The Elm Street School is a K-8 school about 10 miles from Lewiston/Auburn. It is located in Mechanic Falls and is part of Union 29. The good people in this school need to look at every possible avenue to stretch their small budget in order to provide the very best possible learning environment in a caring, community school. Though I haven't worked with them this past year, I had the opportunity in previous years to see their dedication to grabbing every opportunity that might enhance their school. On an earlier post, we looked at the importance of classroom web presence. Check the links below to see a small sampling of the free/inexpensive solutions that Elm Street 7-8 teachers made use of:
Straight out of Western Maine, Jeff Bailey and Dan Ryder continue their famous/infamous weekly podcasts on issues and opportunities in education . . . with a focus on Maine.
One of the effects of living with electric information is that we live habitually in a state of information overload. There's always more than you can cope with. ~ Marshall McLuhan
The question is this: What should we know in our own heads and what should we simply leave to a machine's storage device?
Joe Makley has a fascinating post on this very subject titled, "Platitudes and Orthodoxy in Web 2.0." But Joe goes beyond whether a fact is completely necessary to learn. He speaks to the issue of focus and contemplation in this world where we are bombarded by so much information that we often operate on an instant-to-instant crisis basis rather than through deliberation and thoughtfulness.
Are we in danger of losing both our roots and our wings? Our souls?Any thoughts about taming the technology beast?
I received a link to this video from Anne Ireland today. I've been thinking of it in terms of school culture and the top-down, little boxes model that public education has increasingly experienced. Thank you, Anne.
Many Maine schools are reviewing their acceptable use agreements/policies in light of new developments in utilization of the internet. Rather than each school reinventing the wheel, why not share the wealth by listing your school's agreements here?
"People want the attention -- no one likes to feel like an underappreciated cog in an overworked machine." ~ Vicki Davis
Vicki was commenting on a post from Ed Tech Trek titled "I'm beaming". In the post, Caroline Obannon was expressing her joy when working individually with a teacher who saw clearly and enthusiastically how a tool could be used in his classroom.
The moral of the story is that teachers are very, very busy people and need to be treated with respect. It is so very easy for people who don't spend every day in the classroom to pontificate by throwing out elaborate schemes that in the end are not workable given limited time and energy. I saw it many times during my 32 years in the classroom. Those who work on making changes in our schools must do so without arrogance and self-righteousness. It is time to start trusting teachers while giving them our support.
From the early Neolithic or late Pliocene To just yesterday afternoon around half past four The professional development most often seen Had participants screaming and running for the door!
The principal would attend a workshop in July, Buy the hottest new book or some videocassette. He would come back to school with a twinkle in his eye And write an S.I.P. teachers could never regret!
He would stand at the podium and preach to the choir Bout' NCLB and shared accountability. "We must raise the bar and then jump higher and higher! Teach from bell to bell with sense and sensitivity!"
The teachers would leave the cafetorium in glee With reams of information packed with jargon to spare. Lugging binders and handouts (at a nominal fee), They would return to class both in rapture and aware...
Of research-based "best practices" that were tried and true And lesson strategies that could not possibly fail! The administration was sharp, knew just what to do: They had "stood and delivered" the PD Holy Grail!
But as we all know, school change is a tricky business; It's hard as a tack and never happens overnight. Workshops don't work, all victims would certainly confess. It requires blood, sweat, and tears and a terrific fight!
Faculty buy-in and active participation Are key ingredients for real, successful reform. To bring about such a meaningful transformation We have to make the two an essential PD norm.
Embed them throughout the entire training process To ensure that teachers get both what they want and need. Create a new culture dedicated to progress Where everyone has an opportunity to lead.
To accomplish this, there is only one thing to do: Sound the alarm and rally the much-beleaguered troops; Get rid of workshops and empower the in-school crew. Change the paradigm; adopt faculty study groups!
Six to eight people working together side by side Go explore topics and issues relevant to each. They travel miles and miles deep and hardly an inch wide, Until they discover a better, new way to teach.
From crunching numbers to trying a new high-tech tool, From reading a great book to designing a lesson, They do any number of things to improve the school. It is always worthwhile and occasionally fun.
Study groups will increase student achievement and more. They will earn the school district and state impunity. But much more important than any assessment score, You'll be a professional learning community!
Let's hope that the the phrase, professional learning community, doesn't deteriorate to simply mean business as usual. Let's not use language to get in the way of communication . . . but instead to help develop clarity and understanding.
A study of the NCLB Reading First program found that teachers were spending more time on reading instruction but that there was no significant difference in reading comprehension between those schools that used the program and those that didn't.
Western Maine's own Richard Byrne shares a wealth of free technology resources and how teachers can use them on his daily-updated blog, Free Technology for Teachers. His reviews are based on carefully checking out the latest developments and concisely reporting on how they might be used in the classroom and elsewhere. I find that dropping into his blog saves a great deal of time in sorting through the plethora of new applications . . . Richard does it for us.
An incredibly rich resource of Maine sheet music and more . . . a Maine gem. Click here and get ready to make some music! Did I mention that it is free?
"We are told accountability is essential — by people who refuse to be accountable for underfunding schools, who fail to address the social needs of children created by inequalities and who think simple answers exist for complex problems. Accountability flows both ways. I may be crazy, but I am not stupid."
I regularly check out AASA's excellent monthly online publication, The School Administrator, for articles on education. A visit to Paul Houston's column is always a must. This morning I read his "Crazy or Stupid?" offering in which we speaks to issues of accountability and blame.
I had an absolutely delightful morning assisting Oxford Hills adult education teacher, Ramsey Ludlow, in taping a class designed by the Maine Humanities Council called New Books, New Readers. Mary Alice Crosby, in cooperation with local literacy teachers, facilitates this book group, which consists of adults who are learning to read. Books have been chosen according to theme and readability and discussed in an informal and emotionally-safe atmosphere with an emphasis on connecting with the lives of the participants. Students get to keep the books.
The just-completed series called "Telling Our Stories" includes the following:
For discussion: How do we tell our own stories? Why are they important? How do we decide what to tell? What do we learn from telling our own stories? From reading others’ stories? How and why do we share our stories with others? How do our personal stories connect to the stories of our communities and country?
This is an excellent model on many levels. Making these connections is important in encouraging persistence in working on the needed reading and writing skills. Oxford Hills Adult Education teachers help participants in developing skills before the discussion group . . . and follow up after the discussion is over.
“One of the reasons we fear these technologies is because we as teachers don’t yet understand them or use them. But the reality is that our students already do. It’s imperative that we be able to teach our kids how to use the tools effectively and appropriately because right now they have no models to follow.”
~ Will Richardson
Essential Question: How can classroom communication and collaboration be enhanced with the use of blogs?
........................................................................................................................... Bonus: Drawing /Painting/Photo Editing Programs for the Classroom
Not finding a listing of group professional development opportunities in Maine for summer 2008, I thought it might be of value to start one here. What would you add to the list? (You may either add in comments or use this wiki page). June 5 Free FirstClass Day in Gorham
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The Elm Street School is a K-8 school about 10 miles from Lewiston/Auburn. It is located in Mechanic Falls and is part of Union 29. The good people in this school need to look at every possible avenue to stretch their small budget in order to provide the very best possible learning environment in a caring, community school. Though I haven't worked with them this past year, I had the opportunity in previous years to see their dedication to grabbing every opportunity that might enhance their school. On an earlier post, we looked at the importance of classroom web presence. Check the links below to see a small sampling of the free/inexpensive solutions that Elm Street 7-8 teachers made use of:
