Friday, August 31, 2012

Struggles in classroom

This is a "must read" for all educators and parents (and others interested in education). Signs of "good" and "bad" struggles in the classroom. Thinking back on a situation in which I found myself yesterday, these are also useful for understanding any learners or organizations-- I was trying to mitigate an educators bad struggles with technology. 

I also recently left a school in which the principal could not recognize the bad struggles of her staff, and her role in making those struggles worse. 



- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Communicating with parents...




- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Fwd: Rick Wormeli Coming Back!

News from NELMS;

- Dr. Gary Ackerman


Begin forwarded message:

From: nelms@nelms.org
Date: August 30, 2012 11:20:33 AM EDT
To: "Dr. Gary L. Ackerman" <gary@hackscience.net>
Subject: Rick Wormeli Coming Back!
Reply-To: NELMS <nelms@nelms.org>

August 30, 2012 - Rick Wormeli is coming back to NELMS
nelms logo

picture of rick wormeliThe always popular Rick Wormeli will be back in 2012!

Common Core Common Sense:  
Mastery, Assessment, Reporting, and Reality

November 13 & 14, 2012

UMass Lowell's Inn & Conference Center, Lowell, MA

Some think if we just had clear, rigorous standards, such as the Common Core, all of our students would improve test scores and go to college. This hasn't happened in states who already have such standards, however, so there must be something more to it.  Our professional responses to the Common Core and their assessment are key. Teachers and principals need the skills and insights to break down the Common Core, and any other curriculum that comes their way, and identify evidence they will tolerate as indicators of mastery.  They need practicality on reporting that evidence of mastery as well as how to handle awkward assessment and grading situations that arise in increasingly diverse classrooms that are all  supposed to make the same gains in the course of a single year. 

As differentiation expert, Carol Ann Tomlinson, alludes, standards are the ingredients for dinner laid out on the kitchen counter, but they are NOT the meal itself.  The meal is made by talented teachers knowing the ingredients well and understanding the academic, dietary needs of their students.  These teachers proportion, mix, and cook those ingredients into something meaningful and serve the meal in such a way as students will eat wisely, and maybe, eagerly.

Join us for a provocative two-day seminar that explores these elements of highly effective teaching in the Common Core world.  We'll also examine the roles of formative, summative, and common assessments, as well as how to set up a standards-based gradebook and many, "What do teachers do if…?" scenarios that arise when implementing any curriculum with standards-based grading, such as whether or not we can scaffold student learning when using the Common Core, what to do if students achieve the standards earlier than classmates, and what to do if students can express satisfactory evidence of standard but only through alternative assessment.  Bring your questions and your wisdom to share – It's going to be a productive two days! 

For more information and/or to register please click here.

Save the date for the NELMS 32nd Annual Conference

April 4 & 5, 2013 • RI Convention Center • Providence, RI

Tom Burton - Keynote - Thursday April 4, 2013

Carol Ann Tomlinson - Keynote - Friday April 5, 2013

 

From one of our sponsors...

jog nog logo

8th Grade Science, Engineering and Technology Teachers

 

Struggling to cover cover all state standards with limited class time? You're not alone. Many teachers are using instructional technology to help solve this problem.

The American Science Challenge uses the JogNog educational video game for formative and summative assessment, saving your precious time while improving STEM learning.  Students are self-motivated and enjoy the program.

Join other STEM educational leaders in using instructional technology to raise MCAS scores and improve STEM knowledge.

It's simple to sign up and try out JogNog. Go to www.jognog.com

For more information about the American Science Challenge check out www.jognog.com/ASC and 130 new science study games directly mapped to standards:

life science table

physical science study games image

earth space image

tech engineering image

state test questions

 

Rick Wormeli
Nov. 13 & 14, 2012

Literacy Summit
Day 1 - 11/2/12
Day 2 - 12/7/12

Join us on Facebook and Twitter

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Net Atlantic

200 special education apps!

From my twitter feed to my blog:



- Dr. Gary Ackerman

BYOD

An educator blogs on the opportunities and challenges of bring your own device initiatives:



- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

From STEM to STEAM

Let's add arts to science, technology, engineering, and math. Puts all of the creative human endeavors in one acronym. 



- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Apps for education...

Suggested by Apple's Distinguished Educators: 



- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Fwd: CEM Wrap-Up, Next Step Sessions (Aug. 29-31)

Some chances for you to hear from some nationally-recognized leaders in educational technology as the school year begins. 

