the varying types of text structures through which informational writing could be expressed.  In addition to the texts, the presenter also shared a couple of videos, including a rap video about the Industrial Revolution some students created.

While walking around the room, examining different texts I started to think back to the PARCC exam in the morning.  For PARCC students were required to demonstrate an understanding in a very traditional structure.  Students had to read and respond in writing and do so within the confines of a text box.  Contrast that structure with some of the images provided below.  Authors such as Steve Jenkins and Nicola Davies present an idea through leveraging different text structures and through strategically placing images on the page.  

Of great concern is that as educators we only ask our students to produce products which mirror the outcomes expected for mandated exam.  As opposed to creating an environment where students have the freedom to compose an idea, rigid assessment structures are established.  To be completely transparent I would rather see high school students be faced with the challenge of creating a book similar to texts authored by Steve Jenkins or Nicola Davies.  As opposed to sitting for a two hour PARCC ELA exam, give high school students the challenge of having to publish an informational mentor text for 4th graders.  A challenge such as this incorporates essential core literacies, privileges research, values creativity, and is also authentic.  Design thinking elements are included in the task.  In designing a book for 4th graders student authors would have to consider their audience and think deeply about how to hook a 4th grader.  The latter might even lead high school students to interview 4th graders before crafting an informational text.

In the end of this fictitious task who knows what students could produce. What’s important is that students see the various ways  to express an opinion and that classrooms provide freedom when it comes to composition.  

To What End

I am a few hours way from beginning PARCC field testing.  PARCC field tests come two weeks after delivering HSPA exams and few weeks before the the administration of state testing for 3rd-8th graders.  In some ways it is wasteful to complain.  The reality is that we have to prepare for a battery of mandated state exams.  However, it's impossible not to be concerned over the amount of time and energy devoted towards the administration of state exams.  

I came across two posts last night having to do with increased state testing and the looming presence of the Common Core.  Both posts are skeptical of high stakes testing and worry about the collateral damage caused by a "closed" system of schooling (see A Passion for Possibility).  I am sharing excerpts from both posts below.  The first is from the blog Between the By-Road and Main Road and titled A Passion for Possibility.  The second is a letter Will Richardson received from a mother of an elementary student. 

 I would certainly read both posts.  Even though the authors approach the topic of high stake testing from different emotional perches, the pieces, in my estimation, are aligned in highlighting what could be lost as we stand on the brink of introducing a new testing model.  After reading both posts I could not help but think about the end game and what it is really is we hope to achieve through forwarding the Common Core and committing to PARCC.



A Passion of Possibility:
When I think about listening I wonder about about learning--how learning ought to open us--ought to be largely a matter of possibility, not certainty.  And yet, the desire to be certain when confronting an unknown and have it named often determines us and what we value--be it in our homes, our hearts, or our schools.  Consider Maxine Greene who tells us:

We are not the first to feel a slippage under our feet, to grope for a “point d’appui,” something to stand on, a platform, a ground. Like so many of our predecessors, many of us grope wildly for security. We seek a certainty of protection, of salvation.  (from here)

But what is the price we pay for security?  I can't help but think of the cool comfort standards and high stakes testing have offered--twin methods we have been embracing since we were told we were a nation at risk.  Frightened of our limitations, we wondered who might we trust? And in the ensuing years we have learned most not to trust ourselves, our very eyes and ears. We substitute certainty and completeness that wrap itself around national standards and national tests for the slippages we feel when we stand on our own feet atop a world that is always in motion. 

When I think about the CCSS and other educational certainties it is the sameness--the way the language parses itself so neatly, so predictably that most confounds me as it concerns me. Consider how likely it is that David Coleman and company, could name for millions of children (at least those enrolled in public US schools) what they most need to learn and when. Standards are a closed system. And yet, if meaning is most revealed as Bakhtin says when it comes in contact with other, then what might we make of this rather closed movement of educational standards--self-referential, monologic?  Hegemonic?


One Mom's Struggle With School and Tests
For too many nights to count, I have watched my child come apart at the seams trying to make sense of homework that I deem to be complete and utter bullshit and a complete waste of time. I watch her write letters, words and numbers…. only to erase and write again, erase and write again…. because it’s not perfect, it’s not what the teacher said to do, it’s not what will get her perfect scores and make everyone happy. I watch her trying to think of multiple ways to write out a math sentence such as ‘5+4=9’. I mean, how many ways does a 7 year old need to write it? She even gets math equations that look like this: ‘16+12=__’. Ask her what the ones and tens places are and she couldn’t tell you. (I have explained them to her… and she is beginning to understand, but isn’t allowed to use that method at school(WTF?). The math that is being taught isn’t math at all. Its all comprehension. Why is she getting comprehension shoved down her throat before she even has the basic building blocks in the fundamentals of addition and subtract? I know the answer - NJ ASK. I’m sick of erasing, and the tears and wasted nights. I sick of watching this beautiful creature being snuffed out by school work that really isn’t teaching anything.