tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12718214805681463452024-03-13T07:06:32.108-07:004C The FutureJoel Schleicherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05148870880678944408noreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-41137670990090607452018-04-21T09:32:00.002-07:002018-04-21T09:32:38.836-07:00These are the Times that Demand Bold, Innovative Action<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>It’s Time to Explore New Ways of Doing Things</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">“We are now in turbulent, “stormy” times. If we try to hunker down and play it safe, we are going to be destroyed. These are the times that demand bold, innovative action. We have to find new and better ways to serve our customers [students], ways we never even imagined existed.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">“The challenge is to drag ourselves out of our nice comfortable little boxes that we know so well and explore new routes, new ways of looking at everything, new ways of doing things. It feels safe being in that cozy little box we know so well, but it is dangerous.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">“...the individual or the company [school/school district] in the most danger is the one that doesn’t change, the one that tries to “play it safe” by staying in the harbor it knows so well.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Innovation in Education</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">When the above quote is read in the context of K-12 education in 2018 and with just two clarifying terms in brackets, this quote appears to be a call to action to move away from the status quo at a more rapid pace and determine more innovative ways to meet the needs of today’s learners. At the end of this post, I will reveal the actual source, date and context of the quote.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">K-12 education is in the midst of a wave of changes. Innovation is now the buzzword as schools are considering and trying new ways to become more innovative. But, what does innovative really mean? In North Dakota, Senate Bill 2186 was passed in 2017 to encourage local districts to create an innovative education program. Grand Forks Public Schools then created an Innovations Committee, including students, to reimagine how learning could be even better for our students.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Other than some pockets, K-12 education is an institution that is deeply entrenched in a teacher-centered culture. Within the teacher-centered culture, pockets of innovative and learner-centered practices are taking place. But, system-wide shifts towards a more innovative culture have been elusive. So how does a greater shift occur to reimagine schools that work better for our students and their future?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>A Ship in Harbor Is Safe, but That Is Not What Ships Are Built For</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">“A ship in the harbor is not always safe. And besides, that really isn’t what ships are built for. They were built to discover new trade routes, new worlds. They were built to be used. And besides, it’s a whole lot more exciting and more fun sailing them on the open sea than just sitting them on a little harbor. And what’s life about anyhow, if not to venture forth and expand our horizons?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The students on the GFPS Innovations Committee have provided thoughtful insight for a more innovative educational experience. As students lament on the current system, phrases such as “get through,” “play school,” and “knowing what to do to get the grade” should be acted on immediately. Our students know what safe is all about. They are more interested in relevant and active learning experiences. K-12 education has played it safe for too long, so it’s time to move the ship out of the harbor and navigate it to new routes and worlds of student empowerment.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Navigating the Ship</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">How do we get there? Where is there? According to <a href="https://twitter.com/willrich45" target="_blank">Will Richardson</a>, leadership is imperative. “It’s the difference between leadership and management. Management is making sure the ship runs smoothly and we don’t get into any big trouble or head for the the rocks. Leadership really is saying we have to keep the ship moving. We have to constantly navigate. We have to constantly try to figure out what a better path is or what a better course is for whatever destination we are trying to get to. The work of leadership is to keep redefining the destination. That requires a learning culture and not just a teaching culture.” (<a href="https://modernlearners.com/modern-learners-podcast-39-using-adaptive-change-methods-to-revolutionize-education/" target="_blank">Modern Learners Podcast #39 – Using Adaptive Change Methods to Revolutionize Education</a>)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">But it is not just the school leader that is responsible for the course and destination to reimagine more innovative learning opportunities for our students. Teachers, staff, and students should all be empowered to be navigators on this journey as well; to find and create better and more innovative routes. We are all responsible for the innovative culture we create in our classrooms, in our schools and within our district.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>It’s Time to Leave the Harbor</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reimagining education means leaving the harbor, charting a new course, and navigating as a team to a new destination. Let’s discover new routes, new worlds and new opportunities for our students to explore. For far too long, education has been about safety; keeping our students in the “harbor” where it is safe and making our students all fit into a very similar box. While at the same time, our students are asking for more agency in their education. Let’s create the conditions necessary to allow our students to leave the harbor, with our navigational guidance, to chart their own course. As education is reimagined, let’s find ways to allow our students to discover new routes and worlds which more appropriately prepares them for their future. Let’s discover and be open to new ways for education to be a joyful adventure for all students.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">[John A Shedd, an author and professor, first coined the quote “A ship in the harbor…” in 1928, in his book Salt from My Attic. In 1995, office supply corporation Quill CEO Jack Miller made a presentation to his management group. Miller laid out the vision and strategy through the year 2000, including doubling the size of the company. The quotes in this blog are taken from Jack Miller’s speech to his management team. Quill Corporation was acquired in 1998 by Staples, Inc. for approximately $685 million.]</span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-6458708682659059982018-03-13T14:49:00.002-07:002018-03-13T14:49:35.399-07:00That Moment When Failure Leads to Success<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The attempts to water ski for the first time continued with similar results each time; a fall. Those who have tried to water ski for the first time understand the process of numerous failed attempts followed eventually (hopefully) by a successful or even partially successful run. It is not natural to get pulled out of the water by a rope attached to a boat with your feet attached to flat planks.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In an article titled “<a href="https://goo.gl/Tk3BzL" target="_blank">When Success Leads to Failure - The pressure to achieve academically is a crime against learning</a>,” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jessica Lahey highlights the ways in which parents and educators, often unknowingly, teach children to fear failure. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>“She knows that if she tries something challenging or new, and fails, that failure will be hard evidence that she’s not as smart as everyone keeps telling her she is. Better to be safe. Is that what we want? Kids who get straight As but hate learning? Kids who achieve academically, but are too afraid to take leaps into the unknown?” - </b></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jessica Lahey</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If we allow students opportunities to explore their passions, they will provide an uncommon effort. Voice, choice, student agency, and genius hour/time are all opportunities for children to explore their passions.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Allow students to be actively engaged in their learning. Teachers and parents should do more coaching and guiding and less telling and talking.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Children have a natural curiosity and love of learning. Educators should keep this alive throughout their K-12 education. After all, “If students leave school less curious than when they started, we have failed them.” (George Couros) More needs to be done to ensure learning is a joyful experience.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Children should not fear failure. Failure is only a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>F</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">irst </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>A</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ttempt </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>I</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">n </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>L</b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">earning. Children need to be reassured from parents and educators that it’s OK to fail as long as they maintain a positive attitude and growth mindset.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Embrace failure as part of the learning process. Prioritizing the learning process over merely the finished product will allow students to maintain a “work in progress” approach to improved iterations.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>“...together we can help our kids rediscover their intellectual bravery, their enthusiasm for learning, and the resilience they need in order to grow into independent, competent adults. With a little luck, they will look back on their childhood and thank us; not just for our unwavering love, but for our willingness to put their long-term developmental and emotional needs before their short-term happiness. For our willingness to let their lives be just a little bit harder today so they will know how to face hardship tomorrow.” - </b></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jessica Lahey</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t6_Gcm12iU0/WhQ-kZ64itI/AAAAAAAANis/qAg1uo8JC6sjMSxex6Rcc6glKnZ6Pc6wQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_7381.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For Cedar, it was not just about a successful lap around the lake water skiing, but embracing opportunities with the right mindset that will last a lifetime. I am looking forward to watching Cedar grow up as curious learner with his willingness to try new and challenging things, and continue to strive towards success even when faced with adversity and unsuccessful outcomes. </span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-79172240045723882612018-02-16T10:51:00.000-08:002018-02-16T10:51:48.516-08:00Reflections on my “Shadow a Student Challenge”<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Two years ago, I participated in the “<a href="http://shadowastudent.org/" target="_blank">Shadow a Student Challenge</a>” to gain insight into our high school students’ learning experience. This experience had a lasting impact and I looked forward to another chance to shadow a student. Therefore, I recently participated in the “<a href="http://shadowastudent.org/" target="_blank">Shadow a Student Challenge</a>” by attending the classes of a high school student for one day. Empathy was my purpose for this day as I looked beyond my assumptions and put myself in the shoes of our most important clients, our students. I reminded myself to be curious, suspend judgment, and just observe. At the end of the day, my goal was to have gained a better perspective of our students’ learning experience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am always cautious about making overgeneralizations. One class on one particular day is not always representative of an entire semester or year long experience. Also, one day does not always represent the overall learning experience of students in our high schools or district. That said, I can only share what I learned from my experience for one day. One final note, I intentionally left out </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">specific details including the </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">teacher and class.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I appreciated my time at the school. The students were polite and respectful in a very safe environment. It was obvious most students were interested in doing well academically. Also, teachers have established good connections and share a mutual respect with their students.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">My district recently formed an Innovations Committee. The starting point for the committee’s work focused on the question; “What do you believe and know about how students learn best in the modern world?” From the responses, 3 themes emerged: active, relevant, and hands-on which I would infer to mean more learner-centered experiences. Therefore, I thought about my observation experience in context of the 3 themes of a learner-centered experience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Active</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think of “active” as any opportunity to move, collaborate with other students, and actively engaged in a curricular related assignments and projects. Throughout the day, there were only a couple of opportunities for students to move from their desk. Moving to work with a group or partner was noted in 3 of the 6 classes. The best example of active learning was in the class in which students were randomly assigned a partner through a drawing and critical thinking exercise. Students then worked with their partner on the problem and visual project. I made a note in most classes; “sat for the entire class period.” From my perspective as a “student” for the day, it was a long day of sitting and remaining focused on the information presented. I wondered in most classes how teachers could incorporate some movement into their lesson and curricular content. Click on <a href="https://teaching.berkeley.edu/active-learning-strategies" target="_blank">Active Learning Strategies</a> for some ideas.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Relevant</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think of “relevant” as ways to connect students to the real world; their world. Throughout the day, there were a few occasions when the curriculum was relevant for students. The best example I observed was when the curricular content was directly connected to current events. Students embraced the opportunity to share their opinions in a lively discussion and ask questions. A missed opportunity was noted when a teacher stated to the students during a lecture; “I could put you on the Chromebooks now and you could Google [curricular topic] and you would get a list to better understand what I am referring to.” But, time was not allocated for this opportunity so the teacher proceeded with the lecture and notes. With lecture being at the top of the learning pyramid at 5%, I referred to this as a missed opportunity because I believe students could have been provided a few minutes to conduct a quick research on the topic followed by a discussion on what was learned. Relevancy is enhanced when student agency and autonomy are embedded into learning. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Hands-On</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think of “hands-on” as project-based and student-centered. From what I observed, many of the learning activities were teacher led other than a few exceptions. The best example I observed was when students worked on a problem with a partner and demonstrated their learning through creating a visual answer to the problem. This activity was both project and problem-based in nature. The students were highly engaged throughout this activity. A missed opportunity was noted when a teacher conducted a "show and tell" with a series of objects to identify. Each object was shown to the class while the students took notes. The semi-engaging part of the lesson was the discussion and questions asked by the teacher. But, I could only wonder if students were given some guidelines of attributes to look for, would the students be able to work with a partner to conduct their own research to determine the name of each object? Instead of telling first, learning might be enhanced by allowing students to explore the attributes of each object, list their academic conjecture and provide evidence to defend their conclusion. The names of the objects could then be revealed followed by a rich discussion.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">My goal in participating in the "Shadow a Student Challenge” was to gain a better perspective of our high school students’ learning experience. I thought back to my days as a high school student and wondered how much has really changed since the 1980’s.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">As an overarching theme from the day, I wondered how high school can become more learner-centered. Even small changes and efforts could move classrooms from being “school” to places of “learning.” What if we asked our students how they learn best and made adjustments accordingly? What if we asked ourselves if our practices work better for teachers or for our students? What if we took some time to ask ourselves what we truly believe about how students learn? What if we reflected on the “10 Characteristics of Learner-Centered Experiences” list below by Katie Martin (@katiemartinedu) and started by ensuring at least 2 characteristics are present in each class period? Our students are asking for more active, relevant, and hand-on learning, so I believe we owe it to our students to take the next step.</span></span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-74680798104052685082018-01-31T18:04:00.001-08:002018-01-31T18:05:24.424-08:00The How and Why of ChangeAfter reading a blog post by <a href="https://twitter.com/bruceadixon" target="_blank">Bruce Dixon</a> titled "<a href="https://modernlearners.com/2018-year-living-dangerously/" target="_blank">2018-The Year For Living Dangerously</a>" and another one by <a href="https://twitter.com/willrich45" target="_blank">Will Richardson</a> "<a href="https://modernlearners.com/stop-asking-how/" target="_blank">Stop Asking How</a>," I ordered the book <u>The Answer to How is Yes - Acting on What Matters</u> by Peter Block. After the first several pages, I appreciate how Block underscores why change can be so challenging. “We may not know all of the How, but Why we must change is now so urgent, we can no longer ignore it.”<br />
