Small Voices, Big Dreams

(http://www.youtube.com/watchv=MoqO1PzTZSw).

“The ChildFund Alliance asked 3,000 10- to 12-year-olds around the world six simple questions. What they told us speaks volumes about the lives and dreams of children living in poverty.”

The youtube video highlights some of the responses to the six questions relating to health and welfare of children in their homelands.

After viewing the video, I went to the ChildFund website (http://blog.childfund.org/tag/small-voices-big-dreams) where I found a report on the study.  In the report, the responses from the interviews were displayed in a very easy to read format with wonderful quotes highlighting some of the major themes.  The results were disaggregated by Developing Countries, Developed Countries and the Americas as well as by regions of the world.

I found this study to be so informative and wondered how my grandchildren, who are 11 and 8, would respond to the same interview questions posed to the children in the report. So I asked them!  And here is what they said….

What would you do as president [leader] to improve children’s lives?

 “I would make sure kids have a home— that they are warm and clean.”

“I am not going to be president so I don’t know.”

 If you could grow up to be anything you wanted, what would you be?

 “I would be a nurse that takes care of babies and mothers. “

“I would be a surgeon.”

 If you could spend the day doing anything you wanted, what would you do?

“I would ride my bike.”

“I would swim, play soccer, play sports!”

Where do you feel safest?

 “With my dad.”

“In the homes of my family.”

 When you think about staying safe and healthy every day, what is the one thing you worry about most?

“Eating too much and bad eating habits.”

“Being over-weight.”

If you were the president [leader] of your country, what is the one thing you would do to protect children?

 “Make sure they don’t get hurt…. Or stolen!”

“I really don’t know.”

I then shared the video and report with my grandchildren and we had a rich conversation about the very different realities of the lives of children all over the world.  I asked which of the quotes from the report/video surprised them the most and here is what they told me:

“I don’t think I will become anything, because I am not at school.”

“I am afraid of starving.”

I also asked them what else they learned from the information.  Some of their observations that stood out to me are:

“They like to play just like we do but they really want to go to school and study.  That’s different!”

“Girls don’t get to go to school?  Why not?”

“That boy doesn’t even have a ball.  I could give him one of my balls. Why don’t we just send them a bunch of balls?”

“Why do we have so much and they don’t?  Is it our fault?”

As you can see, this activity led them to ask questions that they are now in the process of finding out more about. And as they find out more, they are asking more questions. They are learning about countries, cultures, politics, health, etc. from this simple activity of posing six questions that connect to them and other kids around the world.  I will say that the short video, the pictures and quotes in the report helped to make the questions and responses much more real to them.

I wonder what other American young people might gain from having this peek into the lives of others?  Perhaps teachers (parent… grandparents, etc.) might explore that with their young people and post it here!

February 7, 2012 – WASHINGTON, DC – The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) Foundation, in collaboration with The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE), and The California Endowment today announced a new grant program for K-12 educators seeking to incorporate computer and video games into their curricula.

Educators interested in applying for the Education Challenge Grant program can visithttp://esafoundation.org/challenge-grant.asp for additional information and an application form. Completed applications must be submitted by April 6, 2012 and winners will be announced in the spring of 2012.

Over the past fifteen plus years, I have had the good fortune of being the principal of three middle schools in Maine and during this time, I have worked with and met scores of teachers and administrators who do incredible work in their classrooms and within their schools and communities who are deserving of recognition.

It is apparent that throughout Maine’s middle level schools there are hundreds of innovative, creative, inspirational, passionate, compassionate, and fun teachers who are deserving of being honored as a recipient of either the Exemplary Practice or the Janet Nesin-Reynolds Outstanding Middle Level Educator Awards.

Nominations for these two awards come from you. If you know of an outstanding educator or program, please log onto the MAMLE website and fill out a nomination form and allow a colleague to be recognized for the great work they do for the students of their school and their community. The deadline for submitting nominations is April 15th!

Thank you to Jeff Rodman, Principal of the Middle School of the Kennebunks, for contributing this post.

A Visit to Herring Gut Learning Center

This past week I had the great pleasure of driving up the coast to visit the Herring Gut Learning Center in Port Clyde, a wonderful program for middle level learners and their teachers. It is an AWESOME place!  Not just because the students overlook the Atlantic ocean while they work, or that it is attached to a cool (warm) greenhouse where they grow the most beautiful hydroponic lettuce, or that they raise hundreds of Tilapia in tanks connected to the hydroponic lettuce, or even that they run a thriving business supplying fresh fish and winter greens to local markets and restaurants. The coolest thing is that they are deeply engaged in rigorous, authentic, hands on, minds on, integrated learning…and they obviously love doing it. It’s a middle level educator’s vision of Nirvana, right in Port Clyde.

