How can I get you to read my blog? Feel good news.

If you are a newspaper reader or a TV news watcher you are well aware that what you see is almost all the bad news. I always wanted to start a feel good newspaper, knowing very well it would NOT be popular. I actually found a feel good newspaper in Bali, of course! Than there is the onion news that you can read and watch at http://www.theonion.com/content/index This will give you a great laugh, but it is just making fun of all the bad news. Try  this video http://www.theonion.com/content/video/are_violent_video_games

CNN Heroes http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/ is a great place to find feel good ideas that people are doing. You can nominate a 2010 hero! 

If you are one of the few who enjoys good news, than become a follower of the PEL Library Blog. Here you can read good news. You can even write to the author, ME, and suggest what you would like to hear and know more about. 

At this point, I have 9 followers on the PEL Library Blog. My own son is not even following it. If you want to motivate the author, ME, please log in and click follow. I wish to have 200 followers by the end of the year! 

Make my WISH come true!

BEING RESPONSIBLE WORLD CITIZEN NOW!

How can it be that every 3.5 seconds a person dies of hunger and WE HAVE enough food to feed the world? This is a question that the Pattimura Grade 5 students have been asking themselves, each other and their teachers. Java Feeding the Millions is a unit of study they have been working on for the last 4 weeks. This unit was introduced on a wiki that can be found at: http://javafeedingthemillions.pbworks.com/FrontPage
If you are an interested in logging on to this site, please contact rpolonsky@jisedu.or.id
Here is their task:

Dear JIS Grade 5 Students:
My name is Ibu Siti Pattimura. I work as an aid agency called FOOD FOR ALL or YAYASAN MAKANAN UNTUK SEMUA (YMUS) and we are trying to feed the world. As an aid agency we are looking for a group of experienced researchers to create a compelling "story" about hunger.
The author, Daniel Pink writes, "Stories can be healing." Throughout the ages children have been told stories by adults at times when they need guidance in order to cope with a difficult life situation. Stories teach us what is right and wrong. Stories are how we learn. YMUS would like your research group to create a compelling true "story" of hunger. We will use your presentation to:

1. Convince large companies and governments to improve conditions which lead to hunger.
2. Convince the public to give generously when they donate to our cause.

We are interested in hiring the research team that best expresses the facts of hunger in a compelling and empathetic way that speaks to all who view your presentation. YMUS knows that there is enough food to feed the world population, but still many men, women and children are hungry everyday.
You have 4 weeks to create a project to present to the Board of Directors of the Yayasan Makanan Untuk Semua.  Your teachers will divide you into groups for collaboration. See the pamphlet from the library about the "Six Easy Steps for Research Projects" to help you with this process.
This presentation must include the following information:
Background: This is where the team has to provide general information on hunger based on research that they have conducted during their inquiry. This portion of the presentation should demonstrate that you understand:

    * What hunger is?
    * The different causes of hunger
    * Why, despite there being enough food, people are still going hungry?
    * The different types of programs that are currently being used
    * Hunger from the perspective of person who you are trying to help
  
After you have researched your background information your group will decide on how they will present the information using appropriate visual media to engage your audience. Your team should include innovative suggestions of how to solve this global issue but understanding the steps may start small.
Remember the saying: “If you give a man a fish he will eat for a day, if you teach a man to fish they will eat for a life time.”
OR
“If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. If you teach a man to learn, you feed him for a lifetime and he doesn't have to only eat fish. ..."
OR
They don't need to be taught to fish-instead, they need an opportunity to break the cycle of poverty. (by Shawn http://uncultured.com/)
In four weeks time the Board of Directors  of YMUS will be here to experience your presentations.
Good Luck!
Sincerely Yours,
Ibu Siti Pattimura

The wiki has resources that include websites, videos and books to assist students in their research. It also includes the rubric on creativity and has information about how to research. The Pattimura TeLMS (technology & library media services) as a team have decided to introduce the first NETS-S standard on creativity. We want to thank Bindu Bammi a MS art teacher for her useful rubric that we changed slightly. The rubric was introduced to all the classes and gave them the vision of what to strive for.
The excitement and learning has been escalating over the last few weeks as students learning research skills, new technologies, how to collaborate and most important how can they be responsible world citizens!

