Hans-on Tech

Educating Our Way to Prosperity

2012-02-22T07:31:00.000-08:00

We will never fully recover from this recession. At least, not by doing what we have been doing. It doesn't matter who is elected president, or if congress suddenly realizes that toddlers do a better job of compromise, step up to the plate and stop bickering long enough to actually run the legislative branch. No, those things will have little or no effect on things because the real problem in the United States is that it has turned its back on the one great economic stimulus engine we have: the free public education available to all citizens.

I don't know how to make this any simpler: unless you educate our youth to compete with the rest of the world, we aren't going to be able to compete. Until we stop teacher bashing in the media and look for ways to help them do their nearly impossible jobs, until we respect education as the great equalizer that it is, until we stop taking money away from schools and forcing them to cut programs that are proven to help kids learn, and until we invest in our future at at least the same level as we invest in protecting ourselves from those who would do us harm, we don't have much hope for the future.

The world's problems are big. The jobs that students today will need to do in the future are complex. We cannot continue to do the same things and expect different results. The data is in, and it's glaringly obvious that testing kids to death doesn't make them smarter. Filling in bubbles doesn't help them solve problems, think creatively about solutions to complex issues, or collaborate with others on difficult tasks which require experts from various fields. Giving them drugs to make them sit still, be quiet, and listen to more lecture isn't going to create the kind of worker the future-and this economy-needs.

We don't need assembly line workers anymore. We don't need thoughtless clones who follow orders without question. China and India each have more honor students than we have students. Can you blame American companies for going outside our borders to recruit? They can't find enough qualified people here to fill the kinds of jobs that are in high demand.

We don't need standardized tests to help us do it better. "Better" won't cut it anymore. We need "different". The entire model of school needs to change. It needs to be more like the life we are preparing students to have.

We need thinkers, collaborators, problem solvers, effective communicators, and most of all-we need learners who know how to learn, unlearn, and relearn as things change. We need people who can evaluate things from different angles, then invite experts in to help them with the things they can't solve themselves. In schools today, that's called cheating.

The old way doesn't fit our needs anymore. It's time to stop talking about how to make it better and dig in with the real work of retooling our education system to meet the needs of the learners.

Letter to the editor: Salina Journal

2011-06-02T07:33:00.000-07:00

A recent editorial about school funding, specifically what constituted a “suitable” education, prompted me to write in disagreement. Most of the article pointed out areas of school funding that indeed could stand to be reduced, although not enough to significantly counter the reductions being made on what seems to be an annual basis. Near the end, a statement was made that, paraphrasing, basically said that the Journal takes issue with any district that spends more money on computers than textbooks.

The statement is vastly wrong and obviously biased.

The Journal, like all newspapers, struggles to remain relevant in an increasingly digital world. I am one of the few 30-somethings I know who reads any physical newspaper daily. I have 12 RSS feeds that deliver exactly what I want to read directly to my inbox almost immediately after publication for free. In that kind of world, of course the Journal would prefer that children not be taught to harness the power of instant information. Encouraging digital literacy almost guarantees the demise of print newspapers.

What the Journal doesn’t realize is that teaching kids to use these tools effectively to think critically and solve problems is exactly what will enable traditional newspapers to innovate their way into the future. If they want to survive, they (and all other businesses) need people who can work with others, invent, create, and solve complex problems. They can only learn to do that in tomorrow’s world by using the best tools we can provide today. Those tools are expensive, and providing an adequate funding base absolutely needs to account for them.

It isn’t even reasonable to compare the cost of a book versus the cost of a computer. Other technologies are not cheap, either. Books are usually in the range of $50-$100 each, while computers cannot be purchased for less than several hundred dollars.

A view of traffic through a portal on the Internet Image via WikipediaThe value of a book versus a computer should be obvious, but for those who still have their heads in the analog sand, let me break it down for you. Recent estimates put the amount of all human knowledge contained on the Internet at about 97%. That means that with an Internet connection, students have instant access to almost every fact known to mankind. Not since the invention of the printing press in the 1400s has there been such a revolution in the amount and availability of information. This revolution is much, much bigger. The potential is limitless, but the responsibility we have to teach our children how to use it wisely and responsibly is even bigger.

With a book, you get, well, whatever is in that book. It’s heavy, and you can’t search it quickly to find just what you want. It doesn’t have links to other books where you can get pictures, videos, songs, and games to help you learn about what’s in it. I can’t use the book to create something else without tearing it apart and rendering it useless as a book. I can’t use the book to communicate with anyone. The book won’t keep track of my schedule and when my assignments are due. The book won’t let me work on things with other people around the world, and I certainly can’t write in it! The computer can do all of these things in one day.

Districts should be spending more on technology than on books. They should be spending a lot more than they are. Studies keep coming out that support that assertion. One of them was published in the Journal on May 13, showing that even the best scores in one classroom where a lecture style was used didn’t compare to the average score in another classroom using clicker technology and more hands-on interactive teaching methods. Students did nearly twice as well in the interactive classroom using “clicker” response systems. Another study by respected researcher Dr. Robert Marzano found that veteran teachers who felt confident using interactive whiteboards could expect as much as a 29 percentile gain in student achievement. In short, that’s like getting 12 months of learning in a 9-month period. But these technologies are expensive. One set of “clickers” like the ones used in the classroom experiment in the Journal article can be around $2,500. One interactive whiteboard with the projector needed to use it is around $2,000 and the cost goes up from there.

Additionally, districts could be spending money on technology instead of textbooks. One electronic reading device can store all of a student’s books. The texts themselves can be created by their teachers and loaded on the device, along with other resources and assignments. The digital versions of texts can be highlighted, bookmarked, and notes can be taken in the margin. If a student needs to know the meaning of a word, they can look it up instantly by simply selecting it.

Technology and computers make things possible. A student with a disability may be a tremendous author, but no one would know because they have a hard time getting their ideas on paper before they disappear. With a free application, they can speak a story and have it translated to text almost instantly. They can copy and paste that text into an editor where they can revise their work, and then they can share it with a worldwide audience for feedback, discussion, and further learning. An autistic student with an iPad can communicate his feelings and needs. A third grader with an iPod can learn their multiplication facts, shoot a video for a project, and turn in assignments all on one device.

Why are we not insisting on this kind of learning? Why aren’t we demanding that our students be taught this way? Why are we taking money from our kids at all, in order to pay for mistakes by some of the richest Americans? Why do their salaries and bonuses continue to hit all-time highs while we blame our teachers for not doing more with hardly anything, all the while threatening to take away even more? How can our Governor claim “a victory” for Kansas just because he managed to avoid raising taxes while allowing the playground bully-like thieving from our kids to continue for yet another year? Does this make sense to anyone?

Victory?

2011-05-13T10:51:00.000-07:00

As the state of Kansas gets closer to finalizing a budget, it is becoming clearer exactly how much public education stands to lose this time around. An article today in the Salina Journal quoted Governor Sam Brownback calling the budget "a victory" for Kansas, because no taxes were raised in the effort to reduce spending and cut back the budget shortfall.

How can we as a society collectively complain about the state of the education system while simultaneously removing the resources necessary to even maintain the status quo, let alone make improvements of any kind? How can we take money from our children to pay for mistakes made by the richest Americans and call that a victory?

Let's be real here, Governor. This so-called victory is a sham; an irresponsible attempt at leadership by those put in (or kept in) office on promises to tight-fisted Americans who are tired of seeing their money taken from them. Who is really to blame? Who should pay for the problems we have in our economy? Leaders should be making the tough choices to right the ship and prevent this kind of bloated money mongering from causing a global economic downturn in the future. Instead, they take money from kids like a playground bully while CEO's salaires were again at record highs last year.

Big pats on the back all around, guys. Nice "victory".

Are you walking or just talking?

2011-04-28T12:17:00.000-07:00

I'm like most teachers. My first year or two, I was swimming in newness and trying to stay afloat. As soon as the dust settled, I started to realize the hurdles I was up against. Soon, I became disillusioned. I think that is when most of those who leave education do so-when they realize their workload will forever be increasing and their support will forever be decreasing from the futile, but still appreciated, efforts of mentoring during the first year.

Image via WikipediaI made it past the doldrums, and continued on my journey determined to make a difference, despite the odds and roadblocks stacked against my fellow teachers and me. The roadblocks are many, varied, and complex, but one in particular always rubbed me worse than the others, simply because it was so easy to

change, but no one ever seemed interested or willing to change it. That roadblock is staff development.

Even the name draws ire from deep within my teacher-centric being. After all, anyone who has been to the traditional staff development can attest to the fact that they were not being developed at all. They may have been preached to, or they may have drilled down into the data, but they certainly were not "developed". If they were, we wouldn't still be talking about trying to change for the 21st Century 11 years after the century has started.

Staff development has long been criticized by teachers, but there are also plenty of organizations, research, and documentation out there to prove that the old way of "one size fits all" and "sit and get and forget" don't work. We KNOW that we need time, time to give teachers to practice and apply with support the things we want to eventually affect change in the classrooms. If we don't give them the time and sustained support, nothing ever changes. Look around. Does this describe your school?

Chances are, you work in a district like most others, in which a new initiative comes along every so often that gets everyone all fired up. Then, when nothing becomes of it, it goes away. Nothing becomes of it because no one ever took the time to make sure it was being understood, internalized, and practiced by all staff. That didn't happen because those with the power to give teachers what they've been asking for won't change the approach.

It is ironic to me that we are so bent on the idea of data-driven decision making in education that we fail to recognize some of the most important data. That data states that nothing is ever going to change unless you make sure your teachers are on board, prepared, and supported. That simply cannot happen in two in-services at the beginning and end of the year. The National Staff Development Council has clear standards that are regularly ignored.

If your district isn't providing the time and allocating the resources to support initiatives at the teacher level, then it is just doing lip service. Talking the talk, but not walking the walk.

NCLB was written backwards

2011-04-12T13:22:00.000-07:00

Teachers know to plan with the end in mind. I wish that our legislators had done the same.

The NCLB laws mostly focus on students as a way to measure teachers. There are many, well documented problems with this approach, and many problems centering around using standardized (culturally biased) tests to measure student progress. The biggest of these, in my opinion, is that even if the test were the best test ever conceived, it still measures a class at a snapshot in time, not their progress as they learn and grow.

NCLB should have been written for teachers. After all, no real change is ever going to reach classrooms unless it starts with teachers. Adding more unfunded mandates for teachers and schools in the hopes of improving student learning is something only congress could come up with. Those in the lawmaking bodies seem to think that unless we force teachers to do things, and then force them to prove that they are doing what they were forced to do, and then having them document that they did the proof of what we forced them to do, nothing will get done.

The reality is that the best teachers desperately want to do what's best for their students, but mandates, paperwork to and requirements often bog them down to the point where they don't have time to plan quality lessons or grow professionally. There are new things added all the time, and rarely is anything removed from teachers' 'to-do' lists. Even if government and administrators took every opportunity to remove anything that wasn't completely necessary from teachers' plates, teachers are still responsible for more today than even five years ago. Character education and anti-bullying initiatives speak to that truth.

So what to do? Standardize teachers instead. No, we don't want carbon copies of teachers in every room, but we want a consistent level of quality nationwide. Build the system to evaluate teaching and learning, not snapshots of students. Build in supports for teachers who need help to grow, and make it easy for administrators to help those who should be in another profession find the doors.

Time should be built in, funded by the federal government, to allow for professional development. Teachers should have a baseline requirement for planning time as well as collaboration time with peers. Extra time can be added by districts, but everyone should expect the time they need to do their job well. Teachers, not students, should be required to show progress on learning goals and growth over time.

With the best teachers in every classroom, the learning will take care of itself.

Investing in Failure

2011-04-08T08:13:00.000-07:00

Are we investing in our future, or are we investing in failure?

Government officials standing with the guillotine like to say that education is the biggest budget item, and therefore, should get at least its fair share of cuts. On the surface, that seems fair. But only on the surface.

Below the surface, there is a lot of dirt. There are things we pay for that were approved by no one, simply because legislators don't read most of what they pass. There are lobbyists for big business who get their pet projects passed with methods the public school system can't afford, and frankly, has too much integrity to employ. There are things we pay comparatively more for that have long been known as failed or ineffective.

Nothing we pay for as citizens of a taxed democracy could be more important than ensuring our future survival and success. Nothing but public education does that. Why, then, do we spend so much money on criminals and so little on children?

In Kansas in 2008, the average cost to the taxpayer per inmate was $25,127 (National Institute of Corrections) while today, we spend $4,012 to educate a child for a year. That figure will likely go down further as budget cuts loom.

Now, there are some legislators who will argue with those statistics; saying that the total money spent on schools is higher. I read an exchange in my local paper between a state senator and the director of operations of the local school district in which the senator told the school official, "Don't do that again (referring to the base student aid per pupil amount), it irritates me when school officials don't include all the money spent on schools."

Well, Mr. Senator, do you know what irritates most of us? When you talk around dollar amounts to avoid the painful truth-that you underfund public education at the expense of nearly everyone for generations to come. The money he was "irritated" about isn't even spent on kids and/or doesn't come from the state. He was referring to grants, federal dollars, and money spent on retirement funds. None of that money can be counted on year after year and most of it never sees a classroom. It is unfair to include this money in the discussion of what is fair and necessary to provide an adequate education. How does the money the state spends on retirement affect learning in the classroom?

More importantly, what is the return on the investment to prisons and jails across the state? How is it that sticking someone in a room with bars costs so much more than providing them with rich experiences that develop useful skills for a lifetime of learning and productivity? It seems to me that if we spent more on the front end of this investment, while children are young, we could avoid quite an expense later on. Giving children the tools they need to succeed eliminates many of the causes of crime.

The choice is simple: we can provide a stellar education for our children; enabling them to succeed in life, deal with its challenges productively, and contribute to the advancement of the human race. We do a pretty good job of that now, even with ridiculously underfunded programs and restrictive mandates that limit what teachers can do to truly inspire students. Or, we can dump nearly six times that money per person into those who we've already failed.

Where are our priorities?

The Government Hates Teachers

2011-02-22T12:01:00.002-08:00

Harsh title? I don't think so. Sure, politicians love talking about teachers and education, but only in the same way that it makes a good photo opportunity to kiss babies. Voters care about their kids' education, but the politicians really don't.

Just try to follow the money if you don't believe me. How many programs are mandated by federal or state government? How many are fully funded? Of the funds that schools do receive, are they adequate to do the job according to what we know from years of research to be best practices? Are the funds safe when government squanders revenues, gives away lavish tax cuts to businesses, and is "forced" to make cuts in education spending down the line as a result? Can anything be counted on from a government that will break its own laws intentionally?*

The truth is simple: the people we elect care most about being elected again. Whereas that appears to be progress on the outside, it is often nothing more than political game-playing to win the hearts of the voters. But when the going gets rough, policy makers are quick to say that schools waste money and are inefficient. In reality, it is frequently the government-mandated programs using up resources and time. It makes sense: when you don't have what you need to do a job well, but you are required to do A and B, where do you spend your time? Not on C and D. In this simple scenario, C and D could be technology, staff development, teacher pay or benefits, programs, clubs, maintenance, or whatever. Schools are set up to fail from the beginning; being given far too much to do without the means to do it. Is it any surprise that someone would stand up and say, "This isn't working!"?

Rather than protect teachers, or work to improve compensation that more closely matches the prestige of the job they do, politicians are on the attack. They are cutting their collective bargaining rights, cutting pay, cutting jobs, cutting programs, and the list goes on and on. To justify beating up on heroes while they are already lying bleeding in the street, they blame teachers for things research has shown to be due to systemic flaws.

Politicians like to talk about how schools are one of the biggest ticket items on budgets, so that the uninformed believe it makes sense to go after them. Just one question: shouldn't educating our youth to lead our future be one of our top priorities, if not THE top priority? Isn't it worth the money to ensure that our kids can compete with the rest of the world? Isn't it worth any price to ensure our success and survival in the future?

