Ready to Stretch Your Thinking?

Summer is made for days at the beach, hiking spectacular trails, and reading a good book in a hammock.  It is also the one time during the year when educators have the leisure to pause, reflect, and review their beliefs about teaching and learning. New learning in courses and institutes help stretch, clarify, and reshape the way we think about our classrooms.  For over 25 years the Middle Level Education Institute (MLEI) has provided Maine educators and those from away with ideas that are innovative and effective.  This year will be no different.

I have learned many important aspects of instructional strategies.  Of most importance is the fact that it is not about the teacher, but rather it is about the student learning that takes place.

2012 MLEI Attendee

Join us July 29-August 1 on Bowdoin College’s beautiful campus in Brunswick, Maine to continue the journey toward more powerful learning for our students. We invite you to join the quest to re-envision schooling in a bold way that systematically models as well as promotes the essential capacities students need to successfully confront the challenges of their futures and the future of our world.

In many ways it is indeed a hero or heroine’s journey to pursue powerful teaching in today’s social, political, and economic climate. We believe, however, that spirited middle level educators want to explore…

• Empowerment and engagement
• Community and collaboration
• Content with meaningful context
• Assessment for reflection and growth

Are you ready to pursue this bold vision that…

• Cultivates learning that is engaging, challenging and meaningful?
• Shifts the classroom environment from teacher-centered to learner-centered?
• Incorporates student voice and choice in a substantive way?
• May rock your vision of teaching and learning?

This Institute has given me hope and the courage to take the full journey.

2012 MLEI Attendee

The journey continues July 29 – August 1 at MLEI on the Bowdoin campus.  All of the details and registration information can be found at http://mleimaine.net/home

Middle Level Education–21st Century Style! Empowering Students to Take Charge of Their Learning

Jack Berckemeyer

The Young Adolescent Learner

Al Miller

Creativity in the Classroom

Dr. Kevin Perks

Literacy in the Content Areas

Bea McGarvey

Customized Learning

Where Can You Meet All of These Experts in ONE Place?

Plus over 30 concurrent sessions

MAMLE Annual Conference

Point Lookout, Northport Maine

October 17 & 18, 2013

For more information email or call Dr. Wally Alexander, Executive Director of MAMLE

wallace.alexander@umit.maine.edu
207-649-1576

Techno Wizards: Students Model Good Digital Citizenship

Recently Warsaw Middle School’s Techno Wizards presented to elementary and middle school students and their parents on various aspects of digital citizenship. Eight students from Warsaw’s (WMS) new student technology team shared research, insights, advice, and tips on several critical topics—digital natives and immigrants, private and personal information online, password security, digital footprints, cyberbullying, and intellectual property. The students were professional, cool, and knowledgeable while presenting information and answering questions posed to them. But this was not their first public presentation.

The Techno Wizards have been busy since last September under the able direction of advisor and mentor, Ms. Lori Stevens, Warsaw’s technology integrator. Key functions of the Warsaw student technology team are to provide technology and learning assistance to teachers and fellow students, to assist with needed technical repairs and set-up, and perhaps most importantly of all, to serve as positive digital citizenship role models for both their school and their community. Digital citizenship refers to understanding and knowing how to navigate the digital world responsibly, safely, and ethically, obviously a set of skills that are becoming more important everyday.

Fourteen students applied for and eventually joined the Techno Wizards because they enjoy learning about and using technology; they also take seriously “giving back” to their school. It shouldn’t be a surprise that they are emerging student leaders at WMS. The Techno Wizards don’t get paid and they don’t receive academic credit for their work. Those types of external awards aren’t what motivate them! They do meet with Ms. Stevens every Tuesday morning at 7:20 a.m. to prepare for their next presentation, learn about applications of software to learning,  or how to assist their own teachers in using an app or software more effectively.

What else do the Techno Wizards do? Early in the school year they learned about Google Sites, a tool that every student at WMS will use to build his/her own digital portfolio. (A digital portfolio is a “purposeful collection” of a student’s best work in an electronic format, required by more colleges and workplaces.) Techno Wizards learned how to operate Google Sites first so that they could assist their teachers and eventually fellow students. I attended one of the professional development sessions and loved seeing the interesting role reversal as teachers learned from students!

Each week several students assist Ms. Stevens as she instructs fourth  grade students at the elementary school across the street. Every Techno Wizard also offers daily assistance to teachers and students in their classes. This ranges from trouble-shooting computer problems, to showing how to save, find, or send information to others, how to print, or how to use new tools as they are introduced. In short, the 14 Techno Wizards become 14 additional teachers for WMS.

But make no mistake…this is not simply a modern-day “AV Club” focused on computers, tablets, and projectors. Today’s student technology teams, like the Techno Wizards at Warsaw Middle School, use student expertise, leadership, enthusiasm, and an uncanny ability to work with a variety of people to strengthen the learning missions of their schools.

How do students assist with technology and learning in your school?

THERE’S STILL TIME . . . to attend the NELMS Annual Conference

It’s a sure sign that Spring is right around the corner.  “Meeting the Multi-Faceted Needs of the Middle Level Learner” convenes next week, April 4 & 5, in Providence, Rhode Island, where there will be green grass and blooming flowers(I hope!).  Don’t miss two days of inspiring, invigorating, relevant professional development.  If you need help or ideas on how to fund this incredible opportunity, contact the NELMS office, and check out the full Annual Conference program.

Inspiring Keynote speakers:

Tom Burton on “Magic, Motivation & Our ‘Sparkling’ Middle Level Students”

Carol Ann Tomlinson on “The Demographics, Research & Ethics Of Differentiation”.

Engaging ticketed luncheons and targeted full and half day sessions (a sampling includes):

“It’s More Than A Name” – Tom Burton

“Listen To What The Students Say: Student Profiles That Invite Differentiation”  – Carol Ann Tomlinson

Student Success Plans + “Cutting Edge, New” Advisory = Student Success – Earle Bidwell

Digital Tools for Project Based Learning – Jill Spencer

How Can We Use Strategies and Assessments to Prepare for the Transition to Common Core State Standards? – Deb Scarpelli

Exploring and Applying Web 2.0 Tools and Resources in the Middle – Chris Toy

Courageous and Collaborative Leadership in the Middle – Lyn Ward Healy

Differentiation and the Brain: How Neuroscience Supports the Learner Friendly Classroom – Carol Ann Tomlinson

Timely and relevant concurrent workshop sessions based on the concepts contained in Turning Points 2000 and This We Believe

“I Pity The Fool!” Leadership Advice From Mr. T

 An opening workshop conversation I often have with school leaders around the world is to share three words of wisdom from a well-known figure—Mr. T. Even people outside the United States recognize the scowling muscular character from “The A Team,” and his signature commentary about his adversaries, “I pity the fool!” delivered in a menacing, rumbling growl. Of course, it’s not this four-word phrase I’m referring to. “Mr. T” is an acronym I use to remind us how to effectively advocate for, support, and sustain the integration of technology and learning in our schools (or any aspect of school effectiveness for that matter).

The “M” in Mr. T represents the need for school leaders to model what they want faculty, staff, and students to be doing in their classrooms. The importance of modeling is echoed in the famous quote “We must become the change we want to see in the world” by Mahatma Gandhi. Leadership must be seen as leading by example. Albert Einstein stated that “Modeling isn’t another way to teach, it is the only way.” As the lead teachers in a school, administrators must use and integrate today’s tools and resources in their work with colleagues, staff, and students on a regular basis if they want this to happen in their schools. School leaders should learn about and use both online and offline digital tools and resources in daily work and routines. Using hardware such as laptops, interactive whiteboards, smartphones, and document projectors to share and communicate ideas should be business as usual. Principals who use software tools for presenting ideas, facilitating and archiving conversations, and collaborating are modeling what teachers and students should be doing in their classrooms. “Walking the talk” matters!

The “R” in Mr. T represents the importance of taking time in our busy schedules to pause and reflect. Our days, and often nights, are filled with meetings, deadlines, data, and emergencies. We seldom take the time to stop and reflect on the meaning and significance of our activities. Yet, we regularly pay lip service to the importance of being reflective learners and practitioners as we rush from one agenda item to the next. Or we admonish students to stop and think about the consequences of their decisions. We fall into bed each night then get up in a handful of hours and begin again.

Here again, if we want to implement learning technology in meaningful ways we must periodically stop, or at least slow down, and make time to consider what we are doing, why we are doing it, and its significance in light of our overall vision. The great Chinese philosopher, Confucius, advised us to keep in mind that “Learning without reflection is to become lost.” As educational leaders we must model reflection, and we must create space and the expectation that reflection will be a key aspect of the learning process. This can be accomplished as simply as pausing after an activity and doing a simple “think, pair, share” around the question, “What implications does this activity have for our vision as a school?” This can be accomplished in under five minutes, and can be extended using online tools such as a wiki.

Finally, the “T” in Mr. T represents the critical process of transfer. Transfer happens when we take an experience in one setting and actually apply it in a meaningful way in another situation. If we do not figure out a way to transfer and apply an experience in our own lives or work, that experience is soon forgotten. We can all complete the oft quoted aphorism, “If you don’t use it, you…” It is the responsibility to the leader, whether it’s the school leader or the leader of the classroom, to plan for, build in, and facilitate this transfer. Transfer is critical when it comes to integrating learning and technology where the interest is often focused on the novelty of the latest application or tool. The leader must take advantage of the interest and move the work forward by asking and requiring the staff to grapple with and answer the question, “How can we use this in our own work?”

So, take 30 seconds and ask yourself, “Am I like Mr. T when it comes to modeling, reflecting, and transferring what I want to see in my school?” If not, you know what Mr. T would have to say!

This entry is reposted from NASSP at http://tinyurl.com/NASSP-Mr-T

We (still) aren’t getting it!

I may have a bad case of the January grumpies, but frankly I’m tired of reading about these kinds of incidents. More than that I am angry that there seems to be little recourse, little discussion, and most important, little action taken. But take a look for yourself…

• Young teen girl is beaten up in her school…two onlookers film and upload video to Facebook.

•  Two high school students take their disagreement online where it inevitably escalates, disrupting a good portion of their school.

• After President Obama’s re-election last November and again after the Inauguration, a slew of racist comments appeared on Twitter and Facebook.

Not a day goes by when the Internet, TV news, and newspapers don’t feature several instances of students (ok, and adults too…and that is a big part of the problem) behaving inappropriately, sometimes badly, and occasionally illegally because of their online actions. Posting before thinking. Responding without weighing the consequences. Speaking without considering someone’s feelings.

We say our teens are tech-savvy, but what does that mean? For many teens it simply suggests they can navigate, use, and are not intimidated by their devices—laptops, tablets, smart phones, games, and of course, the Internet. Primary use of technology for many teens is still connecting with others (texting, social media) and entertainment (games, music, and more).

Far fewer teens than we would like actually take advantage of the technology at their disposal to learn, collaborate with others about bold ideas, problem solve (and particularly, problem find),  and give back to others. Let me say that again…the level of technology use for too many teens stops at texting and Facebook, unless we teach them how to be responsible (digital) citizens. And in this case, that “teaching” involves as much listening and discussing with them as it does about telling!

Here is what I suggest. Parents need to talk with their teens and teachers need to talk with their students about these issues. Our children and teens need to explicitly be taught what their responsibilities are for being good (digital) citizens, and how they can use technology responsibly, carefully, and ethically. (This is no easy task given the many examples of adults who misbehave online.)

But remember, this is not about technology. It is about common sense, using your brain, caring about others, setting good examples, not doing or saying things online that you would not do or say in face-to-face.

Take five minutes to talk to one of your classes today, and tomorrow, and the next day about a tech-related issue that has come up in your classroom, school, community, or in the news. Many of our students are desperate for guidance; they need to hear each other talk about the opportunities and challenges of being a teen in today’s society with the digital devices and tools they have access to. And of course, parents should have the same types of discussions.

Please note…this is not a rant. I’m simply asking teachers, school counselors, administrators, and parents to take five minutes each day to talk with a group of students about these issues as they arise. You don’t need to be a technology expert, you just need to talk about common sense behavior. Would you do or say this, or this, or this to someone face-to-face, as you have done hiding anonymously behind your computer?

There are tons of excellent resources available for kids of all ages, their teachers and parents. To get started investigate…

Common Sense Media

A Platform for Good

Digizen.org

Please let me know how this works for you and the kids for whom you are responsible!

Personal Learning Networks for Middle Level Leaders and Middle Level Students

Personal Learning Networks for Middle Level Leaders and Middle Level Students

I have one, we all have one and we may not have thought about it in just this way.  We need to and here’s why.  It is already a part and will be increasingly a part of our students’ learning lives…not to mention our own professional lives.