Middle Leadership Workshop

: Nov. 14, 2009

Fieldworks

Mark J. Pam Harper, Howard Marshall

Started with a terrible slide: lots of words of outcomes

The why, what, how, when

Teaching leadership skills to kids. Can start age 5

Senior leaders vs middle leader: has to do with scope of accountability

Reflection is a key part of learning: 

sticky note: one side: a trait you have that is good for leadership

other side: what you need to be better at. 

Outcome of successful leadership:

Happiness: climate-how does it feel to work somewhere?

Provide a growth in students and teachers

Shared belief, vision and direction 

Strong sense of community

Positive school

Change: best practice

MOST IMPORTANT: positive impact on learning

What is your leadership job title? 

teacher librarian

restitution guru

environmental nut

Effective leaders: Vision, strategic issues, transformation, ends, people

Doing the right things: moral dimension, path making, complex -org. goes somewhere

Paul Buckley

Geoff Smith

Obama

Mandela

Monica G

Oprah

Effective Manager: implementation, operational, transaction, means, systems

Doing things right: value management, path following, clarity (transparency) org keeps going

Gordon Brown

Steve Jobs

Niall Nelson

Branson

Bill Gates

Warren Buffet

Both are important: different and complementary, each with its own function and characteristic activities and both are necessary for success.

Coordination: Doing things, path tidying, consistency
H. Gardner: Changing and transforming the mind the of people

NEED both leadership and management

Reflections: 

Where do you spend most of your time and effort?

Do you feel that you have the balance about right?

What do you bring to the role?

Michael Fullan: iceberg model-what you see, know, skill, what we don’t see (underwater) is attitudes, values, motives, beliefs, self-image. 

Goldman: EQ: key to leadership

self-awareness

Self management

social awareness

Relationship management: putting self in other shoes.

Manage perception: How do you manage the perception of what people think about your?

That you care about students and learning.

situational leadership: works one place but not another.

Praise: Who says to the leaders that you are doing a great job? 

Why should school ML in the 21st century be different from that in the 20th century?

Paradigm shift: Learning is more important than teaching

Distributed Leadership

What are the formal leadership roles in your schools?

Proteaus: greek god who could reform into different shapes and that is what the diagram of leadership may look like.

sustainable leadership spreads. It sustains as well as depends on the leadership of others.

Book about distributed leadership: University of Chicago:  Spillany, James

What do we know about distributed leadership in school?

What are the key messages from your experience?

Shared agreement of what is distributed leadership. Increase capacity of leadership. Can’t distribute accountability but responsibility.

Sharing jobs is delegating the jobs is not distribution. 

more about vision, belief.

Problems with distributed leadership

Collective accountability not individual delegation of tasks

lack of will to change

poor sense of team ship

little ability or desire to influence

leader not able to let go

Informal leaders: Have influence what is going on.

Where does this place. 

Personalized power

position of authority

influence

modeling

high trust

commitment

be professional

listen

a culture of learning

Attending a workshop on Middle Leadership in schools. Activity: Your team are the owners of a brand new school which will open next year with a full capacity of students (ages 4 to 18, 1000 students).
What leadership and management structures will you put into place at your new school.
What will the roles/positions within your structure be called?
How will it work and what are the reasons for your decisions?

Team name: Student` First

Consider leadership

Present ideas and thinking

Your presentation must last no longer than 4 minutes

no powerpoint presentations

you will be observed working as a team

Making it work as a team...

Did we have a plan?

Who was the leader in the team?

Team players?

Group and individual perspective?

Commitment?

Efficient v effective?

Reflective and review?

Also...

Learnt behavior of team members. What are your strengths?

Knowing what it feels like to be part of a successful team.

Managing meetings?

Pet PEEVES:

• Before: Late
• During: authority of decision making, roles?, a decision rather than the issue, no agenda, off task, monopolize the conversation, 
• After: Shoot the messenger, point of the meeting,

Before:

Each person has the responsibility for the success of the meeting.

Do we actually need to meet?

Purpose of the meeting: what is going to change/get better as a result of this meeting? (what does this have to do with student learning.

Norms needed

more...

Who, when, where, how long and what for?

Agendas: inform, discuss, decide...

Meeting preparation

Locate the power within the group

See the mind map handout of electronic agenda

During:

Decision making process:

Who is making this decision

What is the process for making this decision?

After:

Minutes

Action points

Next steps for direction of group

Evaluation of the process

BIG Question: What percentage of you meeting is about learning? What impact did/will your meeting have on learning?

Collins: Hedgehog is learning. Focus

How to do it>>>IN article given called HOW TO ORGANISE LEARNING-FOCUSED MEETINGS

HOW WILL THIS IMPROVE LEARNING?

IS THIS THE BEST US OF OUR TIME TO IMPROVE LEARNING?

IS OUR DECISION ABOUT THIS LIKELY TO IMPACT ON LEARNING IN ANY WAY?

TO BE CONTINUED

New Horizons

My husband and I are looking for new jobs. At the moment we are interviewing with a school in Accra, Ghana. Talk about learning!! They want me to be the High School Librarian! Yes, me. The very same person who was a kindergarten teacher for 25 years. The highest grade I taught was grade 3 until I worked in the library and now I teach grade 5. 
At first I was a bit amazed that they would ask, but than I realized just how exciting and new and fun it could all be. I may not have ever taught teens, but I have two boys who have been teenagers. In fact one still is. I have gotten to love working with teens and just think of the learning curve. I have to do my CSU Professional Experience coursework and hope to spend 10 day in the HS library with Matthew Schaffer, our new HS librarian. I guess I should also spend time with Kate Hodgson in the MS. The fact that over the last two years I have been doing my masters, gives me a "can do" attitude. Bring on the challenge!
The Lincoln Community School in Ghana http://www.lincoln.edu.gh/ is a small (600 kids) IB school in the city of Accra. Beaches close by and clean air. Accra, the capital of Ghana, is an English speaking, democratic, politically stable and economically growing country in West Africa. Along the Atlantic Coast are miles of palm-fringed beaches. The interior offers tropical forests, savannah, wildlife parks, and the culture of ancient African kingdoms. An array of African art and handicrafts can be found throughout the country. Accra (3.5 million people), is located on the Gulf of Guinea. It is a friendly and vibrant city. Its residents enjoy a tropical climate with a constant breeze, sunshine and clear air. The temperature ranges from 21-30 degrees celsius throughout the year.
Did you notice that I said "clean air" twice?

Sticking Your Neck Out...I Want to be a GIRAFFE!

So, here is my new goal in life... to be a giraffe. About Giraffes: Here at the Giraffe Heroes Project, we have long honored the risk-takers, people who are largely unknown, people who have the courage to stick their necks out for the common good, in the US and around the world. This site will tell you more http://www.giraffe.org/ YES, I want to be a giraffe! Giraffes stick their necks out. We all have to stick out necks out if we want to create a better world. I am a baby giraffe right now. I do the recycle program at Pattimura School, I run the roots and shoots after-school program. I am Captain Code Green, reminding everyone about helping mother earth. I have encouraged service at school in many different ways. BUT...I still want to be a big giraffe with a long neck. What could that look like? I think I have to get my hands dirty and really get out there and do something. 
So...here I am at a huge crossroads in my life and I really could check out the me to we organization. I could send them my resume that I started on service and see what happens. Why stop here. Why not sent the resume to a slew of service organization world-wide and see what happens. Why not really stick my neck out!  

Senge, You Never Disappoint!

Everything that I have ever read by Peter Senge http://www.infed.org/thinkers/senge.htm has been enlightening. I enjoy his views of the world, that living and learning are inseparable, where there are no boundaries between work, school, learning and life. Senge does not look at school as walled in building but as a whole society. Just imagine a whole learning society! I decided to check out what he has to say about communication and was instantly drawn to his 592 page book called, SCHOOL THAT LEARN: A FIFTH DISCIPLINE FIELD GUIDE FOR EDUCATORS, PARENTS, AND EVERYONE WHO CARES ABOUT EDUCATION (2000). A mouth full and full of great information about learning.
Senge takes the same view as the Dufours http://www.allthingsplc.info/and focuses his energies on learning and not on the practice of teaching. Many of his communication ideas are similar Rob Garmston's http://www.cognitivecoaching.com/rgarmston.htmmethod, but Senge writes about them in a much more emotional and "less academic" way. The five disiciplines are:
Personal Mastery: Your personal vision and the results you want to create in your life.
Shared Vision: Mutual purpose and commitment to shared images.
Mental Models: Reflect and inquiry focused around our attitudes and perceptions
Team Learning: Using dialogue groups transform collective thinking, to mobilize energies.
Systems Thinking: Learn to better understand change and interdependency
Using these disciplines Senge's goal is the re-create schools for our children that are relevant to now. (Yes, I could say to the 21st Century, but felt that we are here, NOW)
Some ideas about communication from this book:
In his chapter about Mental Models, Senge is asking that we attend to our perceptions and to become more aware of our thinking. Two methods to assist us in viewing our mental models are reflection and inquiry. The ladder of inference introduces the ideas about how we create our own perceptions and assumptions.

