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Join Me Tonight for A Wild and Wacky Evening of Fun on Teachers Teaching Teachers!

I am among an exciting cast of innovators that will be joining tonight's Teachers Teaching Teachers. I hope you'll join me by listening in and participating in the chat room at http://edtechtalk.com/live-ttt at 9:00 PM Eastern / 6:00 PM Pacific - World Times: http://goo.gl/u3le0

In addition to me, Lisa Nielsen, we'll be hanging out with hosts Chris Sloan, Monika hardy, and Paul Allison. Other featured guests include: Alexander Pappas, Katherine von Jan, Phill Pappas.

During the show, you'll probably hear words like: innovative, alternative, academic deviance, uncollege, unschooling, courage, wacky ideas, grit, life, and getting through school with ADHD.

I'm particularly psyched to hear from Katherine von Jan the lady behind RadMatter, the innovation design studio singularly focused on reinventing college for the 21st century.

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Steve Jobs Tells Us Why Dropping Out Was a Key to Finding His Passion

Death is life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. -Steve Jobs

I often write about my frustration around data-not passion-driven learning, the narrowing of the curriculum and the new College for all mandate in American schools today as part of the Common Core Standards. We are not widgets, we are people and we shouldn't all be pushed down the same one-size-fits all path.

In this video, Steve Jobs reminds us, "The only way to do great work is to love what you do." "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life... Don't be trapped by dogma which is living out the life of other people's thinking." Ed reformers must listen to Job's message and stop forcing our children down a path and start letting them make their own choices for what might be best for them.

Visionary Steve Jobs shares these ideas in the commencement speech below.

Don't be sad because it's over. Smile because it happened. -- Dr. Seuss

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Rethinking Learning with A Child-Centered Lesson Plan

Editor’s note: After reading How Andgragogy Might Look in the Classroom on the Mystified Mom blog, I asked if she could pull out the parts regarding lesson plans so that people could get a better idea of what a learner-centered lesson plan would look like.

Guest Post by Mystified Mom

People often claim that learner-centered methods are not practical for mass delivery systems due to the fact that standards have to be met. As a veteran educator, I have not found this to be true. To follow are the eight parts of a lesson plan and my comments about what could be added to gear them toward how students learn best.

Header
The header typically include the teachers name, grade level, topic, and time allotment. This is all standard information. The one piece of information that can be rethought is the time allotment. Unless things have changed, the typical time allotment for a lesson is 30 minutes to an hour. Every now and then, I will see lessons that take longer or will span the course of a few days. Students and teachers should allot more time to do lessons.

A lot of high schools have gone to block scheduling to give students more time in a class. That means that they do not have every subject every day. Why can't that be done in elementary schools? Why can't teachers spend half the day doing nothing but math or English or Social Studies? I bet that would give teachers a lot more options for making lessons come alive. It would also give more opportunity for teachers to coach and work one on one with individual students. In the period of an hour, it is very difficult to get around to each student and give each student help.

People learn best when they are given the opportunity to completely immerse themselves in a topic. Schools do not allow for that level of immersion. As soon as a kid gets involved in an activity, it is time to put it up. Rethinking the class day so that each day is devoted to a particular subject would make more sense. It would allow for more continuity. If a teacher wants to spend a week doing an art project, put it all in one day so that a child has more time to follow his/her muse. I remember being in high school art class and getting frustrated because I would have an inspiration and would try to get it done but it was inevitable that the bell would ring before I could finish it. That required me to put it up and try to pick up the muse later. That is difficult to do.

Materials Needed
The second part is materials needed. That is pretty simple. It is good to have the necessary resources available before teaching a lesson. However, if you wanted to focus more on the students, you could have an open ended component where students select their own materials. Instead of using the fancy math manipulatives, make an allowance for them to use manipulatives that are ordinary items such as pencils or crayons. Give them the opportunity to find ordinary materials that can be used to further the lesson objectives.

Lesson Objectives
The next section is the objective section. I have added an element in italics to demonstrate how the current elements could be added to in order to take the learner into account.

