Question: What if high school wasn’t preparation for real life, instead it was real life?
When we allow kids to see themselves as authentic agents... When we dare them to ask questions... Seek out answers... And build things that matter... Then... High school doesn’t suck anymore
When we do all that we get kids who are encouraged not just to be workers but to be citizens empowered to change the world.
Hear more in Chris Lehmann’s TED Talk.
You have read this article chris lehmann /
education reform /
Science Leadership Academy
with the title chris lehmann. You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2011/02/high-school-doesn-have-to-suck-chris.html. Thanks!
Friday, January 28th marks the start of my favorite conference of the year. The brilliant, visionary, thought-leader, and ultimate player (Frisbee that is), Chris Lehmann and SLA’s Educon 2.3. I love this conference, because it’s all about the conversation. At Educon, the idea is that participants and presenters share ideas and get smarter. It provides a more intimate setting to give attendees the opportunity to talk, think, grow and connect in a setting much more intimate than larger conferences. The other nice thing is it takes place at the school with many of the students on hand. One of my favorite things to do is eavesdrop on their conversations that are so filled with excitement, pride and enthusiasm. The same can be said for the teacher conversations.
If you rare planning to attend and like my blog, you might find my recommendations for sessions and events helpful. Following each session I share exactly why I’m interested in each session selected.
Friday
12:00 – 3:00 - Spend the day at Science Leadership Academy. EduCon attendees have free admission to the Franklin Institute and other local Philadelphia institutions on Friday.
6:00 – 8:00 - Panel Discussion at the Franklin Institute:Why Does Innovation Matter?—Come to the Franklin Institute to see a group of societal visionaries speak about the role of innovation in our society in a panel discussion moderated by Frederic Bertley of The Franklin Institute
8:00 – 9:30 - Reception at the Franklin Institute
Saturday - 9:15 a.m. at SLA
Keynote: Leroy Nunery, Deputy Superintendent, School District of Philadelphia
Policy development is a lot like watching grass grow and the process can look different depending on the view from your perch. Let's dissect some recent education policies and brainstorm ideas to encourage educational activism (e.g., creating networks of people and organizations) at all levels to influence future policy.
Why I’m attending this session: I’ve been spending more time participating in the ed policy conversation in person, on my blog, and most recently at the Huffington Post. I appreciate any advice on updating outdated policies.
Online professional development facilitators often measure the success of a learning experience by analyzing time spent, clicks, posts and other assignments. How can we change online PD to be more community-based where content combined with context and conversations guide learning? To that end, what tools does a facilitator need in his/her toolbelt?
Why I’m attending this session: I’ve been talking and writing about online learning both on my blog and at EdReformer. Online learning is growing fast both in secondary and higher ed. Most of us agree with the need in moving from seat time to demonstration of personal mastery. This means that time, clicks, posts should have less relevance than they do. What are more effective measures of learning? This is the right conversation to be having.
Participants will learn to work with cell phones outside of school bans by developing several different cell phone based activities done outside of the classroom.
Why I’m attending this session: Because I’m leading it with George Engel, oh, and I’ve just written a book on the topic. I also write about this a ton on my blog with the “Cell phones in Education” tag and I have a facebook page called, “Let Students Use Cell Phones to Learn.”. I hope to see some of my readers at this session :-)
Saturday Evening
4:30 – 6:30 - Making Connections: "Philly Classic" Dinner at SLA
I may skip the Philly classic. Dinner with some attendees might be nice.
7:30 – 11:00 - Networking at Rembrandt's, 23rd and Aspen St
This is an absolute and where last year I had a chance to have great conversations with Chris Lehmann, Christian Long, Will Richardson, FunnyMonkey, Jon Becker, and more!
Sunday - 9:00 a.m. in SLAPanel DiscussionCan Schools Support Student Innovation Engage with a panel of education leaders discussing how we can reform our schools to empower students to learn and create in powerful, meaningful ways.
This conversation will explore curriculum and cross disciplinary opportunities to explicitly teach visual literacy skills using concrete examples from the news and a Mythbusters approach to YouTube. Bring your laptop and be prepared to play and learn and talk.