Here is our ladder: Start at the bottom!
7. I take action based on my beliefs

6. I adopt beliefs about the world

5. I draw conclusions

4. I make assumptions

3. I add meaning: cultural and personal

2. I select: "data" from what I observe

1. Observe "data" and experiences

Clear real life examples are shared in the book to make this all more real. What a great short PD idea to share with teachers and students.
I remember a high school teacher saying to me that she would never teacher elementary school because the children are young and so impressionable and it was such a big responsibility that you may damage their development. I had really never thought of that and only thought about what positives I could bring to a child's life. All perceptions!

Leadership, Leadership Everywhere!

For the last two days I did a workshop on Restitution which is a classroom management program which creates conditions for the person to fix their mistake and return to the group strengthened. We talked about creating the conditions for change from cognitive change to personal change to system change, etc. It all connected to what I have been reading about in Fullan's book. The chart that I was looking at was linear, but I knew that it needed to be a cycle that could recycle back during any period within the system. Not only was it not linear, but different division and even individuals can be on different paths at different times. It is an individual continuum for everyone in all initiatives.

We also talked about three types of organizations: Conventional, Congenial, and Collegial. This is something that I have read and worked with in Garmston's book: THE ADAPTIVE SCHOOL: A SOURCEBOOK FOR DEVELOPING COLLABORATIVE GROUPS. I have talked to our principal about the idea of our school being to congenial and that it is difficult to get constructive feedback face to face because we all want to be "nice". I would love to see our school engage in some rigorous cognitive conflict.

During this workshop we also talked about groups in the change process from the converted, open, fearful, to the resistant. This is also in the Dufour's book on Professional Learning Communities. The words are a bit different but the meanings are the same.

I am not sure why I am so surprised that there is so much overlap with leadership and management systems. Leadership is such a broad topic that I am sure I could find makes connections school-wide.

Learning, Leading and the CSU Forum:(

Collaborating, communicating and sharing our ideas are ways that we learn from each other. In ETL504, TL as Leaders, communication is said to underpin all collaborative efforts and endeavors.

I have been using the CSU Forum for 2 years now in my distance learning classes. I have found that there is so much potential for the CSU Forum in the name of communicating and learning but it is generally used for questions about assessment, assessments and assessment. If you look at our different avenues to share in ETL504 we have 10 categories. Six of these categories relate to our leadership topics and two are about assessment and one was introductions. The number of hits on the assessment categories is 834 (that is excluding the out of office repetitions from Roy) and the hits related to actual leadership topics is 56. This leads me to believe that there is a ratio of 15 to 1 of assessment questions to topic questions. You could say that the assessments are real and meaningful and what gets tested, get taught. I would agree with this if the actual questions about assessment were probing, thoughtful, and reflective in relation to our readings. BUT...I am not finding this to be true. For example, twelve questions were asked about word count for our assessment. Someone had stated that LAST year's students were asked to write 6000 words. On our assessment document it says 2000 words. I am not sure why we would be looking at the past and not moving in the present. It wastes everyones time and energy where this process of sharing should be energizing and revitalizing.

Here is an interesting story about the Forum. In my last class ETL402, I wrote the instructor privately about my Forum concerns. I got back an email that mentioned the fact that we were no longer new students to CSU and that the professor guessed that these experienced students no longer needed the "crutch" of sharing as much on the forum. I think she was telling me to "grow up". I guess my feelings of always being able to learn from others was not relevant! I would never view sharing as a crutch. So...during ETL504 I wrote to Roy about the use of the Forum and was there a way to increase relevant sharing. His response was that many of the students in this class were new to CSU and therefore much of the sharing had to do with assessment. Moral of this story: OLD or NEW students need to be encouraged to create relevant, meaningful, reflective comments and questions. I think that we would all agree that it is not the answers we are interested but can we ask great questions. I know this is what I expect from my students and I would hope that CSU would also expect better.

  

Dhaka???

October 10th and we landed in Dhaka, Bangladesh last night at 2am. These are some photos outside our hotel window.

My husband and I are here interviewing for jobs. He is applying as a head of school. I am still unsure if there is a job for me, but I will be interviewing with the elementary principal.

Over the last week I have been reviewing questions and reflecting on leadership skills to help my husband prepare. I have referred to Michael Fullan's book often and read bits and pieces to him. He has been discussing strategic plans, financial budgets, and leadership attributes with me on a daily basis. How interesting I find my studies when they become so relevant to my existence.

My husband has created a power point that is relevant to him as a leader. The visual images are powerful and the wording if brief and to the point. He is talking about keeping the end in mind, commitments, and transferable assets. His commitments are family, community, learning focused, service, collaboration and relationship. His transferable asset are as an innovator, problem solver, compassionate, empathetic and patience educator, a deep thinker, and student centered. He has been asking himself questions that challenge his thinking and forcing himself to reflect on his style of leadership. An example of a question is: Tell us about some examples of how your educational leadership and vision have bought about positive changes in the school curriculum and instructional program in your last school? Or what about this one: Describe your desk as you left for this interview and what are the most important tasks that will be waiting for you when you get back? If I was to answer that question, I would say that my desk was neat and orderly, only because our plane was delayed and I had the time to clean it off. A task I will be returning to is an exciting inquiry unit in grade 5 called, JAVA, FEEDING THE MILLIONS.  I have created a wiki for this unit and it needs some rewording and some new sites added to it. I would like to create a BIG 6 questionnaire that the students will use before they start the project and reflect back on as they work. the students have already done work these last few weeks on evaluating websites and knowing how they are:

R-ead the URL-Evaluate the content

E-valuate the content

A-uthor and who are they?

L-inks, do they leave the site to other relevant pieces of information?

We practiced on sites like the Northwest Pacific Tree Octopus, Robots of the 1800's, Lobster Liberation, Velcro crops in danger due to drought, and a study of how hamsters react to bearded men. The kids were immersed in this learning and I was lucky to note that they were asking great questions instead of finding the answers!

As we move through the process of the next few days it will be interesting to note how all the reading that I have done over the last few months will help me with my hour long interview on Monday.

Till than we need to ask the BIG questions, like...is Dhaka a place we would want to live for the next 4 or 5 years. It use to be that 4 or 5 years seemed like nothing, but they all become more relevant as you hit your mid 50's and know that you are zeroing in on 60! Life is never boring!

Running at the zoo this morning, I commented to my husband that since I have started studying two years ago I know longer have a social life. I feel lucky to work a full time job, study and get in some exercise. And there in lies my life!
This week I have been looking at the situation analysis (Welch) and wondering what to do. I know that this is not my interest and I will have to plow through it. I am thinking of surveying our parent community to see how we can best serve them. Creating meaningful questions is not an easy task. It might look some thing like:
1. How often do you use the library?
2. Do you use the library for your own reading needs?
3. How often do you access the library catalog from home?
4. How often do you use atomic learning?
5. How often do you use United Streaming?
6. How often do you use Webpage?
7. How often do you read the parenting magazines in the library?
8. How often do you read a book from the parenting section?
9. How can the library
My guess is that most parents rarely do any of the above.

Blogs for KIDS

Over the last 3 weeks the tech coordinator and I have been helping grades 3-5 create blogs. We are hoping that these blogs will stay with them throughout their school career. It will be a great place to showcase work and watch progress. The kids are excited to start their web presence even though they are viewed by invite only. I now have the potential of tracking 180 blogs!
Sent in my paper for 1B on Saturday night so I could go wall climbing on Sunday. It seems like the fun is just beginning with the last assessment. It should be interesting and hopefully relative to what I do in the library. Our library is lucky to have absolutely no competitors. We are the only game in town. Our smallish library can be filled with over 60 kids in the morning before school starts. It is a cool (AV) place to meet friends, read and connect. I am interested in doing a survey with parents. I haven't finish reading the Welch article but will over the week end.
I see that online learning has so much potential. I wish that students would collaborate more and think less about assessment. Not sure how to help this happen?? Any suggestions?