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In Bruce’s blog post, he poses the question: <b>What failures are you most afraid of?</b><br />
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To be very honest, I am most afraid of failing our students. This fear includes failing to move from the status quo. While I work in a very good district, I know the learning experiences could be significantly enhanced for our students who will echo the same sentiment. They have many ideas, but we need to ask the question, listen intently, be prepared to hear their reality and then act on their recommendations. I know my district is not unique with pockets of innovative learning, but a district-wide culture of innovation remains ellusive. It reminds me of a quote by Jim Collins; “Good is the enemy of great.” If we are already good, why do we need to move from the status quo?<br />
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In Will’s blog post, he poses the question: <b>What is the one burning question about education and schools that most keeps you up at night?</b><br />
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My question to answer the question is: “Why isn’t more being urgently done to address the student engagement issue in high school?” The 2016 Gallup Poll on student engagement depicts what our students are telling us. If high school students consistently posted standardized test scores just over 30%, there would be widespread concern and urgent corrective action. Why isn't student engagement a similar or even higher priority? Students desire school and learning to be more relevant, hands-on, and engaging. Are we listening and changing accordingly?<br />
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These two timely blog posts resonated with me as I wrestle with the question; “How can we recreate school, revisit how students learn in the modern world, and ensure an innovative learning experience for all?” Our district is undertaking a monumental task to address the question through our newly created district innovations committee. Prior to our first meeting, we started with a discussion on the question; “<a href="https://joelschleicher.blogspot.com/2017/12/beliefs-on-how-students-learn-best-in.html" target="_blank">What do you believe and know about how students learn best in the modern world?</a>” At our second meeting, we just started to scratch the surface by posing the question; “If we had a blank slate and we could create a high school track for kids, what would it look like?” Students, teachers, principals, and district administrators were highly engaged in dreaming big, without limitations. The ideas highlighted the reasons WHY change is so very important. We will eventually have to address How?, but we must keep in mind “the how shouldn’t be about a recipe or formula, the HOW should come from a commitment from...being bold and ambitious, taking risks, because the WHY is that important.” (Bruce Dixon)<br />
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No one has all the answers. If we had the answers we, along with many other schools and districts, would have changed a long time ago. Change is difficult. Here is a shout out to our district innovations committee and the challenging work that lies ahead. Let's strive to move well beyond good, to great! Are we going to wait for “...someone to write the script for what to do next, or is it possible that this year, in 2018, [we] are prepared to take the first steps, [our] first steps to school change?” (Bruce Dixon)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-21732449516211493512017-12-31T14:35:00.000-08:002017-12-31T14:35:34.726-08:00#OneWord 2018 - DISRUPT<span id="docs-internal-guid-a86fe786-ae91-ed9b-2c58-9c001a1f25b0"></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My #oneword for 2018 is DISRUPT. Disrupt is often considered in negative terms, so let me further explain my #oneword choice.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As we close out 2017 and look ahead to 2018, I seriously considered using the same #oneword I used in 2016 and 2017; INNOVATE. (<a href="https://joelschleicher.blogspot.com/2016/12/oneword2017-innovate.html" target="_blank">#OneWord2017 - Innovate</a>) </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After all, in 2017, our state passed an “innovations” bill to encourage more dialog and planning to provide more innovative learning experiences for students. Additionally, my district now has an innovations committee to rethink how students learn best. These are wonderful opportunities, but, it’s time for a new #oneword to challenge me 2018. Here are a few thoughts that support DISRUPT in positive terms: </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1) In a 2013 Forbes article (<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinehoward/2013/03/27/you-say-innovator-i-say-disruptor-whats-the-difference/#7f6bca6f432d" target="_blank">Disruption vs. Innovation: What's The Difference?</a>),</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the difference </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; white-space: pre;">between innovation and disruption </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is outlined: </span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Disruptors are innovators, but not all innovators are disruptors -- in the same way that a square is a rectangle but not all rectangles are squares.</span></li>
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2) The<a href="https://www.ted.com/about/programs-initiatives/tedx-program/tedxchange/tedxchange-2" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank"> 2013 TEDxChange</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"> event’s theme was “Positive Disruption.” </span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Disruption is usually unwelcome. It represents conflict, chaos, and potential danger. We discourage disruptive behavior in our homes and our societies, often favoring passivity and compliance instead.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But disruption can be a positive — sometimes vital — catalyst for change. It can challenge old assumptions, ignite conversations, activate authorities and expose new possibilities. Disruption can shed a unique light on difficult issues, giving a fresh urgency and perspective to the challenges of our global community.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To solve the most intractable challenges...we need positive disruption. It is the path to true progress.</span></li>
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3) <a href="https://www.iipay.com/consulting/making-disruption-a-positive-word/)" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">Making ‘Disruption’ A Positive Word</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Disruption is not only the point where something is interrupted, or broken, or changed. It is also <span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the point where something better is created, where something new improves</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> what it breaks, and where </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the interruption is just the beginning point for what is to come</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. While breaking away from the status quo is important to a successful disruptor, their </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">purpose in doing so is to improve, not cause chaos</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. This is why we should embrace, rather than fear, disruption.</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let’s create a culture together that values creativity and courage to think both “inside” and “outside” the box, and when necessary, "throw out" the box to reimagine education that is more engaging and empowering for students. Let’s disrupt and reimagine education that works better to prepare students for THEIR future.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the great disruptors of all time, Albert Einstein, said: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” To solve our current problems, I have to continually remind myself to change my thinking. Therefore, disrupt will be my reminder in 2018 to listen, question, highlight the urgency, ignite conversations, challenge the status quo, and discover new possibilities. </span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-21637458153686893952017-12-22T11:50:00.000-08:002017-12-22T11:50:50.389-08:00Beliefs on How Students Learn Best in the Modern WorldPrior to the Grand Forks Public Schools Innovations Committee’s first official meeting, a pre-survey was administered to committee members to gather their initial thoughts. The first question was a critical starting point for our committee:<br />
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<b>What do you believe and know about how students learn best in the modern world?</b><br />
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From the responses, I created a word cloud to visually depict the most frequently used descriptors of how students learn best.<br />
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As is evident from the word cloud, <b>active</b>, <b>relevant</b>, and <b>hands-on</b> were the most frequently used terms followed by engaged, choice, collaborative, real-world and problem-based.<br />
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Does “what we believe and know about how students learn best in the modern word” match the reality for students? The overarching theme of the answers provided by the students serving on the committee was "except for a few isolated innovative examples, not really." Don't get me wrong, Grand Forks Public Schools is outstanding, therefore not unique in trying to find our way to a more consistent approach to student-centered (active, relevant, hands-on) learning experiences.<br />
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How does the information of how students learn best inform the work of our committee? Our first step should be to agree upon, as a district, how students learn best. Take a look at these belief statements form <a href="https://mountvernonschool.org/" target="_blank">Mount Vernon School </a>and <a href="http://www.peelschools.org/" target="_blank">Peel District</a>. Does it seem both have a solid shared belief about learning?<br />
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We have a wonderful opportunity to: 1) “innovate <b>INSIDE</b> the box,” 2) think <b>OUTSIDE</b> the box, and potentially in some situations 3) <b>THROW OUT</b> the box, break free from the status quo and create something new and better. I am looking forward to the discussions of the committee to envision an even better learning experience for our students.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-30250270229167176582017-11-30T12:22:00.001-08:002017-11-30T12:22:15.782-08:00Assessment: In the Real World<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the goals of K-12 education is to prepare students for THEIR future, the next step, career, higher education, the real world. Therefore, are we assessing students in ways that prepares them for the real world? The real world, which we readily have access to information. Or, are many of our assessments about memorization, content recall, and getting a “grade” as part of the game of school?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In my current position as director of technology and including all technology department staff, if we were expected to do our job based only on the information we memorized and then recalled in order to solve problems, we would not be very effective. The technology department’s success in solving problems is based on collaboration, information on the Internet, and inquiring with experts.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For example, I was recently trying to figure out a solution to a problem. After many attempts and failure to figure it out, I called on a colleague to assist. After working together to find a solution, we looked over our past notes and searched the Internet. Still not resolving the issue, we reached out to an expert. On two occasions, the technical expert, controlled my screen remotely to determine a solution. Still not finding a solution, he accessed other technicians' notes in a wiki and had to inquire with another technician. Finally, success! But, success was achieved based less on what I knew and more on my ability to be resourceful. In the real world, resourcefulness equals success. In school, it’s called cheating. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>School</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A recent podcast <a href="https://modernlearners.com/your-cheatin-tech/" target="_blank">Your Cheatin’ Tech</a> </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">by <a href="https://modernlearners.com/" target="_blank">Modern Learners</a>, </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Will Richardson and Bruce Dixon </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">explore the question; Shouldn’t we be allowing students to use all available resources to demonstrate their learning, as we do in the real world? We can no longer think of school as it was in the past; the teacher as the expert, imparts their knowledge to students, students are expected to recall that information on a test to demonstrate learning. David Helfand, a Professor of Astronomy at Columbia University, underscores this thought:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Changing Assessment</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Is it cheating if we allow student to use whatever tools or technology they need to answer assessment questions? If being collaborative, reaching out to experts, and using available technologies is cheating, isn’t it time to rethink how we assess student learning? Maybe we need to change the test or assessment to better reflect the real world. After all, “content recall is not what success is about in the world” (Will Richardson). Assessments need to be designed in such a way that students can’t just memorize the information in order to demonstrate their learning, but rather design a more authentic and interesting assessment of learning. Educators should provide more opportunities to make the test something that students can’t cheat on and just memorize. Make the assessment about demonstrating applicable knowledge through authentic and interesting work.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-46737942667119235732017-11-21T12:13:00.000-08:002017-11-21T12:13:35.685-08:00Listening to our Students<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a recent Grand Forks Public Schools Educational Enhancement Team (EET) meeting, our high school student representatives were provided an opportunity to speak freely on the topic of innovative learning experiences. The students were intermixed into breakout groups with district teachers and administrators and representatives from the community and University of North Dakota. The students provided examples and reflections on both innovative learning experiences and non-innovative experiences. Here are some direct quotes from the students:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>“Our core classes, more than not, provide less opportunities for authentic, creative, and applicable learning.”</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>“Learning is often not relevant”</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>“Memorizing facts and information for a test, that is usually quickly forgotten, is not learning.”</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>“Real life application is missing”</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>“Standards mean nothing to students”</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>“Teachers are stuck in their ways, not open to innovative thinking”</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>“We would appreciate more project-based learning”</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>“Too much focus is placed on tests and grades versus learning.” </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>“Students are more apt to learn if it is relevant and interesting.” </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>“We need more opportunities to be creative and solve problems.”</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>“Students should be allowed and equipped to ask the questions rather than the teachers asking the questions.”</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>“We want to find things out for ourselves instead of being fed the information.”</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>“We know how to play school.”</b></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Boredom in school is normal.”</b></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Students are more engaged when choice is part of our learning.”</b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The student quotes speak for themselves. When the students talked about their most innovative learning experiences, they eagerly discussed all the details. Unfortunately, the student representatives attending the EET meeting only had a few exciting examples to share. While some of the quotes might be viewed as reflecting poorly on our schools and district, I think it’s safe to assume that our students’ learning experiences are relatively consistent with students across the country. Here is a recent Gallup Poll on student engagement in grades 5-12: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our students’ comments should not be followed up with excuses, but rather a renewed sense of opportunity to provide more engaging learning environments for our students. Drawing on the underlying themes from the students, they desire more authentic and engaging learning experiences through choice and project-based learning. Why shouldn't our district be the one to lead the way on flattening the student engagement curve from grade 5 through 12?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The comments from our students will only be an indictment of our schools and district if we choose to ignore and keep the status quo. Let the words of our students resonate as we strive for more innovative and engaging learning opportunities.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-54968338655753508622017-08-25T05:34:00.000-07:002017-08-25T05:34:33.146-07:00An Open Letter to the GFPS Technology Department Staff<div>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">An Open Letter to the GFPS Technology Department Staff:</span><br />
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Dear GFPS Technology Department,</div>
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As we prepare to welcome our teachers back next week and students the following week, I want to take a moment to underscore the important role you play in the success of teaching and learning, integrated with technology, in our district. Listed below are a few key reminders.</div>
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<b>1. Students - Number One Priority</b></div>
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We all have a position in the district because of the more than 7,200 GFPS students. While technicians and curriculum technology partners serve in different capacities, our collective work as the GFPS Technology Department is ultimately about student learning, engagement, empowerment, and innovation. Whether direct or indirect, never forget that your work creates opportunities for students to be more engaged and potentially leave school more curious than when they started.</div>
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<b>2. Our Vision</b></div>
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The GFPS Technology Vision clearly answers the question, “what do we aspire to become?” Always keep the overarching theme of the vision at the heart of your work: <i>The Grand Forks Public Schools believe technology is an integral component of learning and is necessary to learn effectively, live productively and participate globally in an increasingly digital world. Technology resources transform learning by allowing learners to create, publish, collaborate and communicate with others in a global environment. Technology helps learners gather and analyze information, solve problems and develop higher-level thinking skills through authentic real-world experiences.</i></div>
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<b>3. Teachers - Professional Learning</b></div>
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While classroom teachers have the biggest direct impact on student learning, teachers need support to bring technology-based and personalized learning experiences to their students. Due to the ever-changing landscape of technology in schools, providing professional learning opportunities for all educators and administrators will continue to be an instructional priority. Building capacity and providing pedagogical growth opportunities for educators to integrate technology with learning is extremely important. I am confident we will always be poised to assist.</div>
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<b>4. Customer Service</b></div>
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Sometimes it’s easy for us in the technology department to think of all problems as technical in nature. In doing so, we forget that the technology is utilized for one simple reason: to impact teaching and learning. When technology breaks, it is no longer serving its purpose. When we realize we are really supporting teaching and learning and not machines, hopefully we respond differently, deliver even better service, and feel a greater sense of satisfaction with the work we do. You each have knowledge and skills others are reliant on, so always remember; "You are a genius and the world needs your contribution." (Angela Maiers)</div>
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In closing, know that I sincerely appreciate the amazing and challenging work you do every day. As a team, I am confident we will continue to have a positive impact on Grand Forks Public Schools.</div>
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All the best for an amazing school year!</div>
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Joel<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-61298962261462285382016-12-31T14:11:00.000-08:002016-12-31T14:12:24.968-08:00#OneWord2017 - INNOVATE<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">As we close out 2016 and look ahead to 2017, people are making their new year’s resolutions. Reading through my Twitter feed, many educators are embracing the “One Word” challenge by Jon Gordon (@JonGordon11 @getoneword #OneWord2017 #OneWord). The question was also posed by my colleague Carla Haaven (@chaaven); “What will be your #oneword for 2017?”</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-B_yZIq-TOqY/WGgovb_1-OI/AAAAAAAAI78/5H_kxo49NBgsuNNTmCkYUiD0lbmrOFeUACLcB/s1600/INNOVATE.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-B_yZIq-TOqY/WGgovb_1-OI/AAAAAAAAI78/5H_kxo49NBgsuNNTmCkYUiD0lbmrOFeUACLcB/s320/INNOVATE.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the book </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Innovator’s Mindset</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by George Couros, innovation is defined as “...a way of thinking that creates something new and better.” It fits perfectly with my own personal philosophy of “there’s always better.” Stating my one word at the onset of 2016, provided some focus and motivation in 2016 to; 1) initiate an administrative book study on </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Innovator’s Mindset</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by George Couros, 2) write a grant for 1:1 Chromebooks in grade 4 and professional learning with George Couros, 3) participate in a summer book study on </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Innovator’s Mindset</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, 4) plan with my team a district-wide professional learning event called “Innovations in Learning” keynoted by George Couros, 5) lead and participate in #gfedchat topics on </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><u>The Innovator's Mindset</u></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, 6) participate in #IMMOOC (Innovator’s Mindset Massive Open Online Course), 7) support coding/STEM opportunities for students, and 8) assist in the planning of a new and upcoming online learning opportunity for teachers called “Innovations in Learning.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">George Couros poses the challenging question; </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>“How do we move from ‘pockets’ of innovation, to a ‘culture’ of innovation?” </b></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> While some progress has been made to address and answer this question, much more work needs to be done. So, in the spirit of my ongoing quest for “new and better,” my #oneword for 2017 will again be INNOVATE.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After I decided on my #oneword for 2017, a strapped on my snowshoes and punched out the word INNOVATE in my backyard.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Happy New Year! May our/your students be afforded many more innovative learning opportunities in 2017.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-75700249823812791172016-12-13T18:02:00.001-08:002016-12-13T18:02:05.016-08:00All I Wanted for Christmas was an Atari<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sometime in 1980 or 1981, I asked for an Atari Game System for Christmas, After all, EVERYONE else had one. Beyond the expensive price tag, I specifically remember my Dad and Mom’s other rationale for not buying an Atari: “all you can do is play games.” Their rationale didn’t sit well with me because all I wanted to do was play games. A bit more background into my childhood of outside play, building, creating, experiential/hands-on learning, camping, and travel reinforces my parent’s concern about screen time and the sedentary nature of playing Atari. </span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-igjr-LWPvjY/WFAI6TP-EPI/AAAAAAAAHzQ/M3ZLMamT32QCVeWkIRwtB38UlzcaPMUmwCLcB/s1600/atari%2B2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="97" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-igjr-LWPvjY/WFAI6TP-EPI/AAAAAAAAHzQ/M3ZLMamT32QCVeWkIRwtB38UlzcaPMUmwCLcB/s200/atari%2B2.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think it was in 1982, my Dad and Mom finally relented. But, rather than going with the Atari, they purchased a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A home computer. While not an Atari, I warmed up to the purchase after I learned it had game cartridge and joystick capabilities. We hooked it up to our TV through the VHS antenna and played games.</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hP2rrgZPUi0/WFAJBB4QtXI/AAAAAAAAHzU/MtcEYcqhjLoVWOislpb1_9NGSk1ndZ_9wCLcB/s1600/TI-99.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hP2rrgZPUi0/WFAJBB4QtXI/AAAAAAAAHzU/MtcEYcqhjLoVWOislpb1_9NGSk1ndZ_9wCLcB/s200/TI-99.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Games such as Parsec, TI Invaders, and Tombstone City were added to our system, but in addition, a book titled </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Beginner’s Basic</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was purchased. The book was a step-by-step hands-on approach to learning the fun and power of programming the TI BASIC language. </span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eNYeZxFuvpQ/WFAJFvfa15I/AAAAAAAAHzY/p8hdudEE1DIgKg5CYLJBFBSh69St-IpTwCLcB/s1600/beginners-basic_0000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eNYeZxFuvpQ/WFAJFvfa15I/AAAAAAAAHzY/p8hdudEE1DIgKg5CYLJBFBSh69St-IpTwCLcB/s200/beginners-basic_0000.jpg" width="152" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Admittedly, my brother Tim and I still spent plenty of hours playing games but we also spent hours and days writing programs and code. Some "ready-made" programs were keyed into the computer as one would read the lines of code from a book while the other would key in the entries. We would run the programs and sometime they would work and sometimes they would not. When the programs didn’t work, we had to figure out why. After changes were made, we would try it again. The program was then saved to a cassette tape in a portable cassette tape player/recorder. Yes, files were saved to a cassette tape. Needless to say, retrieving the files was not always successful.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today, my brother and I are both in technology-related positions. While we each took some unique paths to get to our current positions, I believe we benefitted greatly from some early coding experiences. Even more important, we were provided opportunities to learn problem-solving and critical thinking skills.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Coding is more about the process of breaking down problems rather than coming up with complicated algorithms.” - </span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;">Makinde Adeagbo </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"Everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer...because it teaches you how to think." - Steve Jobs</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">It turns out, one of the best Christmas gifts I received was NOT receiving the Atari. I appreciate my Dad and Mom sticking to their principles to give some gifts associated with play, creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking. </span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-cfdbdea0-f8a0-521a-add8-b54cefbd9651"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What kinds of gifts are you giving for Christmas this year? Have you considered some engaging gifts for kids associated with a STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) focus? How about Ozobots, Spheros, Little Bits, Snap Circuits, Makey Makey, Lego's, etc.? Give a gift that keeps on giving long after the gift becomes unusable, forgotten about or irrelevant.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-20633148582548260022016-10-16T18:14:00.001-07:002016-10-16T18:14:58.694-07:00Fanning the Flames of Innovation #IMMOOC<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">About 4 years ago, I started following George Couros on Twitter because his Tweets and blog posts resonated with me. I was inspired by his thoughts, so I attended George Couros’s sessions at a few conferences and read his book </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Innovator’s Mindset</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> as soon as it was released. I encouraged others to read the book which lead to book studies with #gfedchat over the summer and district administrators in May and again this fall. In hopes to have more inspired by </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Innovator’s Mindset</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, it was decided to bring George Couros to our district for 2 professional learning days on September 29th and 30th. The inspiration George provided and learning that occurred on those two days just 2 weeks ago had a positive impact. Here are a few tweets from the day:</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-szy0URcocZQ/WAOi1ORRFGI/AAAAAAAAGCM/FU47a7OrTr8T23kgKBzPsqHXycSSe940gCEw/s1600/hanson.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-szy0URcocZQ/WAOi1ORRFGI/AAAAAAAAGCM/FU47a7OrTr8T23kgKBzPsqHXycSSe940gCEw/s400/hanson.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cYYzAD9ErzQ/WAOi1Hf9CPI/AAAAAAAAGCQ/cxu4_lQ2Q8APEuSyM5BnO9VZYEyapzURgCEw/s1600/kara.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cYYzAD9ErzQ/WAOi1Hf9CPI/AAAAAAAAGCQ/cxu4_lQ2Q8APEuSyM5BnO9VZYEyapzURgCEw/s400/kara.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-THaz8YHNkuo/WAOi1cel9yI/AAAAAAAAGCU/1c3KYY0O_coieK8f8tgjCb3PPrfxbL7hwCEw/s1600/katka.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="163" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-THaz8YHNkuo/WAOi1cel9yI/AAAAAAAAGCU/1c3KYY0O_coieK8f8tgjCb3PPrfxbL7hwCEw/s400/katka.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X4TZCa6v2E0/WAOi1ImT97I/AAAAAAAAGCI/nBXzEBaSPNQ-5y1CIEWItTa4tagNkBIygCEw/s1600/Stpeter.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X4TZCa6v2E0/WAOi1ImT97I/AAAAAAAAGCI/nBXzEBaSPNQ-5y1CIEWItTa4tagNkBIygCEw/s400/Stpeter.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Based on the positivity from the day and feedback, I considered the professional learning day as either a spark or fuel for the flames for most educators. But I wondered, how do we fan the flames of innovation as a collective group? Or, the question George Couros poses: “How do we move from pockets of innovation to a culture of innovation?” I have asked those questions of educators over the past two weeks. While a definitive answer is elusive, I know there is enough momentum and interest to keep the conversation going.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So far, the conversation has continued via #gfedchat on Monday, October 3rd as we reflected on our learning, but looking ahead was the primary focus. In fact, the number of #gfedchat participants has now risen to 138. This is an excellent forum to keep the flames of innovation going. Many more teachers have opened a professional and/or classroom Twitter account and have started blogging. The conversation also continued this past week with a discussion at the principals meetings and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Innovator’s Mindset</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> book study will continue at future administrative meetings. Additionally, plans are taking shape to offer professional learning opportunities from “Innovations in Learning” sessions and some variations to #gfedchat with a focus on “Innovations in Learning.” Hopefully, more opportunities will materialize.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This past week, George Couros shared an infographic that was shared with him and fit in perfectly with my thoughts on fanning the flames and stoking the fire of innovation. “Lighting someone else’s candle won’t make yours any less bright.” </span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FBG4iS3WQhw/WAONQSmSoYI/AAAAAAAAGB0/HXyCl43lFls5BMMifRDDcM0ctYN3RzR3ACEw/s1600/candle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FBG4iS3WQhw/WAONQSmSoYI/AAAAAAAAGB0/HXyCl43lFls5BMMifRDDcM0ctYN3RzR3ACEw/s400/candle.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">This quote underscores the point; we all have a role in potentially being someone else’s spark and fanning the flames of innovation. How are you stoking the fire of innovation in yourself and others? Go ahead, throw another log on the fire of innovation. Better yet, throw several logs on the fire and keep the fire stoked. Our students will be the beneficiaries of the energy and warmth that is created.</span><br />