Politicians need to wake up; quick fixes or things that look good in the short term for reelection are not going to solve our long-term economic woes. It isn't fair to today's youth, who didn't cause this mess, to be cheated of an adequate education. Doing so just might jeopardize politicians of the future...when there isn't a country left to lead.

*In Kansas, legislation was passed mandating funding for public education. Instead, payments from the state to school districts were frequently late, and the state did not live up to court mandated funding requirements.

Who has time?

2011-02-07T10:56:00.001-08:00

Whenever I ask teachers what they need most, they all tell me the same thing. Resoundingly, they echo each other in saying that what they really need most is time.

I haven't been out of the classroom too long to remember that I scarcely had time to breathe. It seems like there are new things to try, new initiatives, new tests, new somethings every year, but nothing ever goes away. Things are added but they are never (are hardly ever) taken away. It is easy to understand the sentiment, then, of the teacher who throws their hands up whenever they have to invest more time to learn something new. They don't know if their time will be worth it. The initiative may not last, the idea may not produce results, or there may not be enough support to fully implement whatever it is they are doing in the first place. When it comes to technology, it is inherent that whatever it is will change. This is one of the frustrations of those who try to stay current with technology trends; they are always going to have to learn, unlearn, and relearn the latest tech tools.

When I was teaching, if there was something to learn that was important, I would have to take the time, or often make the time, to learn it. It is our job, our duty, as educators to always be on the top of our games collectively and individually. We owe that to the students we serve. No matter where I've been, there has always been the attitude that we do whatever it takes to do the best job we possibly can for our students.

Lately I've been frustrated with what appears to be an unwillingness on the part of teachers to do this. Let me explain.

I know that time is the number one factor that teachers say they need in order to learn about new technologies. They need time to learn about it, time to try it, time to make mistakes with it, and time to be able to ask questions about it and how it can be utilized in their classrooms. What I am finding, however, is a growing number of teachers who won't put in the time necessary to learn these new tools. This is in spite of the fact that they are the same people who say that they believe they NEED to learn, and WANT to learn how to utilize 21st Century tools in their classrooms. Something doesn't fit.

As an example, I did a survey at the beginning of this school year asking what the most pressing needs were for teachers. Also in the survey, I asked about their preferences for when and how this learning should take place. The two biggest answers in these two categories were learning about Promethean software after school. Yet, when I have open sessions to learn more about Promethean software after school, hardly anyone comes. I spread the meeting locations around so that it is convenient for participants to attend, and there are usually only one or two people who come besides the person whose room we are using.

Am I wrong to assume that teachers aren't willing to put in the time they said they wanted to spend?

Another survey, taken by all but two teachers district-wide, found that the number one priority as seen by teachers in my district is 21st Century Teaching and Learning. This just adds more to my confusion. Here is evidence to support the idea that learning about technology is rather high on the list of many teachers' priorities, yet when time is provided for this to take place, they aren't taking advantage.

Do they not mean what they say? Is it just an excuse, saying that time is needed when really they have no intention of learning new things? Is it a resistance to learning new things in general, or just technology? Is it me?

I tend to think that what they really mean is that they need more time in the day to do everything they are being asked to do-a 25th, 26th, and 27th hour added to the day. The amount of things on a teacher's workload is quite frankly ridiculous. I think that, for whatever reason, technology is just not important enough (in their minds) to bother with it when there are so many other things that HAVE to get done daily. There just isn't time left at the end of the day for anything else.

Teachers-I really need you to weigh in on this one. What prevents you from spending time learning new technologies for use in your classroom?

Now What?

2010-12-17T11:42:00.000-08:00

As I listened to a keynote by Kevin Honeycutt, something he said struck me over the head like an anvil. I'm paraphrasing (badly), but in essence, he said that we hear all the time about how we NEED to change, but then the motivational speaker leaves and we're left scratching our heads asking ourselves how to get to the mountaintop. In the last couple of years, I've paid a lot of attention to the dialogue on school reform. I know lots of reasons to change, and I know a lot of the things that need to change, but the fundamental piece that is missing is how.

One of the things that keeps me up thinking at night is that even if we had a set of steps that one school took to make the changes to become everyone's shining example of 21st century teaching awesomeness, the steps would only be applicable to a few other schools in the country. We all do things differently in our little spaces of the world. We all want to know how to do it in our rooms, with these students.

I'm convinced of three things:

1. Education as we know it must change drastically-and fast-in order for the United States to remain relevant in the global marketplace, and

2. No one knows how to change the American public education system.

3. Teachers will make or break any reform efforts.

I don't have any answers. I have more questions. All I can do is start a list and begin plugging away in my own little corner of the world. Maybe that's all any of us can do. Maybe the big changes won't come to the system until the people within the system break it.

Here are just a few of the things we know need to change, and some of the challenges with changing them:

-Teacher Centered classrooms

How are teachers supposed to run a completely student-centered classroom when all they've ever known is the didactic, teacher-led model?

-21st Century Skills

It's pretty difficult to teach 21st Century tools when most districts limit teachers' and students' access to those same tools with filters and firewalls.

-Differentiation

I have never met a teacher who wouldn't like to provide individualized instruction for every student. I have also never met one who was able to do it. Class sizes, lack of resources, even a basic lack of plan time make it extremely difficult for teachers to provide true differentiation.