Which standards the lesson meets
How this lesson will help the child outside of the academic environment
Long-term objectives (How this fits into the larger lesson.)
Short-term (lesson) objectives: Specific outcomes that are usually phrased as "the student will be able to"

I propose an extra element to these objectives. If the intent of schools is to prepare kids for life or adulthood, then I think kids should be told how these skills are going to help them outside of the classroom and in the real world. It would be rather simple to add an element that requires the teacher to identify how a specific objective will help a child in life right now or even later in life. Kids should be treated as though they are citizens right now.

Procedures
The next section is procedures, which spells out how the teacher plans to go about delivering the lesson. In the procedure section, most places recommend that teachers start out with an attention getter to introduce the lesson. What better attention getter than to tell students how this knowledge is going to help them be a part of the world. No, people don't want kids to think outside of the classroom. Another tidbit is that the attention getter should activate prior knowledge. What if the kid does not have prior knowledge because he has forgotten it?

The procedures section typically involves spelling out how the goals of the lesson will be reached, what the students will do to meet the objectives set out by the teachers, and what the students are expected to do. That is all fine but I think that perhaps the procedures should be more open ended. Or, at the very least, students should be given more time. I am thinking about how things work in a college classroom. I have worked with college professors that teach face to face courses. They have notes and they make sure that they have all of the supplies necessary for any particular class but they are not required to write up what they are going to do every single day. They create a syllabus at the beginning of the semester that contains the learning outcomes, assignments, and expectations for the semester. I realize that it might not be realistic to expect a 6 year old to follow a syllabus but I do think it would be a good idea if things weren't broken down into such small chunks.

Really, I think a monthly syllabus or even a weekly syllabus would be a good idea. It would give parents the chance to work ahead with their children. I think it would also give the teachers more flexibility. Right now, teachers typically break the day up into subjects. I haven't been in an elementary classroom in a while but I am thinking that the chunks of time for a lesson are usually about an hour. If the subject is boring, then an hour seems like forever. If the lessons or activities are fun, then an hour isn't near long enough.

Independent Work
This section typically spells out the types of independent work that a student is expected to do. Ideally, the independent work should reinforce the lesson, build upon it, and create background knowledge for the next lesson. If all of this were done in larger chunks of time (day, half day, several hours), there would be more time for kids to explore and the lessons could be intertwined so there would not need to be as much instruction time. When I was in the classroom, I found that the hour long lesson was a problem because it made it difficult for me to plan lessons. There were lots of things that would have been cool to do but it would have been very difficult to spread them out over the week. The other problem was that kids would sometimes forget what they learned from one day to the next because they were never really allowed to fully immerse themselves in the topic.

With larger chunks of time, there could be more options for independent work. There could be a written component such as work sheets or book work, there could be an exploratory component where kids are allowed to explore the topic in a hands on fashion by doing a project of some sorts, and there could be a play component. If all of these components are set up at the beginning, then students could work through the different components at their own pace and allow the teacher more time to assist students that need more help. With larger chunks of time, the classroom could have a lot more self-directed learning going on.

My argument for more time for lessons is that I think the little 45 minute and 1 hour lessons do not prepare kids for the real world. (There, I said it. I am tired of people saying that to me with regard to homeschooling.) In the real world at real jobs, people are expected to work on the same activity or subject for hours at a time. I know that when I am working on my online course, I will sometimes work on it for 3 or 4 hours at a time. School didn't prepare me for that. Heck, I think schools gave me a short attention span because of spending years in classes that would only allow short periods of time for classes. The fun classes went by too fast and the slow classes took forever. I suspect that having longer class times wouldn't change that.

Assessment
And then, of course, is the dreaded assessment. Why does every single lesson have to have an assessment component? When you break learning down into such tiny bits, it can sometimes be difficult to determine whether or not somebody actually learned something. In a lot of cases, I think assessment is merely assessing a child's ability to follow directions.

I think larger chunks of time would also for more authentic types of assessment such as observations or personal success plans or portfolios. One of the biggest hurdles in the classroom is not enough time. When the day is broken up into 5 or 6 subjects, it makes it almost impossible for teachers to do anything but test. If people want to move the focus away from tests, then teachers are going to have to be given more freedom and more time.

Reflections
Depending on where you look, some will list reflection as part of the lesson plan. The way it is worded is that it is the teacher's opportunity to decide whether or not the lesson was effective. All it would take for the focus to move from pedagogy to andragogy would be to ask for student feedback, which leads me to my last and final point.

Rating a teacher based on the students test scores is the most outrageous thing that I can imagine. First, how a student scores on a test does not indicate how much they have learned nor does it indicate whether or not the teacher is a good teacher. In all honesty, I don't think that I will be happy until student evaluations are introduced into K-12 classrooms. All the test scores in the world and all the observations by administrators are not going to make an ounce of difference. In my opinion, what matters is how students react to the teacher.

Kids can be given a voice in the classroom without eliminating standards and without removing mass instruction. Mass instruction can be tweaked to address how students actually learn rather than how people wish they would learn. Pretty much all of the articles that I have read about child development have said that kids learn best when playing and having fun. I think it would be really easy to build that into mass instruction. It could all be done with a mind to the standards. Maybe I am crazy but it seems like there is too much of an either/or dichotomy here.

Mystified Mom
I am passionate about learning. I have four beautiful daughters (10, 7, 4, & 2) and I am married to my best friend. We live a lifestyle of learning, which means that learning is a part of everything that we do. As somebody that is always learning and always seeking new ideas and perspectives, I am not tied to any one method of learning. My goal is to examine my life and the world around me so that I may grow as a mother, wife, and human being. I am very interested in child advocacy, especially as it relates to the rights of children.

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Top Ten Ed Tech Issues This School Year

I was recently asked what I saw as the top ed tech issues this year. Here are the first things that came to mind.

1) Passion (Not Just Data) Driven Learning
2) Bring your own tech
3) Reducing use of filters and empowering students to do this work by engaging responsibly online
4) Reducing fear of teacher /student relationships i.e. Social media doesn't cause inappropriate behavior, it catches it.
5) Authentic ePortfolios for teachers and students
6) Developing a responsible and impressive digital footprint
7) Supporting students in developing a responsible and impressive digital footprint
8) Developing your personal learning network
9) Empowering students to develop their personal learning network
10) Authentic publishing for teachers and students

These also happen to be some of my most favorite things to write about here on The Innovative Educator blog. I look forward to sharing and growing ideas with all of you :) I also wonder what's missing? Are there other things you'd like to see addressed?

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Student Inspires Educators to Think Outside the Ban

I had the pleasure of meeting Travis Allen at this year’s International Society of Technology Educator’s conference. Travis explained that as a high school student he felt rather bound and trapped by the prison of school that enforced outdated restrictions that did not allow him the freedom to learn. It began with his parents getting him an iPhone for Christmas. He immediately found he enjoyed the endless list of applications on it and shortly after, began looking into educational apps to help in school. It wasn’t long before he realized the amazing capabilities this device would have in education. He was so inspired by the unlocked potential of these devices that he made the following video, called the iSchool Initiative.

Unfortunately, teachers working in an educational system stuck in the past, told Travis that his technology was not an educational tool and he would not be able to use it for learning. Frustration turned to inspiration. If his school wouldn’t let him unleash the 21st century learner trapped outside the school walls, he’d take matters into his own hands. Travis launched the iSchool Initiative, a non-profit organization dedicated tor revolutionizing our education system through innovative technology. Since its inception in 2009, the iSchool Initiative team has expanded to over 25 members consisting of students who work around the globe helping educators break free from outdated constructs and join the digital learning revolution taking place in the world.

Travis explains his work in this interview with Wes Fryer.

Is your school one that traps students in the past or one that empowers them as 21st century learners? If it’s the former, maybe you need to hire Travis and his team. Visit http://ischoolinitiative.org to learn more.

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Back to School Dos and Don’ts

In his blog, SpeEdChange, Ira Socol provides smart advice about back to school dos and don’ts and I provide my thoughts on each below.

Dos

Offer multiple media versions of information to students so they can read it, hear it, understand it in their native language, etc.

You may want to consider partnering with students and parents to do this.

Offer a wide range of places and ways for students to be comfortable because there is no reason to make kids feel trapped or uncomfortable

Craigslist and social media are great places to secure donations. When I had my library we had a comfy couch, bean bags, pillows, animal chairs and more that were all donated.

Let them eat and drink because people should be able to do that if they’re hungry or thirsty.

When I was a librarian I jumped through hoops and fought unnecessary policies to allow food/drink in the library. We learned to clean up after ourselves.

Offer a Tool Crib for your students.

I just love this! We do not need to standardize the devices students use. Let them use what they have or what you have. Choice is good and allowing students to use different tools or software helps kids build their toolbelts.

Connect to social media

Creating globally connected students shouldn’t be a shallow piece of a school’s mission statement. Teachers should bring this to life using social media tools by creating classroom accounts with Twittert, Skype, Google, and UStream.

Let kids declare "time outs."

Students don’t need you to tell them they need a “time out,” empower them to tell you. Adults take a break and back away when they need to. Children should be afforded the same opportunity.

Don’ts

Don’t assign seating or expect students to sit on the same type of chair.

This is important when you have students like me who or Donald Rumsfeld who just hate sitting on a chair or working at a standard desk and that’s okay. I have not had a desk in seven years.

Don’t force your students to stay in your room.
If they need to leave for a bit you’re accomplishing nothing by keeping them in.

When I was a library media specialist people were amazed at how wonderful the “difficult” students were in my center. That is because sometimes people need a break and that’s okay.

Don’t ban mobile phones.

Couldn’t agree more. Teach responsibility and ability to harness the technology students own for learning.

Don’t insist on handwriting

Thank you for this. I haven’t used a paper/pen in nearly 10 years except when forced at outdated, inefficient medical offices where I write the same thing unnecessarily 500 times. Other than that, never! Socol advises, “Let kids enter text and data any way that works for them.” Socol has some smart suggestions for doing this. Such common sense.

Don’t... give kids a "second shift" of work when they leave school.

I couldn’t agree more. You’ve controlled what students do all day. Let them have freedom to live and apply knowledge in the real world at night. Let them run around and get exercise. Allow them to discover, explore, and develop their passions. Let them rest, relax, or be alone. In short, they’ve put in their day. Let them be who they want to be and do what they want to do when they leave. Socol says it this way, allow them the opportunity to extend their world, rather than extending yours.

Don’t sweat "due dates."

What a novel concept! Perhaps kids work at different rates or have other life factors that may impact when they have completed their work. Socol gives examples of all sorts of high level positions and deadlines that are rarely met in the real world and reminds teachers to ask themselves, if the work assigned is really of any real value. As I said in a recent speech, “When is the last time you read a book you loved and thought, ‘I can’t wait to write a book report about this.’ If we’re not keeping it real with students, why should they bother to do the work?

To see full reasons and resources visit the original post here.

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The State of Digital Education

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

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See Me Live Discussing How to Connect School Life to Real Life

I had the pleasure of speaking to thousands of educators from around the world about the importance of connecting school life to real life at the 140 Character Education Conference. You can see my talk below followed by the presentation I used during my talk. I hope you will consider sharing my talk and presentation with others. Both are available for download for free.

My presentation.

Connecting School Life to Real Life on Prezi

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Improve Student Success by Setting Them Free From Outdated Time and Space Constructs

We're well past the time of the industrial model yet everyone is still set in the same old way of doing things at work and school even though it clearly makes no sense at all. Let's start with school. While many openly admit that they know school is not what is best for their children, parents often need to send their children anyhow because of the free babysitting services it provides. Therefore, for primary students the early start and after school become a necessary evil. However, once children become more independent in their teen years their is no reason to stick to this outdated construct. In fact, there is plenty of evidence indicating that due to their circadian rhythms teens perform poorly at the very hours most school occurs. Why not implement some simple options like having independent study each day that the child can engage in first thing or at the end of the day, and even have the option to do it inside or outside of school? Why not give teachers the same flexible scheduling option as well? Many know that the school bus schedule has a lot to do with it, but 1) not all kids take the school bus 2) resourceful parents, teens, and educators can help figure transportation options out.

As long as we're talking about schedules, we should also reconsider whether responsible teens need to be physically tied to a building all day. Let's face it. Lessons can be delivered easily via YouTube or Podcasts and support for students can be provided through personal learning networks or Google Hangouts if when/necessary. Everyone going at the same pace through the same content in the same place is an unnecessary throwback to the industrial age. If you're thinking not all kids have equity and access, stop. Schools need to help figure this out. I was doing this more than a decade ago in a low income school in Central Harlem. We need to ensure every kid who needs it has a place to go to access the internet. Connect with business, community centers, mentors, parks. If you are completely unresourceful, there's always school if the students and adults can't figure it out...but I bet given the choice, they would.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post. Why Working 9 - 5 Ain't the Way to Make a Livin.