Nicholas Carr argues that we live in The Shallows. Clay Shirky writes that the literary world is now losing its normative hold on culture. So, is literacy changing? As we incorporate connective technologies in our classrooms, are the skills associated with deep reading and critical thinking being lost? What does it mean to be literate in 2010 and beyond?
Why I want to attend this session: As I shared in my post The Kids Are All Right, I disagree with Nicholas Carr and his “Shallow” philosophy. I always learn a lot when I hear David Jakes speak so I look forward to his views.
Only in its first year, the NYC iSchools Area of Focus program, which requires juniors to select a two-year focus for their studies, is already increasing motivation and attracting college interest. Come learn about how the program works, share and discuss suggestions for improvements, and evaluate the program for use in your own school community.
Why I’m attending this session: I’ve the iSchool and its brilliant leaders since my first visit to the school when I discovered it provided an Immunization to an Uninteresting Curriculum. This new program sounds simply wonderful and I hope it is something that becomes an opportunity for other students. I look forward to learning, writing, and sharing more about their work.
We’ll explore the viability of open-inquiry classrooms, where students pursue skills of their choosing, supported by teachers with unrelated expertise. Where's the "sweet spot" for student inquiry, balanced between the learning habits of obsessive hobbyists, realities of the middle-school classroom, and the absentee approach of Minimally Invasive Education? (http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com) Is it worth looking for?
Why I’m attending this session: Autodidacts, free/dom/un schooling has been of tremendous interest to me since I was introduced to the philosophy just a short time ago. I’m interested in talking about it more with others face-to-face.
Those are my picks. If you’re a reader of my blog, or a social media friend, I do hope we’ll have a chance to connect during my stay. Advance warning, please remind me how we’re connected. While it’s wonderful to meet my brilliant social media friend’s minds before I see their faces, it makes it a tad hard for me to solidly connect who’s who. Apologies in advance.
You have read this article #educon /
chris lehmann
with the title chris lehmann. You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2011/01/the-innovative-educators-2011-educon.html. Thanks!
Tech & Learning's Virtual Tech Forum provided a fantastic way to engage in stimulating conversation with innovative educators on a variety of provocative topics that are the key to preparing 21st century learners. The format allowed for participants to watch a featured video and then chat about the topic. The chats were fast-paced, action-packed and full of a whole lot of stimulating conversation and ideas.
There is no reason the conversation has to end there. These videos are still available (and free of charge) for anyone who wants to start conversation or keep it going. Simply show the video and invite viewers to discuss either verbally or via chat as we did during the original tech forum. You can take things a step further by inviting these educators to chat with you virtually via Skype or using an instant message service.
Here are the video topics.
High School 2.0: Talking Change for Today and Tomorrow with Vallerie Cave and Mike Hall
Progressive Learning Environments: What do they Look Like?with Chris Lehmann
Cells in the Classroom: From Banning to Embracing with Lisa Nielsen and WillynWeb
Internet 2 and High-Bandwidth Connectivity: How and Why to Jump on Board with Dr. Joseph Barrow and Mike Porter
Facebook, You Tube and Other Mainstream Tools: Do they Belong in the Classroom? with Cathy Swan
The Impact of Social Media in Schools: Welcoming and Responding to the Disruption with David Jakes and David Warlick
Disruptive Innovation: Fad, Fantasy, or Future of Learning? with Kim Carter
21st Century Skills: Are Our Schools Teaching Them? with Howie DiBlasi
To watch any of these videos, simply click on the picture below which will take you to each of the videos. Enjoy!
You have read this article chris lehmann /
virtual tech forum
with the title chris lehmann. You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2010/11/8-videos-to-stimulate-conversations.html. Thanks!
They are few and far between in the Twitosphere, but among all the thousands of educators in my learning network who are tweeting, connecting, interacting, and making meaning, only a handful are principals and a huge BRAVO to them. Whether you’re a tweeting educator trying to convince your principal to tweet or a principal who wonders what it’s all about, the six principals below can help lead the way.
There’s Meat in the Tweet of These 6 Principals If you are a principal or if you know a principal who wants to start tweeting here are the guys to check out complete with a link to their Twitter account and blog.