Kyle D, Imma T, and Cameron P Teaching Me about Hydroponic Ecosystems at HGLC

The middle school students at Herring Gut Learning Center come from surrounding midcoast area schools. All of the key components of the Maine Learning Results are integrated into their learning as they plan, design, manage, troubleshoot, and sustain a thriving project at HGLC. During my morning visit I observed students applying science, mathematics, language arts, graphic arts, creative problem solving, data collection, teamwork, as well as presentation and communication skills. The faculty of HGLC also provides onsite and residential workshops for students and teachers interested in learning how to plan and develop similar projects at their schools. And that’s not all! They have designed a simple, yet elegant hydroponic system for growing plants and fish in your classroom or home. The kits and workshops for how to use them in classrooms are available for the asking. (I’ll soon be ordering my kit to put into my new greenhouse!) The students and educators at HGLC are always up for visitors. You can learn more by visiting their website at  www.herringgut.org

A Curious HGLC Tilapia Waits for Market Day

Our school leaders will need a tremendous amount of support as they begin their move toward customized learning.  Taking a close look at how to lead change in the entire school system must be a part of this equation.  Finding an effective model for managing change is essential.   Mike Muir’s model Lead4Change offers school leaders a way to understand all the moving parts in school systems that need to be addressed as systems ramp up for large-scale change.  We are fortunate to have Mike right on our doorstep here in Maine.

http://www.mcmel.org/lead4change-overview/

http://www.mcmel.org/storage/Lead4Change_HO.pdf

So let’s think SYSTEMS change here.  The move to customized learning deserves our best systems thinking and our best systems thinkers.

This day-long conference will highlight student-centered, performance-based units and projects (classroom, school, or community-based) from across the K-12 spectrum. The presenters will demonstrate how their particular learning opportunity…

1. Engages students in innovative, creative ways

2. Focuses on specific learning outcomes

3. Incorporates student voice

4. Provides multiple ways for students to demonstrate learning

You need to attend if…

• You and your students have examples of student-centered, performance-based units and projects to share.
• You want to do transform your teacher-centered instructional approach to one that is more student-centered, and you need to see some concrete examples to give you ideas how to do it.
• You’ve had no experiences with student-centered, performance-based units and need to find out the basics.
• You want to be inspired by students and teachers sharing their exemplary work.

Every superintendent in the state of Maine has received a copy of Inevitable: Mass Customized Learning, and the Maine Cohort for Customized Learning is growing exponentially as more school districts explore the concept of customizing learning through student-centered, proficiency-based curriculum and instruction. The Students at the Center event provides an opportunity for students and educators to share strategies for transforming education from a teacher-centered approach to one where students’ learning targets, learning styles, and interests combine to provide optimum success for each student.

All details about presenting and/or attending are available at http://www.mamleonline.org/.

Questions?

Contact Dr. Wallace Alexander, Executive Director of MAMLE

wallace_alexander@umit.maine.edu

Cover of Inevitable: mass customized learning by Bea McGarvey and Chuck Schwahn

I am currently teaching a graduate course for Thomas College called Trends in Instruction.  Over the past three years, I have really enjoyed exploring researched-based instructional strategies with the dedicated teachers who are working hard to make a difference in their classrooms.  Each time I teach the course, I use a current educational trend as a focal point to get the class thinking about what it really means to be “researched-based”.  This trimester, I decided to focus on Mass Customized Learning as this seemed to be the latest trend our teachers are being asked to explore and/or implement.

As it turns out, most of the students in my course are currently teaching in districts that have embraced this trend and are well on the way towards implementation.  And their stories are so telling!

To a teacher, each of these educators are supportive of the concept of individualized learning.  To a teacher, they experienced some level of excitement and/or optimism in the early stages of exploration.  And to a teacher, they are becoming disillusioned, confused, and even angry about how this latest trend is being implemented in their systems.

So… we spent a good part of a class recently exploring why the change?  What is not working with an innovation that teachers, for the most part, wholly embrace and support?  And the conclusion is that the implementation does not reflect the same principles of  individualized learning that is at the heart of mass customized learning.  Teachers are being told how and when they must implement this way of teaching (and, by the way, they are not entirely clear on the what… so that makes the how and when a bit difficult to accept)… There do not appear to be multiple paths and timeframes for getting there (wherever “there” is).  Some of my students have been early adopters and are really feeling that their insights are not being solicited and heard.

So, perhaps there is some learning here for those who are hoping that this latest trend, and by all accounts a very worthy one, can be successfully implemented… by following the same principles set forth for students… each teacher (and administrator) establishes  a 60 day plan that provides goals and activities that would move them towards implementing mass customized learning.  Each would have a mentor that would serve as a cheerleader and provide feedback and resources.  The plan would be shaped by the teacher (or administrator) and evidence would be collected to show progress and growth.  There would be systems, structures and practices identified to support the plan. Accountability would be individualized and meaningful to the teachers and administrators who, are, after all, learners, too!

For more information on mass customized learning….
http://masscustomizedlearning.com/docs/InevitableChapter7.pdf

How I knew him was through his decades long work on “Core Curriculum.” This isn’t the way we mean “core curriculum” now. In fact, the irony is that the “new” meaning of core curriculum is the four “core” subjects. But the historic meaning of Core Curriculum is something more akin to curriculum integration, teaching students through activities that blend content from the various subjects. (One of my favorite analogies is when you order a pizza, they don’t put just sauce on 2 slices, just cheese on 2 slices, just pepperoni on 2 slices and just mushrooms on 2 slices. They put it all on every slice.)

Core Curriculum was used quite a bit in the first half of the 20th Century. In fact, Core Curriculum was studied pretty closely in the 30s and early 40s and was found to be significantly more effective than the separate subject approach, including for things that we have always assumed separate subject approach was better at, such as college preparation. These results were published as The Eight Year Study.

I think of Gordon Vars as the shepherd of Core Curriculum. As others reinvented it as Integrative Curriculum (including James Beane and Maine’s own Gert Nesin), Gordon reminded us of the historical foundations on which that work was based. He was a gentle man who was always willing to share his expertise and empower others to succeed.

Gordon Vars died Tuesday night (1/31/12) after being hit by a car while walking home from choir practice. He was 88. I feel honored to have known him and to have had the opportunity to have collaborated with him in a couple small ways. Core Curriculum and Integrative Curriculum have contributed greatly to my interest in motivation and contributed to the kind of educator I try to be today. Gordon will be greatly missed for his contributions to Core Curriculum, and to the Association for Middle Level Education.

(Cross posted at the Bright Futures blog and the Multiple Pathways blog.)

It’s Your Turn:

How will you remember Gordon Vars?

In the process of writing and reflecting, I realized that in Maine we a very different way to introduce a new topic.

Imagine an introductory lesson focused on building a student’s background knowledge. Instead of having students read a chapter on the causes of the Civil War (for example) and then discussing what they read (which, by the way, every single child not only read the exact same description of the causes, but they all have been exposed to only one take on those causes – the textbook’s), have students open their laptops and ask them, “what were the causes of the Civil War?” 

Students could search and share what they found. You could ask, “Did anyone find anything different?” You could even compare sources or discuss approaches to surfing and searching. You could have them find perspectives that would reflect substantially different points of view. You could explore and discuss different kinds of sources and the apparent relative value.

Well, maybe not the first time you do this with students, but certainly the more times you do, the more you model for them, and the more they reflect on the process, the more your “introductory” lessons could look like this. 

And think about the “learning” skills and digital citizenship skills your students would develop!

It’s Your Turn:

How do you leverage technology to reach students in new ways?

If you listen on Saturday morning to NPRs Weekend Edition you are aware that Mr. Simon often interviews book authors. This morning he introduced John Green and his 4th book called The Fault in Our Stars. The author read a segment of the book that immediately drew me. In fact I stopped multi-tasking and gave it my full attention.

The book is about adolescents with cancer and their adventures after meeting at a support group. Life is precious, as you can imagine for young people with cancer, so they become fast friends. In the interview they discuss that cancer has become a monster and a regular topic of conversation, how TB was in past. Mr. Green writes his book with joy and all the sadness that this disease has on young people.

Towards the end of the interview Mr. Simon pointed out the closeness that Mr. Green has with his readers which struck me. Mr. Green mentioned at one point that he was afraid he might cry and that he liked communicating with his readers. This prompted me to learn more and imagined how beneficial it would be for teachers to contact him to converse with students. He has so much to offer.

I went online to learn more about the author and the book and found on the NPR site a wonderful description of Mr. Green and his writing that I’ve included below. You can read an excerpt of his book by clicking here.

Green writes books for young adults, but his voice is so compulsively readable that it defies categorization. He writes for youth, rather than to them, and the difference is palpable. He doesn’t dumb anything down. His language is complex, his syntax adult. He freely references Kierkegaard and William Carlos Williams alongside bloody video games and action movies. Add to that a raw and real glimpse at childhood illness, and his latest, The Fault in Our Stars, may be his best book yet.

I look forward to reading the book.