Innovation Day - The Trilogy

As many of my readers know, my school started an annual Innovation Day where we allowed students free reign of their learning. The first year it became pretty popular and the second year was just as successful. I have enjoyed helping other classes and schools get their own Innovation Days off the ground and love seeing the idea spread. This past week we held our third annual Innovation Day at our school and it was by far and away the most successful one yet for one big reason.

Several months ago, I sent the following tweet out to Reed Timmer, a meteorologist, from Discovery Channel’s show Storm Chasers.

I listened to Reed’s keynote at the ASCD conference in the spring and loved what he had to say. He spoke passionately about his life’s dream of learning about weather and everything that goes with it. I had one student in particular that was highly interested in weather and was a fan of Reed. My initial thought was the have Reed connect with this one kid and that idea snowballed into him addressing all of my students as part of Innovation Day. What better person to speak to our students about following their passions in life and pursuing your interests? My hope was to get Reed to Skype in for a short interview that I could record and show to the entire grade level to kick off our Innovation Day. However, that was not what actually happened.

Instead, the power of social media unleashed itself and within a short amount of time and a few dozen tweets I was in a meeting with personnel from Discovery Education planning an actual site visit and activities with Reed Timmer. Fast-forward to last Friday where Reed drove nine hours through a snowstorm to visit our school and deliver a keynote speech to kick off Innovation Day. He spoke about his passion for chasing storms and learning about the science of weather. Of course he showed some amazing footage of the Dominator driving right into the belly of some intense tornadoes. I could not have picked a more perfect start to the day or a more perfect message to be delivered.

After the keynote, Reed did a small group meet and greet with some extremely passionate young scientists and then roamed and spoke to kids about their projects. One young man made a documentary of the day and here is a small clip of his interview with Reed.

Of the three years that we have been doing the Innovation Days at my school, this was by far the best one yet. We had the gambit of projects that reigned from choreographed ballets and stop motion film making to tension bridges and documentary making. The addition of the guest speaker was fantastic and the kids just were so tuned into their learning. Our deputy superintendent visited our school for the keynote and hung around to watch kids working on their projects. Afterward he emailed me the following comments,

“The whole day was just awesome!  I have been an educator for 42 years and have never seen such a high rate of engagement where 300 students were totally into learning as they worked on their projects.”

That pretty much sums it up…just a great day of student learning. Period.

Student Thoughts

#METC13 Session Slides

I finally got the sessions uploaded from my METC13 sessions. Some of the fonts got goofy when it went into SlideShare but here you go. You can also click on the link to see an archive of the live stream from the PBL session. Enjoy!

Pbl from stumpteacher

To Fix Public Education

I've been asked several times what I think the number one problem in public education is. More specifically I've been asked if I could change one thing about public education what would that be. Most people are going to assume that I would said we need to get rid of standardized testing or get rid of homework or get rid of the bloated curriculum the we are required to teach. Some might think I would say we need more technology or that every kid should have access to a device every single day they are in school. Any one of those ideas would be worthy of discussion and certainly have been. However, if we want to make real change in education I think we may have to start at square one. By square one I am referring to our teacher preparation programs.

You don't have to look very far to see first year teachers in classrooms with the deer in the headlights look. Many of them are ill prepared for the challenges of the daily job of a classroom teacher and are frankly scared out of their mind. Now that's not to say that the colleges and universities are not doing the best they can. However, what they are doing is just not good enough anymore.

For starter, let’s look at the time these individuals actually have to practice the art of teaching. How long are most student teaching experiences and how many hours are preservice teachers required to be in a classroom before they student teach? While this number varies greatly, a majority of student teaching experiences last one semester. If the college or university is on trimesters, the time is significantly shorter. While many other professions require intense internships, why is that teachers do not? Why do we not have a minimum requirement of a one-year internship for all teachers? What better way to prepare them for their first year then by giving them a first year with an experienced mentor teacher?

Another issue that comes to mind is that way in which preservice teachers are pushed on through the program regardless of their abilities. I have seen first hand student teachers that should not be left alone in a classroom with children and leave me scratching my head about how they made it this far. Why is it that we feel an obligation to push these students through even though they are not cut out for the job? Are we feeling we owe it to them because they have invested an insane amount of tuition money? Should we push a student through just because they have put their time in and “earned” it? Why not give them more experience earlier in programs and provide more critical feedback to help improve these future teachers or provide them an opportunity to seek another career path?

One issue that may not win me many fans is with the college professors themselves. Frankly, a lot of these professors are poor teachers. For me, I was a history degree major when I was studying in my undergrad. I will tell you I had some of the most brilliant historians teach my history classes. Yet being a master of history does not make you a good teacher. Nearly every single professor I had stood and delivered everyday, every class for four years. Any teacher work their paycheck knows that is not good pedagogy and certainly won’t work in a K-12 environment. Again these people were brilliant historians and scientists and mathematicians but they were not trained as teachers.

Education professors by in large are working on a model that has existed for 100 years and are continuing to perpetuate these ideals through their undergrad and even graduate programs. While the professors are pushing methods and procedures thought best practice in the 1920s, our future teachers are not in touch with current trends or movements. Do we have a place for healthy debate about educational theory in practice in our undergraduate programs? Should we? Are we more concerned about the way in which a college senior is writing a lesson plan or about what they believe about student learning and instructional practice? That is not to even mention the lack of technology training that is a whole issue unto itself.

If we want to change the system of public education in this country, it has to start at the college and university level. These are the students that will come out to be the future teachers in our country. These are the ones that have not been jaded or beat down by curriculum or incompetent administrators. They have yet to be burdened with education politics or incessant hoop jumping. Colleges and universities have a tremendous opportunity to do this.

We don’t need programs like Teach for America or any other one-stop shop cookie cutter convenient drive thru teacher prep programs. We need colleges to adapt to the changing landscape of public education. Colleges have value and have a place in preserving education in America and pushing it to where it should be.

A New Hope

from wikipedia.com

I am a big fan of the Star Wars movies and have had a love affair with the intergalactic stories since I was a small child. Recently, I was watching for the _(fill in huge number)_millionth time, EpisodeIV: A New Hope. For the three people on the planet that have not seen this movie, it is essentially a story of the Jedi (good guys) gaining power and opposing the Empire (bad guys) with a plethora of light sabers and blasters. In the title, A New Hope, it is apparent that the people of the galaxy will finally have hope against the oppressive Empire.

Lately, I have been watching, reading and following numerous conversations and discussions about the state of public education in our country. There is sadly, a great deal of negativity and anger in these discussions and interactions. I have to admit I have taken part in some of these and vented my frustration and disappointment at some of the circumstances public education has found itself in. Many of these discussions end with finger pointing at the bad students, bad teachers or bad parents. Let’s be honest, there is no shortage of things to complain about or things to point at.

However, with all that, I see hope in many places and I fear too many of us are looking past them.

Yes, kids are hurting other kids and causing physical and emotional harm. There appears to be little empathy and compassion left in our schools. Yet, I sit in a classroom right now with a handful of 6^thgrade boys who all shaved their heads. Why? They are showing support for a classmate who was recently diagnosed with cancer. Is that not empathy and compassion?  I also recently came across this short video that fills me with hope for the future of our country and in humanity. Clearly there are good students out there that want to make a positive difference in their communities.

 

There are also a lot of negative feelings towards parents of our nation’s kids and how they are parenting. I myself have sat and wondered how some parents could do some of the things they have done to their children or to kids in general. However, my good friend Jeremy Macdonald sent me the video below that literally brought me to tears and filled me with hope. There are incredibly selfless parents and teachers out there that inspire me and this man is but one of them.

The amount of negativity in the world is almost overwhelming at times. The Empire will not win and the Jedi will return! Or at least, the good people in our world will continue to do good, inspire others and bring us hope. What are you doing or seeing that fills you with hope for our future in education and in humanity. Please share!

The Streak

This past year I committed on January 1st, 2012 to run at least a mile a day for 365 days. I honestly didn't think it would last that long and I was right. On January 9th, I rolled my ankle pretty badly playing in one of my basketball league games. Sorry for the grossness of the picture...felt it had to be included.

