What did you have them do today?

Students have to do something with curriculum content! Reading about it and listening to it is not enough. Every unit needs to contain active learning (see the table to the left) opportunities. Technology affords us many opportunities to challenge our students with more active ways of processing information and concepts!
Most traditional pedagogy consists of little more than having students read an assignment and/or listen to a lecture with a very limited amount of engaging conversation with classmates or other resources. Consider using more dynamic forms of Dialogue with Others and the other three modes of learning. For example:
1. Create small groups of students and have them make a decision or answer a focused question periodically,
2. Find ways for students to engage in authentic dialogue with people other than fellow classmates who know something about the subject (on the web, by email, or live)
3. Have students keep a journal or build a "learning portfolio", or write on your blog about their own thoughts, learning, feelings, etc.,
4. Find ways of helping students observe (directly or vicariously) the subject or action they are trying to learn, and/or
5. Find ways to allow students to actually do (directly, or vicariously with case studies, simulation or role play) that which they need to learn to do.

Effectively Using Technology in the Classroom

The first day of school (can it already be here?)

Wow, did Summer fly by or what? It is hard to believe that we are on the precipice of the 2008-09 school year already! It is always exciting to open the new school year. We have a lot of new faces around here. Over 160 new freshmen! Seven new teachers!

WELCOME!

We have nine new SMARTboards (to go with the six we already had), twenty five new computers in our business lab in room 33, 25 new computers in the library(and if I understand it right, a bunch more are going to show up soon due to a grant award Ms. Hill applied for! Way to go Ms. Hill! YEAH, WE ARE GOING WIRELESS!)

It is always great to see the students show up at the beginning of the year. Although they hate to admit it, most of them are ready for it to start. They always show up looking to see what we have to offer. Hoping to find the key to success, something to interest them, caring relationships, a routine to keep them disciplined, acceptance, affirmation that they are worthy, a helping hand. Lets not disappoint them! We must mentor them, engage them, excite them, facilitate positive and interesting learning environments for them, and most of all WE MUST CHALLENGE THEM! They want high expectations. They want feedback. They want to know how to correct their mistakes. They want a job well done acknowledged!

2008-09 will be a great school year! It is our responsibility to make it happen! We are up to this task!

What is our vision? What can we create?

I like to read a lot about education, technology, and reform. Today I was reading a blog on Leadertalk about vision and how the work of a generation of teachers is being overshadowed by NCLB and high stakes testing. We are positioned in this community to take a great step towards creating a school system that will shape our young people to be thinking, creative and well prepared individuals. As Paris 95 and Crestwood Unit 4 come together to create a cooperative high school, we have the opportunity to lead with a vision of what we want a school to be and make it happen. The following quote says very well what we need to consider:

Right now, there are too many people who want to put too much of the fault on the people in the system. That's the biggest legacy of NCLB -- the erosion of trust in educators. And that's criminal because we are squandering the good will and hard work of a generation of teachers. In the 1980 Presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan used the myth of the "Welfare Queen" as a major part of his campaign. Today, under NCLB, we have created the myth of the lazy teacher who, if only there was something to hold them accountable for the way they teach. The myth of that lazy teacher who could get students to achieve if only they worked harder is just that -- a myth. Are there bad, lazy teachers? Of course, but they are the vast, vast minority. Most teachers went into the profession because they wanted to make a difference. But our system is broken, and if you put good people in bad systems, the system will win more often than not. And as a result, we have lost the ability to negotiate the terms of our own profession. And that's what our current testing mania is at its root. It's a political tool. It gives politicians a number that they can use to compare schools to each other, and claim that one number can encapsulate all that a student have learned. And these tests now are determining student, teacher and administrator lives, when we know that the tests -- at best -- tell only a small part of a student's --and a school's -- learning. We need to tell a new story -- we need to articulate a vision of caring, student-centered schools where students are judged by the work of their own head, heart and hands. We need to talk about how the technological tools at our disposal allow us to fundamentally change the structures of our schools so that we can prepare students for the world they will inherit, but we can't do that as long as our assessment system is firmly placed in the past.

We need to articulate our vision for Paris' schools and it needs to be the shared ideas of parents, educators, students (they are often left out), local businesses and the community at large. The City of Paris has taken a great step in the right direction by securing the prison work camp property for the use of an educational facility! We need to follow that up by creating a vision and an action plan to create a school that will serve the needs of our community! We must look beyond what is being done now. Look for ways around current regulations that bog down the educational process in political dogma. Illinois law allows for the creation of Charter Schools that, with special provisions, are allowed to operate without the ties of some of the poor lawmaking that have made our system as bad as it is. It is an opportune time and we need to take advantage of it!