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The Pencil Integration Blog - A Historical Perspective

If only ever child had access

Innovative educators who've struggled with integrating technology into a school system stuck in the past will get some comic relief and inspiration from John T. Spencer's blog, "Adventures in Pencil Integration." Written as an allegory for contemporary educational technology issues, Adventures in Pencil Integration tells the fictional story of Tom Johnson, who is fighting to integrate technology into his classroom. He fights small battles regarding whether students should be able to bring their own pencils from home, whether pen pal letters will "ruin relationships," whether pencils are the cause of "pencil bullying" and why short-hand text will not ruin the language. The larger, external conflict initially feels like it's about getting pencils into the hands of students. But it's more than that. It's fighting against a new, emerging factory system of education while still encouraging the use of these new tools in a more human way.

The idea here is that technology does not exist in a cultural or social vacuum. There are layers of political and social events, personality conflicts and institutional procedures that make meaningful "pencil integration" a difficult endeavor.

Here are some posts you might enjoy:

what about classroom management?

should students bring their own pencils?

why penmanship class is failing our students

should teachers take tools away?

the pencil planning committee

Comparing today's technology with that of yesterday, helps put these issues into perspective and remember that technology is only technology to those who were born before it.

The 12 Most Important Things to Know About 21st Century Learners

The 12 Most blog is pretty cool. It asks writers to contribute the 12 most of anything. This could be a great authentic opportunity in a writing class. Angela Maiers put together a post identifying the 12 Most Important Things to Know About Kids Today. In her post it becomes clear that when it comes to “kids today” (Gen Y or The Millennials) those who label them as entitled, directionless, having twitter-sized attention spans— are the ones with the problems.

Below are the five ideas that resonated most with me because these are ideas that are often left behind in classrooms driven by outdated data and instruction.

4. They are global learners and excellent teachers.

Angela explains...“Kids today have redefined themselves as learners, teachers, and leaders. They are self-reliant and independent. They don’t wait for school to find out how or what.”

In the past...Educators were front and center holding onto the knowledge and power.

Today...Teachers need to step off the stage and realize that in the 21st century the playing field is leveled and we all have access to information as long as we are not banned or blocked from doing so.

7. They are challenge-seekers.

Angela explains...“These learners thrive on change and challenge that is authentic and fair. They are very adaptable, flexible and hate being asked to operate inside the box. They want to create, invent, and innovate.”

In the past...Students were expected to accept as a challenge sit and git instruction then take a test or read the chapters in a book and answer the questions at the end.

Today...Being disconnected and tied to a desk doesn’t work for today’s young people. I haven’t met a single kid who feels this need is met by filling in bubble sheets on a computer or paper.

9. They are question askers.

Angela explains...“The next generation is happy to question everything and anything and do so not to rebel or prove a point; but to forge change. They are asking questions and seeking to understand WHAT they believe and WHY they believe it.”

In the past...Teachers were the main askers of questions expecting students to answer with their pre-determined responses.

Today...Educators must be prepared to answer questions like “Why do I need to know this?” and allow young people to develop and explore questions and answers about topics they find meaningful.

10. They value friends and relationships

Angela explains...“Today’s kids are deeply committed to friendships. Friends hold immeasurably influence and kids are willing to commit to these relationships.”

In the past...Children weren’t connected to their friends 24/7. While friends were important they weren’t a constant presence in the lives of young people.

Today...Educators must not ignore 21st century tools that students use to build and develop relationships. They must recognize the strength of friendships and help guide students in helping those friends to become valuable members of their personal learning networks.

11. They are changing the world.

Angela explains...Children want to and can do work that is worthy of the world or as Angela calls it (WOW work). They want to serve somewhere they believe is doing good work and makes a positive impact on the world and they are willing to lead the effort.

In the past...Work was often confined to a classroom and handed into a teacher with no relevance or connection to the world.

Today...Young people want to make a difference and be a part of change. In many cases the greatest help a teacher can provide is to remove the blocks and barriers that school often puts in the way from helping this to occur.

Check out all 12 things Angela suggests you know about kids today along with great examples of each here.

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The Innovative Educator