Injured Ankle

Normal Ankle 

I took two days off for the ankle to recover a bit and then started the streak back up on January 12th and have not stopped running since. Here is a graphic of some of the stats related to my current streak.

While this is not necessarily an education related post, it is a relevant moment in my life as this run streak means a great deal to me. Over the course of this run streak I have had some amazing experience. Here are a just few...

• I ran on the morning before I met the President of the United States of America in Washington DC.

• I ran along the Pacific Ocean in San Diego as I saw that ocean for the first time in my life. 

• I ran in Central Park on my first ever visit to the world renown city park. 

• I ran my first half marathon with my 55 year old father.

I encourage you to set yourself a lofty goal and if it is a physical one, all the better. Stick with it and I promise you it will make you a better and healthier person. Or try a different kind of streak. Give a hug every single day. Call a parent of a student once a day. Start a streak of kindness or maybe reading to your kids. Just go for it...go streaking. :) 

Tragic Takeaways

I sat at my desk yesterday while my students were taking a district assessment. I opened up tweetdeck to see what my PLN was up to on this fine Friday. One of the columns I have in tweetdeck is for news and journalists from around the world. That was when I saw the tweet that changed the course of my day.

Upon reading that tweet I continued to follow the tragedy unfold through social media as well as various news sites. At some point in the afternoon, I just sat at my desk and nearly lost it. Too many images and stories that were being shared were just too much for me. My thoughts went to my own kids who were in elementary schools right then as well as the students sitting in my room.

For my own children, the thought of them having to experience something like the children in Connecticut did yesterday is just too much for me to handle. I cannot even comprehend what those parents are going through nor do I want to try. As I sat in my classroom and looked at the kids in my room, my mind naturally began to race. What would I do if a shooter came into my school building? How would I react? What would I do to ensure my students would be safe and get to see their parents again? As I asked myself these questions I realized that the thought of losing one of my students would be just as painful as losing my own children. I am not sure those that are not teachers can understand this. They just can’t.

As I went on a run this morning, I reflected on the big question, “Where do we go from here?” There are plenty of people shooting their mouths off and sharing their opinions and everyone is entitled to do that. Clearly, I am doing the same. For me, I focused on a few key takeaways from this horrific event.

·         Guns kill people. Our obsession as a country with guns and violence needs to be addressed. Had this man been armed with a knife, this would have been a much different story. Some will say that criminals and thugs will get guns if they really want them regardless of laws. That may be true…but criminals and thugs are not the ones shooting up schools.

·         You don’t have to look far to see the level of exposure young kids have to violence in movies and video games. How many parents disregard ratings and guidelines on such things and expose their children to graphic violence? As parents we have a tremendous responsibility to make sure our children do not see gun violence as normal behavior. We have to be parents.

·         Knee jerk reactions, such as arming teachers or front office staff are not the answer. Rather than putting more guns in schools, let’s put in more counselors and social workers. Let’s shift our focus to helping and healing our students with mental illnesses. Rather than shunning these individuals in schools and in society, let’s instead help them. Let us strive to understand them and support them in any way we can.

·         Let’s address bullying and create loving and tolerant environments within our schools. Character education programs and pep assemblies do little to address a systemic problem of intolerance and lack of empathy in our society. How many of these shooters were picked on, shunned or treated harshly by peers or in some cases teachers?

·         Don’t settle for meaningless tributes as the only way to honor the victims and families. It will take more than a tweet, a status update or a note on an NBA sneaker to change the cultural problems events like this expose. Take an active role in making your school safer and helping anyone in your life to be more tolerant and empathetic.

·         Cherish ever moment with your children and students…let them know how much you love them every single day.

I don’t have any answers and I genuinely feel my heart broken this morning. Yes, I have seen these events happen in other schools before, but this one got to me in a real way. I am not sure if I will look at my own kids or students in the same way as I return to work this week. However, I am sure that I will make my classroom and my home a loving environment in which everyone feels safe and welcome.