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<span id="goog_1634430125"></span><span id="goog_1634430126"></span><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-78492388478441520762016-09-19T15:07:00.001-07:002016-09-19T15:07:38.399-07:00Every Educator Has To Be An Innovator #IMMOOC<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The week 1 session of the Innovator’s Mindset Massive Open Online Course (#IMMOOC) on Saturday led by George Couros, Katie Martin, and Dave Burgess provided me much to ponder. There was, however, one point by Katie Martin that stood out. Here was my tweet:</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SJ8HwpOoonc/V-BZsAmZvKI/AAAAAAAAFuA/Xp6K2BrB_28ZAIOtTPSScSL4MQ2_0HvhACLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-09-19%2Bat%2B1.28.53%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SJ8HwpOoonc/V-BZsAmZvKI/AAAAAAAAFuA/Xp6K2BrB_28ZAIOtTPSScSL4MQ2_0HvhACLcB/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-09-19%2Bat%2B1.28.53%2BPM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have 2 takeaways within this Tweet:</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Most teachers are innovative, they just don’t know it.”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> It’s interesting to listen to innovative teachers argue their teaching practices are not innovative. With our upcoming “Innovations in Learning” professional development, teachers were approached to lead a breakout session, but many were reluctant because they said no one wants to listen to me or what I’m doing is not innovative. As Dave Burgess said, “Educators have a moral imperative to share.” We cannot expect others to share if we are not willing to share ourselves.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If most teachers are innovative, how about the rest? After all, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Every educator has to be an innovator.” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some educators may push back on being innovative with responses; “But I’m not techie” and “I just don’t have time.” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Innovator’s Mindset</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> makes things clear in this area by defining innovation as “...the creation of new and better ideas” and “innovation is not about stuff, it is a way of thinking.” The reality of every educator becoming an innovator begins with the expectation that everyone must be an innovator. The expectation comes from the leader, who must model being innovative along with a purposeful sense of “this is how we do things around here” embedded in the culture. Later in the book, George poses the question that most struggle with; “How do we move from pockets of innovation to a culture of innovation?”</span></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-26960753576759055992016-09-12T18:00:00.001-07:002016-09-12T18:00:55.008-07:00Another Generation of Kids Cannot Wait #IMMOOC<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #373b41; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">While many teachers carry on the tradition of the factory, compliance-based, teacher-centered model of education, other teachers are embracing a student-centered, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #373b41; font-family: arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">learning by doing</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #373b41; font-family: arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> model of education. What ever happened to 21st Century Learning? We are 16 years into the push for 21st century learning, but the 4 C’s of communication, critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration are often missing in classrooms today.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #373b41; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Innovation in education is crucial today because our kids cannot wait any longer for the transformation of education to fully occur.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #373b41; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> For example, my youngest son recently graduated from high school. While we sat on our </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">deck this summer enjoying a nice evening, he started talking about his learning experiences through high school. He described ways in which he learned best and ways he learned and retained very little.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was heartbreaking to hear him talk about what I call “playing school;” doing what he needed to do to get the grade and move on. He listed learning experiences not meaningful including reading textbooks, completing worksheets, taking notes, lectures, and most teacher-centered practices. On the other hand, he was eager to describe the details of each of his most meaningful learning experiences. Projects with choice were the most empowering because personal connection and passion were naturally embedded. Projects motivated him to do well because he was responsible for the learning in the form of a high-quality finished product. Certainly not the norm, authentic learning experiences connected to real-world problems also made a positive impact on my son’s educational experience.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Too often, innovation and technology become interchangeable words. As access to devices become much more ubiquitous, pedagogy continues to change ever so slowly. Way too slow. Case in point, my son had access to plenty of technology, but he still wanted more choice, project-based, and student-centered learning. In </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Innovator’s Mindset</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">George Couros provides a great reminder:</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LBjOQ5Z62y0/V9cWZ0HxcyI/AAAAAAAAFq4/RyEjTpcVJfEZjMMaxfsM2jhzAzRx9uu-gCLcB/s1600/innovation%2Bstuff%2Bway%2Bthinking.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LBjOQ5Z62y0/V9cWZ0HxcyI/AAAAAAAAFq4/RyEjTpcVJfEZjMMaxfsM2jhzAzRx9uu-gCLcB/s320/innovation%2Bstuff%2Bway%2Bthinking.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #373b41; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am looking forward to participating and connecting with other educators in the #IMMOOC. Let us, as a collective group, make innovation more than just a trendy educational buzz word, but rather a movement to make education more meaningful and relevant for our students. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After all, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #373b41; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">another generation of kids cannot wait for the transformation to occur. </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-16522413209117404762016-07-12T11:46:00.000-07:002016-07-12T11:46:30.359-07:00After One Year; Reflections on High School BYOD<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last year at this time, our district was in the planning and preparation stages for high school BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). My blog post last summer (<a href="http://joelschleicher.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-road-to-high-school-byod.html" target="_blank">The Road to High School BYOD</a>) outlines the transition. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">The last sentence of the blog describes our mindset:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #292f33; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“There will be much to learn and work to do during this upcoming school year with BYOD in our high schools. We do not and will not pretend to have BYOD all figured out, but I will share, through this blog, reflections on our high school BYOD transition.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #292f33; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year, the Grand Forks Herald ran a story on the transition to BYOD in our high schools (</span><span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #111111; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://goo.gl/Dnkc7Y" target="_blank">Teaching with tech: Teachers, students warm up to devices in the classroom</a>)</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4SO6stL0k7Y/V3-912qUPOI/AAAAAAAAE3c/jNq3fgiHqSQcB6nJMM9QyawE2nj8azJsQCLcB/s1600/BYOD.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4SO6stL0k7Y/V3-912qUPOI/AAAAAAAAE3c/jNq3fgiHqSQcB6nJMM9QyawE2nj8azJsQCLcB/s320/BYOD.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In February, I provided a “Technology Update” to the Grand Forks Public Schools Educational Enhancement Team (E.E.T.). Membership on the team includes superintendent, assistant superintendent, curriculum, technology, and CTE directors, some building principals and teachers, parents, university representatives, and students. One of the primary purposes of the E.E.T. committee is to gather feedback from our students. After a brief technology update, I was most interested in hearing the high school students' perspectives of BYOD with the following prompts:.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What have been the positive aspects of BYOD?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What are BYOD issues that need to be addressed?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Has BYOD impacted your learning?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here are some of the student replies:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I think it has allowed the teachers to being more open to us having our devices out and ready to go so we can actually use it for learning.”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Teachers have opened their minds to students having their own devices. It makes it a lot easier. I love bringing my own laptop to school and using that.”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Impromptu learning is happening more, instead of reserving the Chromebook cart or the lab, you can access your phones or laptop, it is very convenient.” </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Educate yourself. That’s the whole goal right? If you are sitting in class and the teacher brings up a topic and you want to learn more about it, you can take out your phone and find out more. You can learn what you need to learn. Your device is right there to access, it’s not a battle to get carts.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You can access your textbooks online.”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I think BYOD teaches discipline too. With that accessibility I could sit on my laptop and the teacher doesn’t know if I am online shopping or if I am actually taking notes That’s going to be available in college too. Are you going to listen to the lecture or go online shopping?”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Our Economics teacher uses online textbook or has it as an option, you can highlight in it, zoom in, you can listen to it, so if you are doing something else, you can listen to your textbook reading.”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Obviously it has impacted learning Teachers that you’d never think would embrace BYOD, have taken the leap. BYOD has helped, the carts are alway available and some of the students will have access and some will not, but do something that gets students involved with their phone.”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Teachers are trying, even if they don’t know exactly what they are doing, they are trying to keep up with the kids. They are putting forth the effort.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I appreciated the students’ excellent insights into the first year of the BYOD. While students recognized the teachers’ efforts in incorporating more technology into learning, more work is needed to fully realize the transition from technology viewed as something extra to an ubiquitous tool for learning. Technology by itself does not increase student achievement, which means the need for ongoing professional learning opportunities for teachers is underscored with the emphasis placed on learning first. In a recent blog post (</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #231f20; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://goo.gl/W2T911" target="_blank">Why Pedagogy First, Tech Second Stance is Key to the Future</a>), </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.92; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eric Sheninger emphasizes the “learning first” point:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.92; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 11pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>“Everything we do in education should be built around learning. Thus, if the ultimate goal is to improve student outcomes then the role of any mobile device initiative should be to support or enhance learning.”</b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>“There must be more of a concerted focus on learning outcomes, construction of new knowledge leading to authentic application, and the development/enhancement of essential skills (creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, digital citizenship, entrepreneurship, media literacy, technological proficiency, communication, collaboration)” (Eric Sheninger).</b></span></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With students and learning at the forefront, we will strive to ensure ubiquitous access to learning tools (i.e. technology) and equip teachers with the necessary professional learning to design engaging and relevant learning opportunities for their students.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-20015403185921364722016-07-07T09:34:00.000-07:002016-07-07T09:34:07.245-07:00Relentless Restlessness<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since the end to the school year, I participated in a book study on </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Innovator’s Mindset</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.38; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by George Couros. (Thank you to Carla Haaven for organizing!) The book study group met in person several times and responded to questions via Google Classroom. Great conversations were sparked and additional questions were provoked through our book study.</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZNORRyd5sCo/V36AvjZr0CI/AAAAAAAAE3E/MrtrK8rEndAgSsFTfUN_XLLpuD9ch3nnACLcB/s1600/IMBS1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZNORRyd5sCo/V36AvjZr0CI/AAAAAAAAE3E/MrtrK8rEndAgSsFTfUN_XLLpuD9ch3nnACLcB/s320/IMBS1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WWeSxa0sfZs/V36AyEhwreI/AAAAAAAAE3I/UWcSRVkUn1Yt7GA_sdQdLpPxhOO6JPxLwCLcB/s1600/IMBS2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WWeSxa0sfZs/V36AyEhwreI/AAAAAAAAE3I/UWcSRVkUn1Yt7GA_sdQdLpPxhOO6JPxLwCLcB/s320/IMBS2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am truly amazed these educators took time out of their summer vacation to continue to learn. Those who participated epitomize what it means to have an innovator’s mindset; “the belief that the abilities, intelligence, and talents are developed so that they lead to the creation of new and better ideas” (George Couros). It is not surprising since these educators also share many things in common:</span></div>
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">have student-centered, project-based, and innovative classrooms</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">are connected educators who willingly learn through reading and Twitter</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">participate in #gfedchat, other Twitter chats, book studies, and Edcamps</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">are risk-takers who learn from their failures</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><u>The Innovator’s Mindset</u></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, George Couros quotes Pixar Director Brad Bird: “organizations that spread and sustain excellence are infused with a ‘relentless restlessness’ - that often uncomfortable urge for constant innovation, driven by the nagging feeling that things are never quite good enough.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I was a classroom teacher, my self-imposed rule was “if I ever have time to read the newspaper during my prep time or before or after school, I needed to revisit my quest to improve student learning opportunities and engagement.” As a classroom teacher and now, I subscribe to a “relentless restlessness” in my continued quest for better for the students we serve.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am fortunate to learn from and with so many other "relentless restlessness" educators with an innovator’s mindset and I look forward to continuing conversation on the book, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><u>The Innovator's Mindset</u></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-6603348205363354852016-03-05T08:24:00.001-08:002016-03-05T08:24:40.397-08:00Reflections on my “Shadow a Student Challenge”<div class="normal" style="mso-pagination: none;">
I recently participated in the
“<a href="http://shadowastudent.org/" target="_blank">Shadow a Student Challenge</a>” by attending the
classes of a student for one day.
Empathy was my purpose for this day as I looked beyond my assumptions
and put myself in the shoes of our most important clients, our students. I reminded myself to be curious, suspend judgment,
and just observe. At the end of the day,
my goal was to have gained a better perspective of our students’ learning
experience.</div>
<div class="normal" style="mso-pagination: none;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="normal" style="mso-pagination: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal" style="mso-pagination: none;">
I am always cautious about making
overgeneralizations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One class on one
particular day is not always representative of an entire semester or yearlong
experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Similarly, one day does not
always represent the overall learning experience of students in our schools or
district.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That said, I can only share my
experience for one day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="normal" style="mso-pagination: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal" style="mso-pagination: none;">
Let’s start with what is going well
in the school I observed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The students
were polite and respectful in a very safe environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was obvious students were interested in
doing well academically.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, the
teachers have good connections and share a mutual respect with their students.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="normal" style="mso-pagination: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal" style="mso-pagination: none;">
I then thought about my observation
experience in context of a recent blog post <span style="background: white; color: #222222;">titled</span> “<span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><a href="https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2016/02/19/natural-verus-unnatural-learning/" target="_blank">Natural Versus Unnatural Learning</a>”</span> by Jackie Gerstein which describes the disconnect of how students learn naturally versus how
students often learn in public schools.
Below are 4 of the points the author makes on “school” which were
reinforced in my observation.</div>
<div class="normal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<b style="line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Sit in uncomfortable desks and chairs, and expected to pay
attention for long periods of time.</span></b></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;">Other than a few
exceptions, students in the classes I observed sat for the entire day. Here is one of my observation notes during
the day: “</span><span style="line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;">Lot’s of sitting on hard plastic chairs and in uncomfortable
desks.</span><span style="line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;">There are few opportunities for
students to get up and move other than between classes."</span></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;"></span></div>
<div class="normal">
<b style="line-height: 19.52px; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Be quiet, interacting with peers occurs only periodically and only with permission from the teacher.</span></b></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;">Other than a lab
class and a group project in another class, student voices were mostly
absent. During the day, I observed: “S</span><span style="line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;">tudents don’t appear to be engaged in some classes.</span><span style="line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;">Teachers asking students questions to
encourage discussion, gage understanding, or solicit deeper level understanding
were often missing.</span><span style="line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;">For the most part, one-word
answers, one student responding, and limited expectations of all students to
think about and produce an answer was the norm.</span><span style="line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><span style="line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;">Students talking about learning during a group project took place in one
class.</span><span style="line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;">Most student accountability to
the content seems to take place on summative quizzes and tests.”</span></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b style="color: black; line-height: 19.52px; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222;">Learn and understand isolated content and topics often without a real world context and in a very linear manner.</span></b></span></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;">Real world
connections were mostly surface-level with the exception for one class. In this class, the group project was designed
for students to learn the content in context of real world applications. </span><span style="line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;">Additionally, the same group project
was the only time throughout the day in which students were allowed to use
technology (BYOD or Chromebook) as a tool </span><span style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;">to explore personalized inquiry in
relation to the content.</span></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19.52px; text-indent: -24px;">Not connect and learn with others outside of the classroom population.</span></div>
<div class="normal">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 122%; text-indent: -0.25in;">I did not observe
students connecting with other students and experts outside the classroom.</span></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal">
I firmly believe there is always room for “better,” so after my
day of shadowing a student I reflected on specific ways the learning experience
could be improved for students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Recognizing there is always a time and place for all instructional
practices, there are also opportunities to consider and grow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The following is my “MORE OF” recommendation
list:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">●<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Learner-Centered<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="normalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">●<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Project Based Learning<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="normalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">●<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Student Collaboration<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="normalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">●<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Student Voice and Choice in Learning<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="normalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">●<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Authentic and Real-World Connections to the Curriculum<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="normalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">●<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->BYOD and Chromebooks to Research, Connect, and Create<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="normalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">●<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Formative Assessments to Ensure All Students are
Learning<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="normalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">●<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Student Movement<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="normalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: .5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">●<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Flexible Seating - Tables<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal" style="mso-pagination: none;">
My goal in participating in the
‘Shadow a Student Challenge” was to have gained a better perspective of our students’
learning experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, I achieved my
goal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a long day for me sitting
and soaking up the information presented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I thought back to my days as a student and wondered how much has really
changed since the 1980’s.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="normal">
<br /></div>
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As an overarching theme from the day, I wondered how school could
become more learner-centered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I honestly
don’t think it would take that much to change classrooms from “school” to
places of “learning.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if we asked
our students how they learn best and made adjustments accordingly?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if we took some time to reflect on what
we truly believe about how students learn?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What if we reflected on the “school” and “learning” list below by George
Couros and started by moving just one of our current “school” practices to
“learning?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know our students would appreciate our effort.</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BmTGE3JvL5Q/VtTTzBBga-I/AAAAAAAACko/GV-32Vn-5fs/s1600/school%2Bvs%2Blearning.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BmTGE3JvL5Q/VtTTzBBga-I/AAAAAAAACko/GV-32Vn-5fs/s640/school%2Bvs%2Blearning.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-75789776659257727592016-01-20T18:03:00.000-08:002016-01-20T18:05:53.809-08:00Breakout EDU "The Best Thing Ever"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PiSh8jUZD5Y/Vpz7H0l8jfI/AAAAAAAACQM/NuRMgnrKHh0/s1600/IMG_0903.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PiSh8jUZD5Y/Vpz7H0l8jfI/AAAAAAAACQM/NuRMgnrKHh0/s200/IMG_0903.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Back in December, Janet O'Hara (Red River Valley Education Cooperative Coordinator) dropped off 6 Breakout EDU boxes for our district to use. Previously, I had heard of breakout rooms and Breakout EDU boxes, but never personally experienced or observed. I was truly amazed when I observed a class of 5th grade students trying Breakout EDU for the first time.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is Breakout EDU?</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Breakout EDU creates ultra-engaging learning games for people of all ages. Games (Breakouts) teach teamwork, problem solving, critical thinking, and troubleshooting by presenting participants with challenges that ignite their natural drive to problem-solve. Speciality K-12 Breakouts can be used to teach core academic subjects including math, science, history, language arts and have embedded standards that apply problem solving strategies within a real world OR collaborative context.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">HOW IT WORKS</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With the purchase of a Breakout kit, you’re able to play countless Breakouts. Each kit comes with a collection of locks, hidden contraptions, timers, keys, and other “diversion hardware” that can be used to play the Breakout challenges available from the store. Currently, all the games in the game directory are free! </span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(http://www.breakoutedu.com/how-it-works/)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QWSoR-0DH8Q/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QWSoR-0DH8Q?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-c94e979b-60aa-2c1d-0542-6f9589b17835"><br /><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">During my first time observing Breakout EDU in a classroom, Kari Melland (Curriculum Technology Partner) provided the introduction to Leslye Thiery's 5th grade class at Discovery Elementary. While the students listened to the brief set of directions, they could hardly contain their excitement as the locked box became the focus. And...the timer starts...NOW! How often do we see students eagerly dive into a learning and problem-solving opportunity. There was a buzz in the room as the students scurried around trying to make sense of the clues. I enjoyed watching the group dynamics in action as some led the class down "wrong" paths, while some quietly figured out the "right" path. Even with the energy and excitement of an entire class trying to figure out the clues, there were no disengaged and uninterested students. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally, the "Great Candy Caper" problem was solved as the students happily ate their Kit Kats. Kari and Leslye took some time to listen to the students about what they liked and what suggestions they would have to make it even better for the next time or other groups. Here are some direct quotes: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Best thing ever."</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">"We all had good ideas."</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Working together." </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Teamwork."</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first thing I noticed was the fact it had nothing to do with the extrinsic reward (Kit Kat), but rather the intrinsic rewards as listed by the students. I observed a high-level of critical thinking, problem solving, cooperation, listening, and team work. During the discussion, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a student asked, "could we create a game for other students to try to solve?" This comment was followed by many thoughts about how this could be done. In education, it really does not get any better than students asking for opportunities to take critical thinking, problem solving, and deeper learning to a new level! I can't wait to see what the students create.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To the skeptics and nay-sayers, this is not just a "game" for students to play, but an opportunity for deeper learning in all curriculum areas. When students are empowered to create, their learning and curiosity soar to new levels. I think it is a safe bet that more Breakout EDU boxes will need to be purchased/built/assembled in the very near future.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">For additional information, follow @BreakoutEDU and co-founders James Sanders (@jamestsanders) and Mark Hammons (@mhammons) on Twitter. Also, check out Maria Galanis's (@MariaGalanis) blog post "Breakout EDU - You Had Me at Breakout!" (http://goo.gl/qGPzsI) and the related infographic shown below created by Sylvia Duckworth (@sylviaduckworth).</span> </span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-33166291696065002032016-01-19T14:31:00.001-08:002016-01-19T14:31:24.768-08:00To Fail is To Succeed<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">The fall of 2015 marked the start of a new course at Red River High School proposed and taught by Mr. Eric Sanders called “Innovations and Communications.” In a blog post by Mr. Sanders, he explains the course and basic structure:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Students choose a problem that needs to be solved. They decide if they are going to work alone or in a group of up to three students. They propose a plan, their timeline, the point value of the project, and at least three CCSS English standards that they will master through this project.</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Brainstorming sessions every Monday, working on projects Tuesday through Thursday (Students research their topic, carry out their plans, and build their proposals and presentations, and basically get the job done), and blogging on Friday (reflecting on how their project is going, their struggles and successes, etc.) When the project is finished, the students present their project to their chosen stakeholders.</i></span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(</span><a href="https://sandersspeaks.wordpress.com/2014/11/04/innovation-class/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://sandersspeaks.wordpress.com/2014/11/04/innovation-class/</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Over the course of the past semester, I followed the progress of the class through Mr. Sanders's Twitter posts, highlighting student blogs and insights into the class. I also received a phone call and emails from a student in the class inquiring about promoting her group's project through district communication methods. All s</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">tudents learned the real-world skills of reaching out and connecting with adults. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the end of the semester, I was invited to listen to the the student TEDx talks, the </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2px; white-space: pre-wrap;">culminating event</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Mr.Sanders opened the class with reflections on his role as a</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> facilitator and quest to develop each students' creative confidence. </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Each student took their turn to articulate their project, learning experiences, and accomplishments in the class. Projects included rape culture, transgender, Kindness is Key, hearing impairment, etc. After listening to all the students, three direct quotes resonated with me:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">"To fail is to succeed."</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">"All teachers should encourage divergent thinking and innovations in all classes."</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Failure and risk is part of the process of learning and innovating."</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Failure as part of the learning process was a consistent theme. It became apparent that as students recognized and became more comfortable with failure, their confidence and learning grew exponentially. The following infographic by Sylvia Duckworth highlights many points made by the students:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was obvious that Mr. Sanders created a culture of encouraging students to think big, which provided real-world opportunities to embrace, then overcome failure. Through the concluding TEDx talks, Mr. Sanders received some unsolicited, but resounding endorsements for the course. In fact, o</span><span style="background-color: #f5f8fa; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ne student even wished that Innovations & Communications class was a year long class instead of just a semester.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When students are empowered to guide their own learning, choose a project they are passionate about, and recognize that failure is part of the learning process, true deeper learning happens. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">In fact, the learning has already extended beyond the classroom walls as some of Mr. Sanders's students recently presented at the @TEDxGrandForks Open Mic night and some have been asked to speak at other events.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I can only wonder how student learning could become more innovative if...</span><br />
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<li><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">all courses concluded like Innovations and Communications.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">teachers provided each student an opportunity to honestly reflect on their learning and experiences at the conclusion of the course.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">authentic and meaningful were words students used to describe their classes.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">students were empowered to explore topics of their choice.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">more teachers encouraged and modeled risk taking for our students. </span></span></li>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>“If we are really wanting to serve our students and help them to develop to become the leaders and learners of today and the future, taking risks in our practice is not only encouraged, but necessary.” George Couros</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thank you Mr. Sanders for taking a risk in starting the Innovations and Communications course and providing your students many opportunities to learn and grow through their failures. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">While these students readily admitted to their failures, they are now equipped with many more skills to succeed in THEIR future.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-35729208308597231062016-01-04T13:46:00.000-08:002016-01-04T13:46:10.482-08:00Book Review: The Innovator's Mindset by George Couros<b>Book Review: <u>The Innovator's Mindset</u> by George Couros</b><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jPfmxo_RkgU/Vom28oxj0bI/AAAAAAAAB_M/MiLergd2DWk/s1600/Innovator%2527s%2BMindset.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jPfmxo_RkgU/Vom28oxj0bI/AAAAAAAAB_M/MiLergd2DWk/s320/Innovator%2527s%2BMindset.jpg" width="270" /></a></div>
I recently finished reading the book <u>The Innovator's Mindset</u> by George Couros and am eager to continue the conversation of the book's contents with anyone. Over the past few years, I have read all of George's blog posts because his thoughts on education resonate with my educational philosophy. I heard George speak at ISTE in Philadelphia in June 2015 and again at TIES in Minneapolis in December 2015, so to say I connected with the book would be an understatement. Here is a brief summary of the book.<br />
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We are in an exciting time in education with so many opportunities for ourselves and our students, so George starts by defining innovation "...as a way of thinking that creates something new and better." As educators, shouldn't we always be searching and developing new and better? His positive approach throughout the book encourages his readers to embrace change. After all, "Change is an opportunity to do something amazing" as educators consider what is best for each learner. George further develops the definition of The Innovator's Mindset through an explanation of each of the "8 Characteristics of the Innovator's Mindset," which are depicted in the following infographic by Sylvia Duckworth (@sylviaduckworth):<br />
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While reading the book, I appreciated George's straight forward approach to change. He strategically provides opportunities to look at our selves/school/district in the "mirror" through questions posed in the book while opening the door to considering something better. George recognizes the many aspects not within educators' purview and focuses on those areas which are in educators' control. For example, education is and always will be about relationships. The bottom line remains, "...we must be constantly focused on improving our practice, which means we will never be done innovating, growing, and learning" (George Couros). <br />
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<b>This book is a must read if you are...</b><br />
1. an educator or school leader.<br />
2. truly focused on "What is best for each learner?"<br />
3. open to new ideas to ponder, discuss, and develop.<br />
4. ready to challenge the status quo.<br />
5. interested in creating new and better educational opportunities for your students.<br />
6. open to considering well-developed ideas to make school a more innovative place for students.<br />
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The words in <u>The Innovator's Mindset</u> are not just words in a book, but rather a thoughtful culmination of George's own journey towards an Innovator's Mindset. As a connected educator himself, George connects the dots of current education thought and synthesizes the information in a way that encourages all educators to move forward. As George states; "If we don't really think about the way we teach, and, more importantly how both educators and students learn, we will all miss out on the opportunities that lie in front of us." Most importantly, "If students leave school less curious than when they started, we have failed them" (George Couros). What are you doing to learn and ensure students leave your classroom/school/district more curious than when they started? Spending some quality time with this book is the perfect place to start.<br />
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<u>The Innovator's Mindset</u> is another outstanding book from Dave Burgess Publishing (<a href="http://daveburgessconsulting.com/books-2/">http://daveburgessconsulting.com/books-2/</a>). I have read most of the books in the Dave Burgess publishing series and found each one to be though-provoking as each author underscores better educational opportunities for students. As educators read these books and become connected educators, they model what it means to be a learner, for our students. Even more importantly, these books are outstanding for book study discussions which will hopefully lead to positive changes in your classroom/school/district.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-28883665079421526522015-11-10T06:26:00.000-08:002015-11-10T06:26:36.682-08:00Letting Our Children “Fly”<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The planning and preparation started like our many other trips to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in Northern Minnesota; pouring through maps to find an entry point and route, securing a permit, pulling out the gear, picking up groceries, packing the packs, and loading the canoes on the trailer. The crew eagerly anticipated the upcoming trip. After the final checks and good byes, it was time to head east on Highway 2. It was that moment with mixed emotions as I watched the crew leave with the canoes in tow. I would not be making this trip to the BWCAW with my son Derek. With 17 trips under his belt, all with me, he was now the group leader and ready to experience canoe country without his Dad.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As the crew left, my thoughts began to wonder if he was ready to take on this challenge. As a way to rationalize that he was ready, I did some comparing. My first trip was with my uncle and cousins in 1986 to Hog Creek and Perent Lake. After just 2 trips and at the age of 18, my friend Doug and I took a trip to Clearwater, Johnson Falls, and Mountain Lake prior to starting college in the fall of 1987. I have made a trip every year since. Derek, on the other hand, is now 21 and has been on 17 trips. I reassured myself that he was ready, but would he make all the correct decisions?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In all of my trips, our group mantra has always been; “It’s all part of the experience.” As those who have traveled into canoe country know, “the experience” can be both positive and negative. The positive and unforgettable experiences keep us coming back to Canoe Country, while the adversity we sometimes experience are those we vividly remember and come with some valuable lessons. Hopefully Derek remembered all those “lessons learned.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Overtaking my worrying was a walk down memory lane as I reflected back on our experiences together. In 1998 after Derek turned 4, I convinced Taunya that our son was ready for his first trip to the BWCAW. My journal entry for Derek’s first trip captures the moment:</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the summer of 1986, before my senior year of high school, my Uncle George Schleicher asked me if I would like to go to the Boundary Waters because they needed a 4th person. My first impression was that this place was something special and I promised myself to come back every year. I was also excited to introduce others such as family and friends to this special place. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The more I went the more I couldn’t wait to share it with my own children. When you were born in February of 1994, I was already planning and looking forward to our first trip to the Boundary Waters. I said, “as soon as Derek is potty trained, he’ll be ready to go.” This year (1998) the opportunity was finally here and I found some other interested family and friends (Mark, Derek, Clint, Eric, Paul) that wanted to be a part of your first BWCA experience. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I started organizing and planning about 3 weeks prior to our trip. I felt (and always have) that the key to a successful trip is careful planning and organization. I was reluctant to tell you that we were going right away because I didn’t think you would understand where we were going, what the Boundary Waters was, and you would always get over anxious anytime we would go somewhere. You would count down “sleeps” as a measuring stick to count the days. Finally, it was getting closer and I wanted you to be a part of the preparation of the trip, so I told you where we were going and who we were going with. You were really excited and immediately asked, “Dad, how many sleeps until we go?” It was 10 at that point. You did a great job of counting backwards every day. We went grocery shopping together for the food and also spent time together setting out the equipment and checking it out. You asked many questions and I explained what everything was used for.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Zero sleeps and it’s time to go. We said goodbye to Mommy and Ben. We stopped at a gas station in Grand Rapids for gas and an ice cream treat. You told the cashier; “You know what, we’re going to the Boundary Waters and I’m going to catch a big fish.”</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UCiSuWaB9uA/VkH5XK88uGI/AAAAAAAABb0/h_JaFyemu7E/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UCiSuWaB9uA/VkH5XK88uGI/AAAAAAAABb0/h_JaFyemu7E/s200/2.jpg" width="153" /></a></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As I read through the journal for Derek’s first trip, I was glad that I captured the moments in writing as he certainly would not have remembered the trip nor would I continue to remember the details.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Derek’s second trip in 1999 took place over the July 4th weekend (enter at Island River, Isabella River, Quadga Lake, Bald Eagle Lake, exit at Snake River). Our experiences from this trip would be forever remembered. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We’re off to the Boundary Waters for your second trip...As we approached the final portage before our destination, Bald Eagle Lake, Doug and Clint decide to try to run the rapids. We portaged our stuff to the end and waited for their appearance. A few of us made a second trip on the portage and still no sign. Finally, they emerged with the badly dented up and punctured canoe. They made a poor decision to run the rapids and were very lucky not to be injured seriously.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sigurd Olson best described this scene; “...as long as there are young men with the light of adventure in their eyes and a touch of wildness in their souls, rapids will be run.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the morning on July 4th, we fished a little bit but then the sky started to look a little threatening. We picked up the camp and prepared ourselves for some rain. Later in the morning, a loud roar could be heard followed by some intense winds so we all headed into our tents. After about 15-30 minutes, the strong winds decreased and it rained for a couple of hours. After the rain stopped, we went fishing. We talked to another group that was camped on Bald Eagle and they said that they had many trees in their campsite get blown over, so we were pretty lucky. (Only later would we fully realize the damage that the storm did).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The adventure didn’t end there. We still had to get home.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After double portaging over and around the many blown down trees, we arrived at our car and met another group who said we were not going anywhere as the trees blocked the road. We then heard chainsaws and found the forest service clearing the road so we helped out. After loading up and heading out, an oncoming vehicle stopped me. The driver warned me to be aware of a creek, which was washing out the road. I made it through, but unfortunately Doug, Derek, and Tyler got stuck in the washed out road and needed a tow truck to pull out the vehicle.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pxji6AXhImI/VkH5swDOfWI/AAAAAAAABb8/MlwlfSYq2a0/s1600/4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="141" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pxji6AXhImI/VkH5swDOfWI/AAAAAAAABb8/MlwlfSYq2a0/s200/4.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since 1999, there have been many other memorable experiences during our annual trip to the BWCAW. Some of these experiences include the long portage, border route trail, Johnson Falls, jumping off rocks into the water, trips in October, and trips with Derek’s brother, cousins, uncles and grandpa. </span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NG96Ijyo0T8/VkH8shPpxoI/AAAAAAAABcM/vFpnFlvbXeE/s1600/5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="135" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NG96Ijyo0T8/VkH8shPpxoI/AAAAAAAABcM/vFpnFlvbXeE/s200/5.