-Authentic tasks

It's about time we start answering the age-old question for students: "Why do I need to know this?" The problem is that we are often teaching things that students don't really need to know. Sure, there are reasons for learning everything, but often there is a hug disconnect between what we teach students and what they will ever need in their lifetime.

-Higher-Order Thinking Skills

I'm going to loosely lump problem solving into this category as well. This is nothing new. There is no good reason why we still have a deficit when it comes to good questions. I'll blame the standardized tests for the culture that has us always seeking the one right answer rather than the divergent thinking needed to solve complex problems.

-Highly qualified teachers in every room

I love teachers and have the utmost respect for the profession, but like surgeons, there isn't any room in this job for those who can't hack it. We need a better way to get good ones in, pay them well for the job they do, give them support they need to continue to grow, and to help others who can't handle the rigors find other lines of employment.

-Unions

I don't buy into the "unions are the devil" scenario portrayed in the media more and more these days, but I don't think they are the saviors of education, either. They are somewhere in the middle, and there is no doubt they complicate things when it comes to making personnel changes. Kids ultimately lose in this system. Kids are too important for us to continue in a system that alienates their needs and puts adults' comfort above student achievement.

This is a short list. There are tons more, and there are even more factors contributing to each one being difficult, or next to impossible, to change on a large scale with any haste.

The more I think about it, the more I think that the only way to make changes this big; this important; is to make it a grass-roots effort at every school. The change has to start from the bottom up. If the students are at the bottom, teachers are next. The students have already changed. Teachers need to begin doing anything they can-NOW.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. What can we do this week?

Listen...Can You Hear the Change?

2010-12-14T09:52:00.001-08:00

If there are still any teachers out there who refuse to learn about using technology in their classrooms because they feel it's just another passing fad, they should listen up. They may just hear the reasons for being a lifelong learner in the hallways outside their classrooms.

About a year ago, my then 7 and 3 year old boys were singing a song. I didn't recognize it, because being young often results in some similar-but strange-lyrics to familiar songs, but it was familiar. As I listened to the tune, I finally pinpointed its origin: the 80's. Where had they heard this song that came out when I was in the third grade? Rock Band. Rock Band II, specifically.

What does this have to do with education? Simple. What kids are bringing with them to class is paramount to the teacher, as this is the prior knowledge and schema that we use to hang new knowledge upon in hopes that it will stick a little more firmly. The connections of new learning with existing learning is a trick every skilled teacher uses daily. What kids are bringing with them today is vastly different than even ten years ago.

Example? Livin on a Prayer by Bon Jovi. Just a few years ago, none of my students would have known about this song. Now, many students know all the lyrics.

As we struggle to keep what we are teaching relevant to our students, we must be vigilant about staying current in their world so that we can find those connections. We cannot let ourselves become obsolete, pretending the world around us hasn't changed just because our content hasn't.

How do we trust and regulate at the same time?

2010-12-03T10:09:00.000-08:00

My position often pits me against others in the district in terms of policy. I fight for policy that treats teachers as the professionals they are, or at least ought to be, but I'm always fighting against several others who say something like, "But if we do x, then some people will y". They have a great point. There are certainly those who will abuse any right or privilege they are given. There are others, though, who are trying to forge a path into 21st Century teaching and learning, only to find roadblocks at every turn in place because of their less than professional colleagues.

My usual answer to this argument is that it is a management issue. Teachers who violate policy, whatever the policy is, need to be documented and shown the door if their actions continue to be a detriment to students (I am assuming here that the policies are in place to benefit students in the first place). Today I had a conversation with a librarian whose husband is a principal, and it got me to thinking differently. Her point, and again I have to concur, is that the administrators are not available to "police" their buildings, whether they want to or not. They are often at meetings in another location, or tied down with administrative duties that restrict them from documenting anything going on in classrooms outside of scheduled evaluations. It is a struggle just to complete all of the evaluations, and that is when not everyone is evaluated every year.

So, back to my original question: how in the world can we open things for teachers while getting those who would ruin it out of the classroom?

Funding Learning: A Monumental Disconnect

2010-11-10T10:37:00.000-08:00

Every time I turn around, there is a roadblock in the way of getting to where we need to be as an education system. The frustrating part is that the roadblock is almost always the same: money.

In my little corner of the world, a lack of funds places itself between where we are and where we'd like (or need) to go in all kinds of ways. If I want to train anyone to do anything, it takes money. If I want to offer incentives, it costs money. If I want to improve access to technology resources, it costs tons of money. Basically, anything and everything we need to do in order to move forward costs money. This isn't a problem, as long as everyone recognizes the importance of education. Right?

Apparently, I assume too much. Sure, every government entity and figurehead, every politician will talk about how important education is, but then guess what is usually first to appear on the chopping block when cuts need to be made?

Educating our citizens should be priority number one, and money should NEVER be an object. Sure, we should scrutinize spending and look for ways to be more efficient whenever possible, but to cut spending, or even to limit spending when it comes to educating the next generation of Americans, is anti-American. If you love your country and want it to be the best it can be, you better believe in having intelligent citizens capable of critical thinking and problem solving, regardless of their eventual chosen endeavors.