PLE= Personal Learning Environments

VLE =Virtual Learning Environments

PLE + VLE = PLN = Personal Learning Network

Here is what Wikipedia says:

One aspect is that the learner contributes and derives knowledge in a PLE through various nodes.^[3] In this way, the learner chooses which PLEs, VLEs, and social mediums to build a PLN. Specifically, the learner chooses who to interact with in these mediums and how much to participate. The learner enters the PLE with certain goals, needs, interests, motivations and problems that are often presented to the people they include in their PLN.^[5] Moreover, the learner will collaborate and connect differently with various members. The learner will establish stronger relationships with some members and have a low level of connection with others. Not all nodes will be equal.^[3] Some of the member roles include searcher, assemblator, designer of data, innovator of subject matter, and researcher.^[5]

PLNs are becoming an important part of professional development in several fields with some businesses creating their own e-learning content and PLEs for their employees. In addition, PLNs have become prevalent in the field of education and are rapidly becoming adopted as centers for the diaspora of field related information (in this regard, they are also often referred to as PROFESSIONAL Learning Networks).^[6][7][8][9]

Here is a slideshow about PLNs

http://www.slideshare.net/GrahamAttwell/personal-learning-enviroments-the-future-of-education-presentation

So what does this mean to us as middle level leaders?

It means we need to be consciously developing our own PLNs. It means we need to consciously be identifying how, where, and from whom we are learning…and this goes way beyond college courses and conferences for us and way beyond classrooms and classroom teachers for our students. It means staying actively connected with smart and capable people inside and outside of education who have knowledge we need and possible solutions to our current challenges.

It means staying actively connected virtually and “on the grid” continuing to develop our own virtual learning environments.

And, lest we forget, we may be part of the PLN of someone else.  What have we got to offer and are we willing to share it?

What about our students?  They’re watching.  How can we best assist them to develop safe, productive, rich, and flourishing PLNs?  By modeling it, for a start.

For me personally?  This can’t be an add-on to my professional life. I have no extra time.  None of us do.  It needs to be entwined, enmeshed, embedded and a natural part of my work life.  This means I need to replace some old and less efficient practices with some new more efficient practices.

This is a LOT to think about.

Bright Futures, Technology, and Modern Learning

About a month ago, the Bright Futures Partnership sponsored an event bringing together veteran and bourgeoning middle level leaders to explore the future of middle level education in Maine. Many of us were starting to feel like the middle had been forgotten with the various “accountability” initiatives that have driven education life for so long (although, Jill certainly believes – and so do I – the middle level concept is alive and well within the Customized Learning work, just under a new set of vocabulary).

But it was a good reminder that perhaps it was time to revisit the Bright Futures Report itself and its core practices. When was the last time you took a good look at the report? Although I reference it often, I know it has been a while for me. Maybe it's time to go back and review…

We blog here about a wealth of topics related to middle level education, but I'm now inviting my fellow Bright Futures bloggers to take one of the BF core practices that is near and dear to their heart (would that be a BFF, A Bright Futures Favorite?) and remind us all what that recommendation is all about.

And it won't surprise any of you that I'm willing to start with Core Practice 4:

Students have access to one-to-one computing technology integrated throughout the curriculum allowing them to acquire the critical thinking skills related to information, media, and technology.

It's easy for educators in Maine to take this one for granted, since we've had the Maine Learning Technology Initiative for more than a decade. But no other state is that lucky, and although access to technology, even 1to1, is becoming more widespread, Core Practice 4 ventures to make one key idea clear: technology in schools is not about the stuff, or having access, or being an add-on or elective, but rather about leveraging technology as a modern learning tool integrated throughout the educational program.

As the report says:

Researching, word processing, data collecting, animating, creating multimedia presentations, producing and directing movies, and designing web pages are all tools that the teachers and students use on a regular basis to make learning challenging, meaningful, and engaging.

Which of these are you doing regularly in in your classroom?

What other kinds of technology-rich learning activities are you doing that aren't in that list?

I've started thinking of instruction in two types: for lower order thinking and for higher order thinking.

How are you using technology for lower level Blooms? Are students finding information? Watching instructional videos?

How are you using technology for upper level Blooms? How are students creating with technology? What role is technology playing in project-based learning in your classroom?

Here are some resources to help you with implementing Core Practice 4:

• An AMLE Research Summary on Technology and Pedagogy
• An AMLE Research Summary on Technology and Student Learning
• Technology to Improve Learning: Strategies for Middle Level Leaders
• McMEL's Technology for Learning Page

 

Posted with Blogsy

Does Technology Improve Learning? No!

From the very beginning, the Maine Learning Technology Initiative received a lot of attention across the country and around the world. One of the most frequently asked questions was and is, “Do laptops improve learning?” Even when Auburn published their research on 1to1 iPads in kindergarten, we were asked if it were the iPads or if it were something else.