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 2012, just our immediate family took our first trip together. We secured 2 permits for the same entry point so Derek and Ben could take a side trip on their own. After a couple of days, Derek and Ben set off for 2 nights. I was more sad than worried, knowing that that my sons no longer needed their Dad. The boys learned a great deal about being on their own while Taunya and I were just a couple of lakes away. This trip also prepared me for my own transition of letting go.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Looking back, my initial goal was to ensure my sons had a positive experience in the BWCAW so they would want to return again and again. Mission accomplished. In doing so, I did most everything while they played, fished, and explored. Over the past several trips, I started asking more questions (i.e. What do you think?) and turning over some of the duties. I knew that I was not going to be on their canoe trips indefinitely, so they needed to learn things on their own. As I turned over the duties, I had them assist me, then had them “do” with my guidance, and finally complete tasks on their own to figure things out. A few examples include, setting up tent, starting a fire, hanging the food pack, portaging, filleting a fish, and reading a map.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_-PPumtAtiw/VkH9FhQQu3I/AAAAAAAABcQ/d9NB8EzeDcA/s1600/7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_-PPumtAtiw/VkH9FhQQu3I/AAAAAAAABcQ/d9NB8EzeDcA/s200/7.jpg" width="136" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Through the gradual release of my “teaching” vs. their “learning,” I noticed that even after everything I had thought I taught them some mistakes were still made. Only when Derek and Ben were allowed to do a task on their own instead of me showing and telling, did they complete the tasks more efficiently and accurately. Mostly through their struggles, were they really allowed to learn. I enjoyed watching the learning process take place through collaboration, critical thinking, failure, and redos.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was challenging for me to watch Derek and Ben struggle through certain things when I knew the correct answer or a better way to do something. For example, I watched them put up the tent incorrectly. They worked their way through some of the obstacles, and then would ask me for assistance. I would respond with a question such as, “what do you think” or “have you thought of?” Another example was map reading and finding portages. Let’s put it this way, we added some distance to our paddles as they read the map to find the portages. I usually knew where the portages were, but I allowed them to figure it out after they were not able to find it the first time. I believe I would have done my sons a disservice if I had not let them think through problems. After all...</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<h2>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Learning is their journey. Let them navigate. Push them to explore. Watch them discover. Encourage their questions. Allow them to struggle. Support their thinking. Let them fly.” </span><span style="background-color: #f5f8fa; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Krissy Venosdale</span></span></h2>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In addition to wilderness skills, I also tried to model and impress on my sons other intangibles such as the respect of this special place many fought so hard to protect. We always practiced “leave no trace,” left our campsites better than we found them, and left a small pile of prepared wood by the fire grate. They hopefully learned that the key to a successful trip is planning and preparedness. Finally, we always were mindful that help is a long way away, so we were careful, safe, and made good decisions.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, it seemed fitting for Derek to choose Hog Creek and Perent Lake for his first trip with his friends. After a few days, Derek and his friends returned from a fun trip. They were eager to share stories from their adventure. Listening to their stories, I smiled to myself and knew my question about Derek’s readiness and ability to lead others into the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness was answered. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To see four 21 year olds willing to venture into the wilderness, without Wi-Fi, and enjoy their time in the BWCAW was truly rewarding. </span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UgwNrtVn8So/VkH9fAM-aoI/AAAAAAAABcg/T6VsPUkezpY/s1600/11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UgwNrtVn8So/VkH9fAM-aoI/AAAAAAAABcg/T6VsPUkezpY/s200/11.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Letting our children fly also means letting our children pursue their passions. When I was a child I loved being outdoors and camping. After my first trip to the BWCAW in 1986, canoe country became my passion with a promise to myself to return each year. I wanted to learn everything I could about the BWCAW, so in the pre-Internet days, I went to the library to find books and periodicals.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 8pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The BWCAW continues to be one of my passions. I am grateful to have shared so many trips with my sons with many wonderful memories. I made it clear they did not have to have the same interests as me and should never feel obligated to go on trips, but they always wanted to go.</span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-4e7d0865-f1b4-74cd-11e7-1cd3e9199708"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Letting our children fly does not only pertain to the BWCAW, but life in general. Share your passions with your children, allow them to pursue their own interests, and then be patient to observe their learning process in action.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-508182042533434482015-09-18T14:02:00.000-07:002015-09-18T14:02:28.162-07:00Thoughts on Engaged Learning with Twitter Edchats<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">During the 2013-2014 school year, we launched #gfedchat for Grand Forks Public Schools educators and anyone else interested in chatting about educational topics. I look forward to #gfedchat every week. I have “met” and connected with more teachers across our district than I ever had in my career as an educator. Our Monday night chats are lively, engaging and are a source of inspiration for me each week. (Thank you #gfedchat participants, you are all amazing!) Similar to the numerous other chats, the format is a Q1, Q2 containing the questions followed by A1, A2 with the participants' answers. Now, after 2 years of #gfedchat and personally participating in other chats, I started to think about the relevance of Twitter chats.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-960b0afe-e190-147e-37d6-87a1e75c8a82" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I appreciate almost everything about Twitter edchats. There is a mutual passion and willingness to learn among educators participating in the edchats. I have made numerous connections to other educators through Twitter chats, watched ideas shared and connections made through mutual collaboration, and participated in book studies led by authors. Anytime, anywhere learning has made a tremendous impact on my professional growth.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the other hand, some Twitter edchats feel like a rapid-fire event in which speed-typing the answers to the questions and trying to keep up become more of a frustration than a learning opportunity. It often feels as if providing good answers becomes the priority over actually reading others’ responses, asking good questions, and having side-bar conversations. Sometimes, the best learning takes place in those side conversations. I appreciated the question George Couros recently posed to #satchatoc (What impact do you think Twitter chats have on student learning?)</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i0qPXvmGd5Y/VfxOScYLumI/AAAAAAAAAuQ/pQRrdSULgx0/s1600/george.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i0qPXvmGd5Y/VfxOScYLumI/AAAAAAAAAuQ/pQRrdSULgx0/s1600/george.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many indicated Twitter chat participants often provide shallow answers and chats become echo chambers, while others jumped at the chance to highlight the merits in Twitter edchats:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At times, Twitter edchats are contrary to what we know leads to deeper learning and engaged learners. In Tom Whitby’s recent post, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://tomwhitby.wordpress.com/2015/09/16/twitter-chats-for-learning-easy-vs-hard/" target="_blank">Twitter Chats for Learning, Easy vs. Hard</a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, he posed some great questions about edchats:</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Where was the thought?</span></span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Where was the pushback?</span></span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Where was the following of a progression of thought? </span></span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Most importantly where was the learning?</span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Is it good classroom practice for the teacher (moderator) to ask the questions and the students (participants) to just provide answers without any meaningful dialog? Are we creating a learning environment for our students (participants) to be fully engaged in deeper learning? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here are my thoughts on how we can improve upon our own #gfedchat this school year. </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 20.24px;">We should remind and encourage our #gfedchat participants to be engaged learners. </span>Recently, I provided a brief introduction at our middle and high school professional learning event and made the connection between students as learners and teachers as learners: </span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ix913ihPlSE/VfxOO3HsPaI/AAAAAAAAAuA/2553sJjI94A/s1600/engaged%2Blearners.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ix913ihPlSE/VfxOO3HsPaI/AAAAAAAAAuA/2553sJjI94A/s320/engaged%2Blearners.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Change the format once an awhile like #ndedchat did recently. The open format provided an excellent chat.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aGAo6GaFW7E/VfxOUqMGRoI/AAAAAAAAAuY/j9uM1RUc0t4/s1600/jeremy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aGAo6GaFW7E/VfxOUqMGRoI/AAAAAAAAAuY/j9uM1RUc0t4/s1600/jeremy.png" /></a></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Consider fewer scheduled questions in an hour on a particular topic to encourage side-bar conversations, allow ideas to percolate, and hopefully move ideas into action.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Invite students to moderate.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Encourage lurkers to JUMP IN</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I would love to hear other ideas to add to this list for improving #gfedchat and edchats in general.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tom Whitby (</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://tomwhitby.wordpress.com/2015/09/16/twitter-chats-for-learning-easy-vs-hard/" target="_blank">Twitter Chats for Learning, Easy vs. Hard</a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) highlights why participating in edchats matter:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">“Although my personal preference is for the unscripted chat, there is no right way or wrong way of doing this. For some the only way they might be involved in any chat might be through the scripted chat. For many others the organic conversation that springs from the unscripted chat is the way they learn best. We are fortunate that any chats are now available to us as connected educators using social media for continuing professional development. Chats give transparency to education. We talk about our individual experiences on topics common to all. Chats are also a sounding board. Even more, they are a treasure trove for collegial sources, people who can help each other professionally. Participate in chats for all these reasons and to maintain relevance in a rapidly changing world.”</span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am eagerly looking forward to another season of #gfedchat which begins again on Monday, September 21st at 8:30 pm. Let it always be about STUDENT LEARNING. All are welcome!</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-67391402234546474662015-09-14T11:58:00.000-07:002015-09-14T11:58:12.707-07:00Lessons Learned from Our Dog Bailey<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just less a year ago, our dog Bailey was very sick. We took her to the University of Minnesota for some further testing that determined the lymes disease Bailey had since she was a puppy needed to be treated again, along with addressing her kidney and heart issues. After almost a year of medications, special diet and a few more vet visits, Bailey was mostly doing fine until recently, she showed signs of some issues again. She obviously masked those issues quite well, because on Saturday evening Bailey laid down in the grass, could not move, and was barely breathing. We took her to the animal emergency clinic and determined Bailey was suffering from a large splenic tumor impacting many of her internal organs. Because of the progression of the tumor and impact on vital organs, the decision to put Bailey down was virtually made for us. After saying our goodbyes, her suffering was over and she went to sleep. But, our sadness and emptiness was just beginning. On the lonely drive home in the middle of the night, I reflected on Bailey’s impact on me, our family, and others. She taught and reminded us of some very valuable lessons over the past 8 years.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Be Caring</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Bailey was extremely perceptive of the feelings of those around her and she had an insightful way of trying to make things better with a look in your eyes to say “it's going to be OK.”</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Exercise</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Bailey loved to go for walks or runs. Her excitement when she knew a walk or run was about to happen was priceless. Because of Bailey’s love of the outdoors, our family logged numerous miles with her while improving our health at the same time.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Play</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - While I regretfully didn’t fully subscribe to this mantra because as we know, there are always work and home responsibilities that just need to get done. I am thankful of Bailey’s continual reminder that work can wait and the importance of play. </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Be Joyful</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - After a challenging or long day at school or work, Bailey reminded us to leave those frustrations behind. Our day was always made better with her greeting us at the door and saying “I am so happy to see you” with an enthusiastic tail wag (smile).</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Patience</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - While maybe not a trait of all dogs, Bailey was extremely patient and often put the needs of others ahead of her own needs. She would usually wait by a door until someone let her out and wait to be let back in. She sat by her water and food dish to let us know she was thirsty or hungry and would lay quietly by the foot of our bed until we woke up.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Saying I'm Sorry</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Bailey wasn’t perfect, so there were some times when she made mistakes. Without even saying anything, she would sense our disappointment and say sorry by putting her tail between legs and head down. She had a way of reminding us not to dwell on those mistakes, but rather forgive and move on.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Gift of Time</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Bailey was the happiest when our family, or anyone for that matter, was spending time with her. I would have loved to have some more time with Bailey and now wished that I would have spent even more time with her. While time is a limited resource, we should be cognizant of how we prioritize our time and find time to spend it with friends, family, loved ones, and yes, even our pets. Having no regrets is the lesson here.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unconditional Love</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Somewhat related to time, our busy schedules sometimes moved Bailey down on the priority list. She never took exception or was mad, but rather was always happy to see us when we entered the house. What a great lesson. No matter what, Bailey demonstrated her love for us everyday and we, in turn, loved her as a family member and best friend as well.</span></div>