So how or why do I arrive at the opinion that government leaders don't care about this priority? Despite the fact that the Department of Education talks a good talk in a recent publication advocating for systemic change nationwide (see netp documents and information at http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010), they still fail to fund the lofty goals contained within its pages. On the contrary, one only needs to Google "government waste" to find a mind-boggling amount of information on just how little government does to shore up its own spending, which could easily afford the national public education system a nearly unlimited budget. Take a look at the Heritage Foundation's list of the top 10 examples of government waste, for starters. (http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2005/04/top-10-examples-of-government-waste)

After the last round of elections, I'm afraid the GOP will look to education yet again to increase available spending elsewhere in the state budgets. But what could possibly be more important than an already underfunded system intended to prepare American citizens for world leadership?

Government leaders: Quit stealing from our kids. Go pick on your own departments and hold them accountable before giving the education system any more of your mandates tied to underfunded programs. Figure out what you can do to ease the burden on teachers so that they can spend more time with students. Find the billions of dollars that are spent each year by people you don't know on things you can't find before you talk to us about accountability or efficiency.

Educators as Life Long Learners

2010-10-11T10:51:00.000-07:00

One of the things I hear about all the time in my position is, “I don’t have time to…” fill in the blank with whatever technology it is that I’m trying to help teachers learn. It’s probably the single most irksome thing that I deal with, and I’d be happy to tell you why.

When we ask ourselves what we want educationally for our students and our own children, “lifelong learning” appears near the top of every list in some form or another. Why, then, are we as a collective group of educators NOT modeling this very behavior?

How did it ever become acceptable for an educator to refuse to learn something vital to their students? How many times have you heard that it is important for teachers to model the behavior they expect from students? What message does it send, then, when we say we don’t have time to learn something that is critical to our students’ education?

Maybe the last point is where I lose some of you; you don’t agree that technology is an important part of the education for all students, and so you have been holding out on learning new skills in the hope that it will just go away, like so many other educational initiatives. Two things are wrong with that logic; one is that I don’t believe anyone can argue that at least SOME of their students would benefit from the use of technology in the classroom (and if even one student needs it, you should be using it), and the other is that this is not an educational initiative-it’s the way the world operates now. It’s time to catch up with it. Just because teaching hasn’t changed much in the last several decades doesn’t mean that most other professions haven’t. If anyone would like to debate this issue, I welcome the discourse.

I should clarify what I mean when I say “use technology”. I don’t want anyone to use technology in a classroom if it doesn’t have an impact on the learning. Sometimes the impact comes in the form of motivation when using a “cool” tool, but that’s not what I advocate. Nor do I advocate automating tasks to free up time. Sitting students at a computer to do drill-and-kill types of activities is NOT good technology integration. Yes, the instant feedback offered by many of these sites and programs is supported by research, but true integration goes much deeper.

Good technology integration uses appropriate tools to accomplish tasks that students couldn’t do without it; it helps them to think more deeply about subjects, interact with peers and experts all over the world, create and publish authentic work that is both useful and relevant, interact with the world when disabilities would otherwise be a roadblock, analyze information that was once held by one person in the room, provide access to all the world’s knowledge collectively, and the list goes on. Hopefully the difference between these approaches is clear.

Back to my argument-how is it acceptable practice for teachers to refuse or avoid learning how to empower students with these tools?

When I was in college studying to become a teacher, my professors made a point to remind us that we would not have much of a life outside of school; that if we were there for the summers, we needed to choose another career. It was made painfully obvious to us that continuing to learn would be an integral part of our professions. New things are discovered all the time. Maps change, books are rewritten, scientific discoveries are made, opinions change, and on and on. This should not be news to anyone. Why, then, is it acceptable to keep up on whether or not we call it Istanbul or Constantinople, but still not know the difference between a blog and a wiki? Let me put the period on this point by asking another question; when you go to the doctor, do you expect him or her to be using the latest advances in medical technology, or would you be fine with them pulling out a jar of leeches to suck out the evil spirits causing your ails?

Now let’s talk about the ‘time’ issue. When you consider all the things that technology can do-from removing roadblocks to providing a platform for expression, thought, and growth-it should be the top priority for every educator when they budget their time.

I am a former fifth and sixth grade teacher. Believe me, I understand the fact that there are hundreds of things teachers are responsible for above and beyond simply working with kids. We’ve all seen the comparisons of what we do today vs. what we did a hundred years ago. Sometimes it feels we are solely responsible for the upbringing of an entire generation. I get that. But, when you look at all of the tools at your disposal to accomplish the impossible, how is it that we tend to overlook the fact that technology may be our greatest “multi-tool” for getting there? Time is precious to all of us, and technology can help you accomplish more in less time, and with better results. So when we look at how to spend our time, we should recognize that learning how to better use the technology tools at our disposal is maybe the most efficient use of it.

Teaching is an art, and technology can provide an entirely new and vast set of brushes, let alone canvas on which to paint your learning experiences. The time to embrace that concept is long overdue.

Too Important to Fail: How Schools Fall Victim to Corporate Greed

2010-04-20T13:24:00.001-07:00

"Don't tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I'll tell you what they are." - James W. Frick

I wish I were friends with Dennis Miller. I’m having trouble coming up with words strong enough to properly convey my frustration, anger even, with the current situation in America’s schools. The comedian known for his rants would be able to put things in perspective with some colorful choice words and scathing criticism. However, I’m just a guy working for a school system in central Kansas and this is not HBO. My audience includes children, for crying out loud.

So let me just say, “Only in America”. Only in America can a company grow so large, become so greedy, and be so irresponsible with their finances that they are actually rewarded for it. Yes, rewarded. Here we have not just companies, but entire industries that are so corrupt or fiscally irresponsible that we-the very people who made the top executives rich in the first place for doing such a horrible job-have to give them even more money so that they can continue ripping us off and making bad financial decisions.

These spoiled brats, er, companies, nearly drove the entire country into a depression. They caused people across the country to lose jobs. They caused people all over the world to lose jobs, as the United States economic health is closely tied with the success of markets worldwide. They helped tons of people part with their hard earned money-with financial tricks that would be considered criminal in most places. They made good and honest people think they finally had a chance at the American dream, only to see their house sold from underneath them, their finances and dreams shattered.

What does our country do when bullies push us around, lie to us, deceive us, all for their own gain? We give them money. WHAT?

Meanwhile, the economic meltdown caused by these fat cat pocket stuffers has far-reaching effects on our future for years to come. A recession may be temporary, but the effects it has can be much longer lasting. Allow me to elaborate. I have a son in the first grade. By the time funding at his schools returns to normal, he will be in high school-if he hasn’t already graduated.

Does an entire generation of students deserve to have less than those who came before them, simply because the country in which they live bails out banks and automakers but leaves schools to flail and flounder for every penny?

Add to this sobering thought the FACT that in my state, lawmakers were actually sued a few years ago for not funding education adequately. The lawmakers, like most in their position, denied that this was the case. After all, why buck the trend of spending more to put someone in jail and keep them there than to educate children? They hired an independent study to prove that they were right-those spoiled brats (talking about the students, now from the view of the lawmakers) were getting plenty of money. Do they really think they deserve more?

Things didn’t go according to plan, as the study found inequities in the funding formula, and the courts ordered them to change it. Lawmakers did change it, to their credit, and began funding schools more fairly until-you guessed it-the corporate greed of a few individuals living somewhere outside of reality came crashing down on every man, woman, and child within our borders.

Now, the very people who make the laws in my state are intentionally breaking it. How this is even allowed, I will never understand. Apparently, you can break laws during hard times, but only if you are a legislator who helps to make those very laws. I have heard that being ignorant of the law is no excuse for breaking it. These men and women wrote the laws, know them as well as anyone, and break them routinely. Why do we allow this?

Breaking the law to help yourself during hard times will still land you in jail if you are a working man who is laid off and you have to steal for your family’s food. But, you can be a legislator and steal from children and that is OK.

I can hear their grumbles from Topeka: “These are hard times, after all, and what would you have us do-raise taxes? Then we might not get re-elected!”

Children need more from their schools today than ever before. We are in the midst of a near-crisis mode in education as it is. Schools are beginning to face the fact that they need systemic change to meet the needs of 21st Century Learners. Schools need more of just about everything from counselors to computers.

Instead, we’re taking things away from them. Why? Because it’s apparently more important in our country for big business to continue ripping people off than for our children to learn how to earn an honest living.

These companies may be too big to be allowed to fail, but schools are too important to be allowed to fail.

Only in America.

Time Vs. Time: How the 21st Century Initiative Should Jump-StartEducation

2010-03-11T11:52:00.001-08:00

I am not a good blogger. A good blogger not only has a lot to say on subjects that are of interest to their audience, but they update their blogs frequently enough to keep the conversations going. Since starting my blog early in the ‘09/’10 school year, this will only be my third posting. I simply don’t have time to write about things when there is so much to do. It gets put on the back burner more often than not.

But, I’m not a teacher and my blogging isn’t something that will directly affect my students’ learning in my classroom. If it were, you could bet it would be at the top of my to-do list.

If you ask any teacher what they need more than anything, most of the time they won’t say they need more pay. They usually don’t say they need help with things, or more respect from the community for the job they do, or even complain about having too many things to do. Instead, they most often want more time to do the things they know are important.

The question I want to address in this post, then, is: what is stopping the teachers I serve from taking the time they need to do what they think is important-especially when the opportunity presents itself to vote in an entire day to do those things-with pay?

There is a committee of teachers who plan these optional extra days, and they are the ones who suggest the topics for themselves. Yet, when the vote goes out to teachers (which must be approved with a 2/3 majority to pass) they routinely vote it down. This is baffling to me for a number of reasons, but most of all because the biggest complaint I hear is, “I need more time.” Here is an opportunity to have just that-an entire working day’s worth-and they turn it down.

I’m not going to speculate as to the reasons for this discrepancy, instead I am going to discuss the reasons why the trend needs to change.

Let’s look at some facts:
1. Education, as an institution, is very slow to change. Sure, we get new initiatives and the infamous pendulum of various schools of thought swings back and forth as we adjust new research and learning to what we know as best practice-but change happens very slowly.
2. Technology changes very quickly. We have all heard the figures about just HOW often it changes; from the “doubling every 6 years” to the amount of data on the web that is added daily or hourly, to the reports of this or that new gadget available every other week.
3. The world has changed since the models we presently use in most educational settings was established.

The point I’m going to make here is that we already have a LOT of catching up to do, and in the race to be fluent in the 21st Century, we are getting lapped by our students.

Enter the 21st Century Initiative, a movement intended to “…facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning that draw upon a range of insights in to the human brain, the functioning of human societies, and learning as a community-wide activity.” (http://www.21learn.org/ ) Obviously, there are others out there who recognize the fact that most teachers in America are still teaching in ways that were designed to prepare students for an industrialized, factory-laden society that has all but already disappeared. The global economy has changed, but the way we are preparing students to participate in it hasn’t.