Eric Sheninger Where he leads: Educational administrator responsible for preparing over 650 students in grades 9-12 with essential 21st Century skills that will enable them to be successful, productive members of society. His blog: A Principal's Reflections
Patrick Larkin (Patrick Larkin) Where he leads: Patrick Larkin is the Principal at Burlington High School (MA). He is a member of the Commission for Public Secondary Schools at the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). He is also a proud member of the Educator's PLN. His blog: Burlington H.S. Principal's Blog
Dave Meister Where he leads: High school director blogs about education, technology, student engagement and things that are happening at Paris Cooperative High School in Illinois. His blog:PHS Director Blog
Deron Durflinger Where he leads: Where he leads: Secondary Principal, Van Meter Schools Iowa, United States. Passion is for schools to move away from the factory model developed over 100 years ago to a more relevant system for learners of the 21st century. His blog:#Vanmeter Schools Transforming the Educational System
If you are or know a principal ready to hop on board, here’s how to get started.
5 Steps to Help Leaders Start Tweeting
1. Join twitter 2. Follow each of the following leaders 3. Lurk about and see what they have to say 4. Reply to some of there tweets and let them know you’re a principal too! 5. Make sure you look at your “@” replies and “DMs” (direct messages) to see who’s reaching out to you.
I hope you’ll join these 6 principals who I have no doubt will become inspirational members of your personal learning network. They are leading the way in supporting other pioneering school leaders who believe in moving from old-school leading to preparing our students for the real-world in which they live. If you’d like to join the conversation, they’re out there waiting for you to comment on their personal blogs, connected blog or send them a tweet.
You have read this article chris lehmann /
eric sheninger /
twitter /
Twitter in Education
with the title chris lehmann. You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2010/08/follow-leader-whos-tweeter.html. Thanks!
With barely a handful of other principals participating in social media environments principal Eric Sheninger feels rather lonely and is extending an offer to lead others into the digital age of interactivity. In his latest post Building Momentum, Mr. Sheninger puts out a call to action to educational leaders to join him in online environments or, as I like to say, become a part of his personal learning network.
Administrators who are skeptical about utilizing social media have a lot to learn from Eric or NMHS_Principal as he’s known in the Twitosphere. He was in the same boat just a little over a year ago, and his ship was sinking. He blocked sites and banned mobile devices to an extreme all in an effort to do what he thought was best for his students and staff. Today he says, “Boy was I wrong!” and realizes the error of his ways.
Sheninger now advocates to empower educators to effectively integrate technology combined with best instructional practices and takes any chance he gets to discuss his transformation with skeptical administrators. His motivation is simple. He says, “I now have the confidence to clearly articulate how social media has enabled me to become a more effective and efficient administrator in many areas.” He adds that, “I stress the fact that this phenomenon is not going away and is a major component in the lives of today’s society.”
Sheninger’s advice to educational leaders is that we should be modeling, supporting, and collaborating with our respective staffs to create a vibrant school culture that fosters risk-taking and innovation. Learning environments that are structured in such a way will not only help students think critically, problem solve, and master the content, but also teach them how to be digitally responsible.
He explains that his motivations are partly selfish too. He needs other administrators to join him saying that he finds it depressing as he looks around his own state of New Jersey as well as the country and globe in general and notices the lack of an administrative presence in the world of social media and other areas of educational technology leadership.
I understand Eric’s frustration. We each have personal learning networks numbering in the thousands, yet there are only a handful of principals participating. We pretty much know the same five guys who I also mentioned recently in my post Want to help a principal start a blog? These 5 principals can provide inspiration. He adds a name new to me Deron Durflinger to the list as well. So there are six guys. As a female, I can’t help but notice they’re all men and add, that not only do we need more school leader voices, but some females would be great too!