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<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And, the list of lessons could go on. The memories of Bailey will last a lifetime. I know I am a better person for Bailey being in my life. The best tribute we can give Bailey is to remember and live the life lessons she spent 8 years modeling and teaching us. Thank you for being a wonderful teacher Bailey. Rest easy sweet girl. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-53010142076319973102015-08-07T13:59:00.001-07:002015-08-07T13:59:44.415-07:00For the Love of Learning at Edcamp Grand Forks<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">With a limited number of days of summer break left for most educators, about 80 educators chose to attend Edcamp Grand Forks on August 6th for the love of learning.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">About a year ago, Grand Forks Public Schools Curriculum Technology Partners discussed the possibility of holding an Edcamp. August 6th was set as the date and plans were in motion.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WLhPc1y-wGg/VcTHqh1kHvI/AAAAAAAAAoM/Rwta-UljhOw/s1600/Edcamp%2BGF.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="92" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WLhPc1y-wGg/VcTHqh1kHvI/AAAAAAAAAoM/Rwta-UljhOw/s200/Edcamp%2BGF.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">There was definitely a buzz in the commons at Community High School as the educators enjoyed breakfast and visited. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I provided some brief opening remarks as a way to set the tone for the day. Edcamps are designed to learn from each other.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qhTWjWoCTw8/VcTI9xJ1nwI/AAAAAAAAApU/Hb1LQ-penyY/s1600/alone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qhTWjWoCTw8/VcTI9xJ1nwI/AAAAAAAAApU/Hb1LQ-penyY/s200/alone.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I also highlighted a recent blog post by Pernille Ripp (<a href="http://pernillesripp.com/2015/07/30/as-we-start-another-year/" target="_blank">As We Start Another School Year</a>) with the thought: “A single decision made by a teacher can change a child’s path forever.” So I posed the question for the educators to ponder, "Is attending Edcamp Grand Forks one of those decisions?" </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">I then provided an overview of what to expect from an Edcamp experience and explained the “rules."</span></div>
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<li><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Built on principles of </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>connected and participatory learning</b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, Edcamp strives to bring teachers together to talk about the things that matter most to them: their </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>interests, passions, and questions</b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Teachers who attend Edcamp can choose to lead sessions on those things that matter, with an expectation that the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>people in the room will work together</b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to build understanding by </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>sharing their own knowledge and questions</b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Go where you grow.” (i.e. “law of 2 feet”)</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Carla Haaven made a few opening remarks and we were off and running to create the session board based on the interests of the attendees. Check out the <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Mdz4uFYwS2wmfJMkidOu476CtDtIgZxmmW0vqXgbX70/edit" target="_blank">SESSION BOARD</a> to view the session topics and session resources and notes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">Throughout the day, there was a noticeable "buzz" of collaboration and learning at Community High School. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.2; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the end of Edcamp Grand Forks, the attendees completed a survey. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ll let the comments from the participants speak for themselves:</span><br />
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<li style="line-height: 1.38;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">All of the sessions were useful. I cannot believe how much I learned, especially the applications I can use in my classroom.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Learning alongside colleagues from a variety of disciplines, schools, etc.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was a great 1st experience at Edcamp and am glad I got to partake in it. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">The highlight was being able to collaborate with a team of teachers from my school about things we chose to learn about! Yay!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Connecting with other teachers and sharing ideas.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Really enjoyed connecting with and learning from other educators. We are a great resource and need opportunities like this more often.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">I love how we decided what we wanted to learn and everything was very laid back. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">I like the choice involved in learning options.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">I love watching people learn new things! It is great to be surrounded by same minded people who are positive learners!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">The buzz in the room of teachers excited to learn was great!!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Meeting educators from around the region!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">This edcamp was very organized and it look everyones unique ideas so we could share with each other to make our classrooms different. I feel this has been very beneficial versus our PD days.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Please do this again next August before school starts so I can take this again! I will be spreading the word!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Collaborating and networking with other districts.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">I liked the style of learning. It was not intense or shoved down your throat. It was comfortable and enjoyable.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Everyone that is here today, is here because they want to be here. I am impressed by the turnout!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">I loved hearing teachers from another town talk about how jealous they are that we get to do things like this!!!! We are so fortunate and more people need to get involved.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Interacting with people from all over who have different ideas.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Met a UND professor and GF Schools parent who asked if he could come and talk to my class about STEM.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">I just liked the whole day. Very informative.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">This was my first and I LOVED it!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">More time (maybe over a period of a couple days)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Several throughout the year...nice format.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Love the format and appreciate everyone sharing and asking questions.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was more and better than I could have imagined.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was great! I wish I could have attended more sessions! </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6666669845581px; line-height: 20.2399997711182px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the conclusion of the event, I talked with several educators who indicated the need to incorporate Edcamp into some of our professional development/learning time. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It highlights the fact that <b>TEACHERS</b> want choice based on their interest because it will lead to a higher level of engagement and learning.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Hmmm, let me try that sentence again by changing one word; </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It highlights the fact that <b>STUDENTS</b><span style="color: red;"> </span>want choice based on their interest because it will lead to a higher level of engagement and learning.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> We are all learners, so the question is, how can the Edcamp format be incorporated into future school and district level professional development/learning as many suggested in the survey and through conversations? </span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1271821480568146345.post-61691341344687177962015-07-13T09:20:00.001-07:002015-07-13T09:25:50.781-07:00The Road to High School BYOD<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Soon after I made the transition from high school associate principal to director of technology in the Fall of 2012, my quest to learn and understand how students learn best through the use of technology devices became my most important priority. At that time, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) was beginning to gain some traction in K-12 schools with mixed results and opinions; some good and some not so good. Nonetheless, it was still worthy of discussion and was added as a “Study Recommendation” item in the 2013-2016 Grand Forks Public Schools (GFPS) Technology Plan:</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 5pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Study Recommendation #5 – Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Grand Forks Public Schools should study the potential impact of students having the opportunity to bring their own device/laptop computer.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The recommended study would develop a systematic plan for students to bring a digital device from home and access the district network for academic purposes. A BYOD pilot study will take place in a summer school English class in the summer of 2013.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">GFPS students in grades 5-8 now have 1:1 access to netbooks or Chromebooks, but in the Fall of 2014, the budget did not allow for the 1:1 initiative to continue for students into 9th grade. Instead, carts of Chromebooks were added to the high schools dedicated to 9th grade students in the core curriculum areas as a way to provide additional access to devices.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When the GFPS High School Technology Committee first met in the Fall of 2014, we reviewed the 2013-2016 GFPS Technology Plan. Committee discussion focused on and kept coming back to increase device access for our high school students and BYOD. After significant study, the plan was presented to district administrators, high school principals, school board technology committee, and the school board. After answering the questions and responding to the concerns, support was in place to move forward. A BYOD Steering Committee was established and we started preparations for an August 2015 implementation. The key areas of our work and discussions included:</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Expanding the BYOD Summer School Pilot to all classrooms</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Equity - Several hundred Chromebooks will be deployed for students to access as supplemental devices.</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.gfschools.org/files/_EVHdO_/36ec795e8066daff3745a49013852ec4/Parent_Letter_BYOD_May_2015.pdf" target="_blank">Communication with Parents</a></span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Communication with Teachers</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Communication with the Community (<a href="http://www.grandforksherald.com/news/education/3749305-grand-forks-school-district-moves-forward-bring-your-own-device-initiative" target="_blank">see the Grand Forks Herald article on BYOD</a>)</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Student Expectations (summer school students are currently involved)</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Network Infrastructure (additional access points)</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Teacher Professional Development (planning has been and continues to take place)</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.gfschools.org/pages/gfschools/Departments/Technology/BYOD" target="_blank">Creating a BYOD Webpage</a></span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> List Answers to Frequently Asked Questions (<a href="http://www.gfschools.org/files/_EPCQr_/d5dbe3f4eb45298c3745a49013852ec4/HS_BYOD_FAQs.pdf" target="_blank">FAQs</a>)</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As our summer school BYOD pilot is taking place and preparations continue, it was interesting to read the recently released <a href="http://goo.gl/mjloKc" target="_blank">NMC Horizon Report 2015 K-12 Edition</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The report contained affirmation of the GFPS BYOD initiative as it listed BYOD as an important development in education technology. The expert panel agreed that BYOD is very likely to drive technology planning and decision-making over the next five years with an expected widespread adoption in one year or less. (See pages 36 and 37 in the <a href="http://goo.gl/mjloKc" target="_blank">Horizon Report</a>)</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--f2aHIbC_oI/VZ7XopT7nHI/AAAAAAAAAng/KfO9IzG-P5c/s1600/Horizon%2BReport%2BInforgraphic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="305" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--f2aHIbC_oI/VZ7XopT7nHI/AAAAAAAAAng/KfO9IzG-P5c/s400/Horizon%2BReport%2BInforgraphic.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As we transition to BYOD in our high schools, there will be some themes that will be important to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">remember:</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>It’s about student learning, not the device.</b> </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Professional Learning</b> - </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our Curriculum Technology Partners are poised to provide just in time and ongoing professional learning opportunities for our teachers geared towards pedagogy in a technology rich environment.</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Student Expectations</b> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- We will provide our students with the expectations of BYOD and embed digital citizenship reminders, while at the same time, establish an environment of trust.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While we are focused on planning for the best BYOD scenario, we understand that there will be things to learn along the way. Being mindful that we are <b>always in “beta”</b> will keep us focused on <b>continual improvement</b>.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We need to stay focused on <b>‘what’s the best that could happen’</b> [with BYOD and student learning], rather than ‘what’s the worst that could happen.’</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>“Technology will never replace great teachers, but technology in the hands of great teachers can be transformational.”</b> (@gcouros)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #292f33; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There will be much to learn and work to do during this upcoming school year with BYOD in our high schools. We do not and will not pretend to have BYOD all figured out, but I will share, through this blog, ongoing reflections on our high school BYOD transition.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0