We are looking down the double barrel of a loaded societal shotgun and daring the rest of the world to squeeze the trigger-unless we change-and change quickly.

There are some fundamental things that need to happen in order for this vision to become reality.

Maybe most importantly is the need for support for teachers. They need to feel like they are allowed to deviate from the drill and kill that has become the norm in our test-happy system and practice moving into a more student-centered environment. I think most teachers really want to teach in a way that fits the NETS-T standards; becoming more student centered, problem based, etc.-but feel that if they dip in their test scores, they may lose their jobs.

Unfortunately, this and many of the other things that need to be in place for this movement to take off are out of teachers’ hands. One thing teachers have total control over, however, is how we use our time. Time waits for no one, and we as educators owe it to our students to be more than we are-regardless of how good we are already with the things that worked a century ago. We are way behind, and it’s time to catch up.

Career Fair, 2020

2009-11-22T16:05:00.001-08:00

Global Corp Career Fair, 2020

"Thanks for taking the time to interview me today, Ma'am! I appreciate the opportunity!" The young woman was well spoken, appropriately dressed, and had a genuine smile. 'So far, so good', thought the interviewer.

"The pleasure is ours. Is this your resume?" The interviewer indicated the copies displayed on the table. She picked them up, and handed a copy to each of her two colleagues seated on either side.

"Yes. I wanted to be sure to mention a few things about it. You'll notice I don't have a lot of work experience." She was going to explain further, but was interrupted.

"Yes, that's understandable, what with jobs being so hard to come by these days. Honestly, we see that quite a bit with young people. What we'd like to know is what sets you apart from all of the other applicants in the waiting area."

"Well, that's the other thing I wanted to talk about. You see, I'm hoping that my winning personality and good humor get me the job, because I don't have a lot of skills compared to them. While we were waiting, I was talking with them about their backgrounds. Two are from India, three are from China, and two of the other three are from Europe. All of them are more qualified than I am, because I grew up in the United States. During the last ten years or so, while our country was cutting from education budgets nationwide during the recession, their countries valued the investment in their future and put more money in their education systems. I'm not only outnumbered by the millions, but I'm at a severe disadvantage educationally to every one of those millions."

The interviewer was baffled at these comments, however true. It wasn't the norm for candidates to talk her out of hiring them. She couldn't think of one good reason to hire the young lady.

And neither will the real interviewers in 2020-if we continue to treat children's futures as a luxury only afforded during the best of times.

Don't let how good you ARE get in the way of how good you COULD be.

2009-10-24T10:23:00.001-07:00

Possibly one of the greatest things we can do for our students is to instill in them a belief that learning never stops-that life-long learning is necessary now more than ever. With learning comes unavoidable change. Consider some of the wisdom of others:

"He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery." ~Harold Wilson

"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory." ~W. Edwards Deming (Thank you, Michelle.)

"When you are through changing, you are through. " ~Bruce Barton

"They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom." ~Confucius

Change is uncomfortable. As Washington Irving put it, "There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse! As I have often found in travelling in a stagecoach, that it is often a comfort to shift one's position, and be bruised in a new place."

As teachers, it seems there is always a new initiative, a new book series, a new resource, a new program that we are learning. Sometimes, they come and go so fast that we are left wondering why we invested the time and energy at all. Are these things that come to pass so quickly a waste of time? I say no.

Teachers are incredible people. They do a job that some don't respect, many fear, and most couldn't do-all for pay that is sadly disproportionate to other professions. We live in a country that promises equal education for every child, and it is no small task. Everyone you meet can name a teacher who made a difference in their life and has had an impact on who they are today. I can't think of any other profession that can claim to be so far-reaching in influence of an entire society.

Unfortunately, our teachers are being called upon to do way more for kids than teach them basic academic skills. More and more, schools are expected to do everything a teacher should do, plus most of what a parent should do. Character education is just one example. It's no wonder that teachers often throw aside new learning in the face of so many seemingly insurmountable challenges. But we can't allow ourselves to become stagnant. The students are watching.

The most powerful teaching tool we have is modeling. How many times have you noticed your students picking up some of your mannerisms, sayings, and likes? No matter how much you think your students aren't paying attention to the lesson plans, you can bet they are paying attention to you and the things you do-and don't do.

When we refuse to learn new things, be open to new ideas, or prioritize new learning right behind getting a root canal, we are actually teaching our students-although not directly-to do the same. Unfortunately, it is the opinion of many wonderful teachers that, because they have been so successful, they don't need to change anything. Why fix it if it isn't broken?

We cannot let how good we have become get in the way of how good we could be. Does Tiger Woods stop practicing putts just because he knows he can sink one from anywhere on the green? Do doctors refuse to learn new techniques and procedures just because the one they use hasn't killed anyone yet?

In my opinion, the best teachers have the most to gain by learning how to use new tools with students. A bad teacher who uses technology is still a bad teacher. A good teacher with the right tools is unstoppable.

The world has changed, and so we must change with it in order to provide our students with the best education possible. We no longer operate in our own little corner of the world, insulated from the problems of others. It is becoming more and more our world and every problem is everyone's problem. We stand at the edge of a chasm. Our choice is to work together and fly, or stand alone and fall into the void.

"If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies." -author unknown