1to1 advocates readily recognize, however, that technology does not raise test scores or improve achievement. The answer to the question of technology improving learning is a resounding “NO!”

Only good teachers and teaching improve learning.

But technology is an amazing tool for teachers to leverage for their students’ learning. Educators are finding that technology, especially when students have access to it anywhere/anytime, is a powerful tool that allows for improved teaching and learning.

This isn’t a contridiction, it is simply placing credit where credit is due. A classroom full of laptops or iPads which aren’t being used, or aren’t being used well, will have no benefit to students and their learning. Only when teachers are using them well does learning improve. Handing technology to students is insufficient for improving learning.

In fact, the research on technology initiatives indicates that when schools put too much focus on the technology (ie treating their initiative like a “tech buy”) there is no significant benefit to achievement. And even if laptops and iPads are a relatively new phenomenon, the importance of distinguishing between a focus on technology and a focus on learning, is not. Analyzing over 700 studies, Schacter concluded in 1995 that technology initiatives have to focus on teaching and learning, not the technology, in order to be successful: “One of the enduring difficulties about technology and education is that a lot of people think about the technology first and the education later” (p. 11). Studies that show a negative impact of technology often indicate that the initiatives themselves focused on hardware and software, or teachers taught about the technology instead of using the technology to enhance learning experiences.

Maine recognized from the beginning that MLTI could never be about laptops alone, a position that Auburn continues with their iPad initiative. Both initiatives recognize that the real value of technology in schools lies not in learning to use technology, but in using technology for learning. You cannot separate the technology, and learning and teaching, and the professional development in MLTI or other 1-to-1 initiatives. The initiatives are all those things together. Intentionally. You can’t just say, “well then it was just the professional development and the technology doesn’t matter.”

In fact, the technology matters a lot. You have to remember that many students are doing things with their laptops that aren’t convenient/possible without the laptop. Sure you can write with pen and paper, but research shows that the quality and quantity of writing improves because of the perceived ease of revision and editing. Sure you can look up extra facts in the library after class, if you want to go to all that trouble. But it’s a lot more likely to happen when a student can just flip open the laptop, open the browser, and do a search. The technology extends our capabilities as teachers and as the engineers of students’ learning experiences.

Only when technology initiatives focus on teaching and learning (includinng well supported teachers) do the initiatives impact achievement.

“Do laptops improve learning?” is not, nor should it ever be, the right question. The right question is “How are teachers using technology to improve learning?”

 

Reference: Schacter, J. (1995). The impact of educational technology on student achievement. The Milken Exchange on Educational Technology.

 

MLTI 9th Annual Student Conference

Bringing students together for a wonderful opportunity!

The MLTI conference agenda looks like an event not to be missed. Block 1 session starts with students telling their stories….

• Taking Care of Business
  Presenter: Tim Walsh, Freshman at Kennebunk High School
  Tim will share how he leveraged his access to his MLTI MacBook to become a design professional along with a team at Middle School of the Kennebunks. And Tim will make clear – his accomplishments to date are “only a beginning…” (read more by clicking here)
• “You kind of have to want to…”
  Presenters: Emily & Katie Morse, Juniors at Machias High School
  Emily and Katie are studying Japanese to meet their world language graduation requirement at Machias High, and they are doing it online through Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City, Utah via their MLTI MacBooks. They’re proving MLTI students have the opportunity to learn what they want to learn – when and how they want to learn it. (Read more by clicking here.)

This is just the way the day starts on May 24th on the UMaine, Orono campus.

Block 3 Über-session will be my favorite part of the day, I just know. This is taken from the MLTI website:

This year’s student conference will feature over 1,000 students playing an original composition on the MLTI devices. Using GarageBand (recording software included on the image), students will come to the session having already created their own sampled keyboard – one that they will play as a group along with 1000 other musicians!
 
The samples created will include an octave of pitched musical notes and five localized sound effects that will be incorporated in the piece. MLTI staff will capture the culminating performance and release audio and video to the public shortly after the performance.
 
Now let’s be honest – if you’re a musician, you probably understand all this…
 
But… If you are not a musician – don’t worry – there will be plenty of help available to make sure everyone can arrive at the event ready to go. Read below for more information on how to get prepped to be part of this exciting event, as over 1,000 Maine people join together to make music!
 
Oh, one more thing – there will be some great professional and amateur Maine musicians involved – but we can’t release details just now as they are still being worked out!

You can read more, see the schedule, and register for the conference at http://www.maine.gov/mlti/studentconference. I understand there are still some spaces left!