Hong Kong Tech Conference Ends: Notes and Reflections

Just ended to 21st Century Learning Conference in Hong Kong. It has been a whirlwind time with lots of new information to share and look back at.

Here is a brief overview of what I did and what I learned...

The conference opened with a keynote by Wesley Fryer:

His blog is called Moving at the Speed of Creativity: Wes talked about the use of digital storytelling and shared the site Celebrate Oklahoma. Wes says that digital storytelling "empowers learners to become digital witnesses, archives local oral history and shares that history safely on the global stage of the Internet." This is a project that I would love to do with students at JIS. It would be great to do one a year for each student and if teachers and students learned how they could do it themselves. Daniel Pink talks about the importance of storytelling and how students need to learn have storytelling in the curriculum. Wes would like to see all teachers digital video certified so they can create with media and use it in the classroom. Another resource mentioned was LoTi Connection. He put us on a Chatzy sharing site right away and the audience was able to respond and engage during his workshop. You could even ask questions in this way in a classroom.

LoTi forms strategic academic partnerships with school systems who share a common vision for 21st Century teaching, learning, and leadership.

He also shared a blog called Learning is messy by Brian Crosby. He also mentioned two books that sounded very interesting, not that I have time to read with my uni work...

OVERSOLD & UNDERUSED by Dr. Larry Cuban

THE BOOK OF LEARNING AND FORGETTING by Frank Smith

Saturday the conference opened up with another Keynote by Bruce Dixion who is the guru of 1:1 computing and has a site called Anytime Anywhere Learning. "The goal of the Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation (AALF) is to ensure that all children have access to unlimited opportunities to learn anytime and anywhere and that they have the tools that make this possible." At this site you can find research and resources for 1:1 and 21 steps to 21st Century Learning, plus more. Bruce talked about transforming learning environments and how it must be done by us. We need to build a better understanding of the "art of the possible". Rethinking online textbook and how they need to be more. We are the adventurers to create change to the unwise, and though we are small numbers we need to be loud in voice to show what is possible. Invite parents, teachers, and administrators to create blogs. 

The first workshop that I went to was by Chris Smith who created Shambles.net This website is designed to support the international school communities (teachers, support staff, administrators, students and families) in 17 countries in South East Asia. If you look at his PLN (Personal Learning Network) he has some great 2.0 tools to check out. To get there click on the small marker that says Chris's PLN/PLE under his signature. There is lots of great information on this site. 

Tool: screenr An easy way to create screencast. See the video for instant instructions.

A quote that saw in this classroom..."We are all writers...unique and accomplished in our own individual ways? See yourself as a writer?" Isn't this a great part of blogs, is seeing yourself as a writer!

Workshop 2: Introduction to Educational Podcasting (Wes Fryer)

He uses Audacity a free, open source software that allows you to edit audio and combine it together with visuals. It seems like it would be easy to use from the demonstration he gave. The hardware that you need for this Wes calls a digital backpack. Digital Backpack suggestions are:

1. Sony MVC-FD200 Digital Still Camera

2. Olympus WS-110 Digital Recorder

3. Plantronics Audio 650 USB Headset

4. 2GB USB Flashdrive

5. 2 GB Digital Camera Digital Memory Stick

6. Backpack to carry this equipment

You can vary to type of equipment as you may have different but similar equipment at your school.

Here were some suggestions that I wrote down, but they may not make sense till you use the program:

Export as a wave

Set bit rates at 32 if you include music

Use date for filing

Podcast with photos: open up podcast on itunes and add....get information to add 1b3 tag (?) browse and embed photo.

See samples Mills Murfee Podcasts

Radio WillowWeb This site has instructions for teachers who what to podcast.

TOOLS:

Gcast is a quick and easy way to create a podcast. 

drop.io is free...Use drop.io to privately share your files and collaborate in real time by web, email, phone, mobile, and more. Create each drop in two clicks and share what you want, how you want, with whom you want.

google moderator is a tool that allows distributed communities to submit and vote on questions for talks, presentations and events.

Keynote: Our 21st Century Challenge: Robyn Treyvaud

This was about our need to help develop responsible, ethical, and resilient digizens. Now that young people are both consumers and creators we as a teachers have a responsibility to address students with issues of privacy, friendship, community. How is the web changing the definitions of these words. Technology is an enabler for entertainment and friendship, but needs to enhance friendship not replace them. Parents and teachers need to help students develop a moral compass meaning, what they choose to do when no one is watching. 

We watched a very powerful video called Cyberbullying: A whole-school community issue. It was from digizens.org. and is for grade 6-12. 

See her site: Cyber SafeWord

Also see: 10 Privacy Setting Every Facebook User Should Know

Forum on Gaming

This was a panel of teachers who support gaming for learning. The realization that gaming is a big part of children's lives today. Not only are they playing games but they are creating games. Some games that were suggested:

Scratch designed by MIT

Atmosfear a 3D game on DVD, I think you can get it from amazon.

Club Penguin by Disney

The McDonald's Game

Electrocity You are the mayor of a city and you have to get energy.

Palestine a 3D world and you are a reporter. You have to buy this game. Check it out at Serious Games Interactive

Harnessing Digital Content for the Library and Learning

Katy Day and Beth Gourley
A big thanks to Katy and Beth for doing a workshop for librarians!

Introduced to tool:  wallwisher which is like a post it wall and comments can be moved around and grouped.

Found this site while I was looking at other sites. Really has nothing to do with this workshop. Howstuffworks.com

Check out Book Glutton

How do you like the idea of reading material on a screen? Not reading but screening. 

For information and the power-point of this workshop see http://sites.google.com/site/digitalgist

Keynote: “Education 3.0: A Framework for Change in Teaching and Assessing 21st Century Skill” by Andrew Thompson 

He says that we will be 18 million teachers short by 2015! We need to re-imagine what our students will need. 

3R's are:

Responsive communities-for preparing kids for the economy today?

Relevant to learners-How? Access to education anytime, anywhere for thieir wholle lives. How to apply knowledge: needs to move from acquisition, to deepening, to creation.

Results orientated

Change paradigm by reform agenda, 21st Century skills, Infrastructure, pedagogy and practice.

21st Century Skills are creativity, curiosity, metacognition, communication, collaboration (sharing work, knowledge, and expertise), Core subjects are important, comparability (transportable skills), complex problem solvers.

critical thinking

"Online access to content is allowing us to be answer rich but question poor."

Webolution is to move from passive information to participation to collaboration and creation.

The integration of data collection and use will change what we know about students and how we engage them in learning at an individual and system level.

The good, the bad and the ugly

Good is our ability to change, the bad is we can't improve what we can't measure, the ugly is that we have assessment all wrong and we have to get out of the 1980's. 

How do we measure competency using e-portfolios: novice to expert grading. Who should it be that is judging.
I found Wes Fyer's comments on this keynote and it is very detailed. I have included here I see Wes is a critical thinker and you will see the questions he had for Andrew. Wes is also a great note taker!

You Brought the Box: Kathleen Ferenz

Look at the space on the Library of Congress for teachers.

An idea without a plan, is just an idea. Comprehensive plan needs vision, goals, financing, infrastructure, community, communication, and pedagogy (this is where you target your PD. We need to articulate a vision of continuous learning. 

See calisphere for primary resources. 

Off to HONG KONG

This last Friday and Saturday, I was in a whole school workshop for PLCs (Professional Learning Communities). This is an initiative that our school has adopted this year and we had the first PD in August. It is very difficult to do whole school PD and meet the needs of all teachers. The downfall of PLC is with the specialist teachers, especially in the arts. PLCs do not address this issue enough and I guess they feel that it just not that important because if classroom teachers us it the data will show increased learning.

With this big push, I encouraged my group 23 to examine PLCs in our ppt. project. I thought it would be benefical to me and they seemed to like to idea of moving in this direction. I have been very lucky in my studies that what I am doing always seems to be relevant.

Last year at this time I went to the 21st Century Learning Conference in Shanghai will I was doing ETL501 Information Environment. I learned so much that my husband actually calls me a techie now! I am going again but this year it is in Hong Kong and once again I will be there for my birthday.