In his post Eric cries out to his five principal buds who are all working hard to do their parts to lead in the digital age, but he asks for their help to build momentum pleading, “Can ya help me out with this one?” We need leaders to step up and into these worlds for the sake of our students. As Eric points out, he’s learned a lot, but there is so much more to learn about educational leadership and facilitating sustainable change. He knows from his participation in online networks that the best way for learning to occur is when it happens with other experienced leaders in the trenches that can share their knowledge, strategies, successes, and failures. Like most, this is how he learns best and he confesses that he needs their help, support, ideas, and advice on all aspects of educational leadership, not educational technology. He knows that when educational leaders move together they can all collaborate to grow, lead more effectively, and move towards substantive reform.
To entice his peers, Sheninger offers five facets of social media that truly assist educational leaders to become more effective and efficient. They are 1) Communication, 2)Branding, 3. Professional Development/Growth, 4) Opportunity 5) Collaboration
You can find out how social media plays a part in each of these in his post Building Momentum.
You have read this article 21st century leaders /
chris lehmann /
eric sheninger /
Leadership /
Personal Learning Network /
PLN /
Science Leadership Academy
with the title chris lehmann. You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2010/08/principal-who-used-to-block-now-offers.html. Thanks!
Those that believe in the impact of the state of now for education will enjoy the four education-related conversations at the #140conf this week. Here they are in the order in which they were presented.
Social Media + Education Chris Lehmann
Real Time Communication and Education. Aparna Vashisht (@Parentella) - Founder, Parentella (moderator) Kevin Jarrett (@kjarrett) - K-4 Technology Teacher Lisa Nielsen (@InnovativeEdu) - Educational Technologist Mary Beth Hertz (@mbteach) - K-6 Computer Teacher and Technology Teacher Leader in Philadelphia
Twitter and Animal Farm (and some 8th graders)
Real-time web and Education Participants Eric Sheninger (@NMHS_Principal) - Principal of New Milford HS (NJ) Kyle B. Pace (@kylepace) - Teaching K-12 teachers about technology infusion Steven W. Anderson (@web20classroom) - Technology Educator, Blogger, Co-Creator of #edchat Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby) - Professor of English in Secondary Education
You have read this article #140conf /
chris lehmann
with the title chris lehmann. You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2010/04/140-character-conference-state-of-now.html. Thanks!
I just returned from Educon which was an absolutely fantastical experience. At this moment, the thought of writing what I learned is overwhelming, but I am sure it will be shared in future posts, thoughts, activities. In the meantime, I kind of accidentally or serendipitously have begun reading old posts from the conference leader, organizer, founder, Chris Lehmann. I have chosen this one to be my post-Educon reflection :-)
He says the problem with teachers is, "What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?" He reminds the other dinner guests that it's true what they say about teachers:
Those who can, do; those who can't, teach.
I decide to bite my tongue instead of his and resist the temptation to remind the dinner guests that it's also true what they say about lawyers.
Because we're eating, after all, and this is polite company.
"I mean, you¹re a teacher, Taylor," he says. "Be honest. What do you make?"
And I wish he hadn't done that (asked me to be honest) because, you see, I have a policy about honesty and ass-kicking: if you ask for it, I have to let you have it.
You want to know what I make?
I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could. I can make a C+ feel like a Congressional medal of honor and an A- feel like a slap in the face. How dare you waste my time with anything less than your very best.
I make kids sit through 40 minutes of study hall in absolute silence. No, you may not work in groups. No, you may not ask a question. Why won't I let you get a drink of water? Because you're not thirsty, you're bored, that's why.
I make parents tremble in fear when I call home: I hope I haven't called at a bad time, I just wanted to talk to you about something Billy said today. Billy said, "Leave the kid alone. I still cry sometimes, don't you?" And it was the noblest act of courage I have ever seen.
I make parents see their children for who they are and what they can be.
You want to know what I make?
I make kids wonder, I make them question. I make them criticize. I make them apologize and mean it. I make them write. I make them read, read, read. I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful over and over and over again until they will never misspell either one of those words again. I make them show all their work in math. And hide it on their final drafts in English. I make them understand that if you got this (brains) then you follow this (heart) and if someone ever tries to judge you by what you make, you give them this (the finger).
Let me break it down for you, so you know what I say is true:
You have read this article #educon /
chris lehmann /
EduCon /
educon 2.2
with the title chris lehmann. You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-educon-teachers-make.html. Thanks!
The common standards movement is underway in 48 states in our nation and these standards are set to be finalized this month. I’ve been reading what the smart educators I respect are saying about these standards. Here is the summation. These are poorly written standards being put in place with testing companies at the forefront of the decision making. These ed testing companies as well as other big educational businesses/curriculum providers have a huge financial profit to gain after the adoption of these standards because a nation can now adopt their curriculum. There is no alignment or recognition of the changing face of education and the digital worlds in which our students are existing, reading, writing, interacting, producing, and publishing.
What can we do? Provide feedback today about the standards by visiting http://tinyurl.com/fixthestandards. It literally takes less than five minutes. You can use my words above, the words of others below or write your own.
Below are excerpts from other educators about their take on the standards, links to each resource, and where to visit for more information.
One look at the reading standards and you can’t help but be left with the impression that the authors have never “read” anything much beyond words on paper and that the idea of “remix” and even links are outside of their experience. There is nothing here about how reading and writing in online and digital spaces changes the interaction, nothing about the social interactions that readers and writers will have around texts that are changing rapidly and substantially.
In all of this, the thing that most frustrates me both in the talk about national standards and national assessments and the whole “Race to the Top” bunk that is coming out of the administration is just a total lack of vision, this sense that nothing has fundamentally changed, that this is the same old classroom with the same old expectations and the same old ways of proving them that we’ve had forever. I’m not saying we don’t need assessments, but there’s a lot of required learning right now that few if any standards are addressing.
Replacing one externally-created checklist with another undoubtedly more voluminous one will not help one child.
You cannot have “core” standards without additional standardized testing. Now districts already addicted to testing will have a more potent hallucinogenic with which they can poison public education.
Teachers and students are terrorized by testing and externally-imposed curricular mandates.
This Core Standards movement should scare everyone who believes that meaning and learning is still most powerfully made in the spaces that students and teachers share. More than teachers, students, state administrators, the group that stands most to gain from national standards and a national test is the education-industrial complex.
This isn't about whether or not people think that all students should be able to write a thesis statement. This is about how students are taught that information, how they are assessed on that information, and on the role of big business in teaching and assessing them.
I find them hard to read, because I think they are poorly written, but standards often are.
We are inviting testing companies to determine the future of our schools with virtually no accountability or public input.
These standards were developed by two testing companies, the College Board and ACT, with help from a nebulous non-profit, Achieve, Inc. It is essential to understand this when reading the Common Standards; it explains many of their odd choices. In the example above, the obvious interpretation is that they chose to define the standard as "support or challenge assertions" rather than "construct a response or interpretation," as every international example they cited did, because the former is much easier and cheaper to score reliably on a standardized test.
No high performing educational system in the world would consider giving testing companies this much control over their standards and curriculum. It is absurd.
These standards are specifically designed to not be the sole responsibility of English teachers, so any data system properly linking student performance on related tests to teachers would attribute the results to all subject area teachers.
The idea that these English Language Arts standards are "internationally benchmarked" to those of high performing countries is a farce, except insofar as the benchmarking demonstrates the low level and quality of our proposed standards.
No country with high reading scores in international assessments conceives of the discipline of Language Arts as being limited to literacy skills, or "college- and career-readiness," as the Common Standards do. Thus, the Common Standards are narrower, lower and shallower than the English Language Arts standards of high performing countries.
Zhao describes how schools have to keep pace with a world that is being dramatically transformed by globalization, the “death of distance,” and digital technology. Instead of falling in line with mandates for standardization, his prescription is for educators to
Expand the definition of success beyond math and reading test scores.
Personalize schooling so that every student has opportunity to learn.
View schools as enterprises that embrace globalization and digital technology.
Gotham Schools in New York City is running this series on the Common Standards:
Note that many of the handy links to benchmarked standards under "see evidence" don't point to the right place, so if you want to be complete you need to use...
England's standards make an easy point of comparison if you're curious about what actual benchmarked English Language Arts common standards might look like.
You have read this article chris lehmann /
common standards /
will richardson
with the title chris lehmann. You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2009/10/all-children-left-behind-common.html. Thanks!