- Dr. Gary Ackerman


Begin forwarded message:

From: Connected Educators initiative <cem@connectededucators.org>
Date: August 27, 2012 4:21:42 PM EDT
To: <gary@hackscience.net>
Subject: CEM Wrap-Up, Next Step Sessions (Aug. 29-31)
Reply-To: Connected Educators initiative <cem@connectededucators.org>

CEM Wrap-Up, Next Step Sessions (Aug. 29-31)
CEM Wrap-Up and Next Steps Sessions
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Hi all--

August is coming to a close this week, and although there are a number of elements of CEM that will continue after the month is over (more on this later in the week), there will be a series of special wrap-up and next step sessions to close the formal festivities for now.

We opened the month with panels of education influencers and thought leaders to provide us all with a little direction and inspiration as we headed into the 400+ events and activities that celebrated the month.  And there will be notable thought leaders and influencers participating in the month's final conversations, too.

But CEM is a celebration of online communities, and CEM itself is a community.  And communities belong to their members, all members, stepping forward to be heard and counted.  So while there are expert panels on some relevant issues we haven't covered yet in the month, these final sessions are not about sitting and listening to experts.  They're about YOU, open conversations and discussions about what you've learned, and what you've concluded about the key educational issues that have been running themes throughout the month.  They're about all of us coming together to provide direction for the field for the coming year.


Wednesday, August 29, 1
2:30 PM ET Connected Education & Badges
In today's environment, there can be too little recognition of the effort you're making to become a connected educator and help others.  Into this void largely informal forms of recognition have evolved, especially badges.  We kickoff the CEM wrap-up with a special panel that will discuss badges in general, but more particularly potential criteria for and implementation of a new series of cross-community, cross-organizational, series of badges specifically for connected educators and connected communities, designed to complement, supplement, include, promote, and draw on existing badge systems. During the session, we also plan to unveil a new catalog of badges from a range of issuers related to being a connected educator. 

  • Moderator: Darren Cambridge
  • Panelists: Richard Culatta, Lisa Dawley, Tom de Boor, Dan Hickey, Erin Knight
  • Location (no registration required):  http://bit.ly/connecteded_badges

Wednesday, August 29, 3–4:30 PM ET Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due
Beyond badges lies the broader question and CEM theme of how we should be incenting and recognizing educators for what we (or they, if you're an administrator) do to invest in developing our practice and our craft.  Drawing on discussions in the Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due forum, as well as on other relevant CEM events, activities, and resources, with the help of thought leaders in the field like Al Byers, Claudia Lamoreaux, Pam Moran, Lisa Schmucki, and more, we will collectively generate takeaways and action items on the subject for the Department of Education and the field.


Wednesday, August 29, 7–8:30 PM ET Connected Education: Students Speak!
For most, if not all educators, the ultimate incentive to develop our practices is student learning and achievement: we're willing to do anything for our students if it helps them learn. A special panel of students will share what connected learning has meant to them and, especially, what it's meant to have a connected educator (or two) in their lives.  They'll also share their own tips for educators and ideas for a more connected educational world.

Thursday, August 30, 1011:30 AM ET It's Personal: Personalized Learning for Students & Educators
There's a revolution afoot in education, and at its core are two interrelated concepts—connected education and personalized learning. Personalized learning has been the focus of one of our kick off panels, a month-long forum, and a number of CEM events and activities created by participating organizations. Drawing on discussions in the It's Personal forum, as well as on other relevant CEM events, activities, and resources, with the help of thought leaders in the field like Barbara Bray, Steve Nordmark, Nicole Pinkard, and James Rickabaugh, we will collectively generate takeaways and action items on this key subject for the coming school year and beyond.

Thursday, August 30, 121:30 PM ET Beyond Top Down: Distributed Leadership & Teacher-Led Change
Connected education provides unique opportunities for educators to take the lead in the redefining of the profession that's going on, to insure it meets our needs and the needs of our students.  Distributed leadership and teacher-led change was the subject of another CEM kick-off panel and a month-long forum; it's also been implicitly in the DNA of the entire Connected Educator Month endeavor, including these final sessions.  So it's especially important that we hear from you as we strategize together (with thought leaders like Shelly Blake-PlockDavid Loertscher, and Shelly Terrell) about the best ways we can all use online communities and networks to insure the voice of practice is heard at the highest levels and drives the direction of education. 

Thursday, August 30, 23:30 PM ET Knocking On the Door: Connected Education & New Technologies
What tools do we have available to us today to begin the re-imagination of education, and what's on the horizon for us?  New technologies and innovations were the subject of one of our kick-off panels and a month long forum; the CEM calendar has also been chock-full of events and activities showcasing new platforms, offerings, elements, and techniques.  Drawing on all the above, and with the help of thought leaders like Bobbi Kurshan, Sylvia Martinez, Jeff Piontek, Robin Raskin, and Audrey Watters, we'll collectively weave a vision for the connected future as we want to see it unfold, the new technologies and innovations we most want to see developed, as well as those we simply want to see made more available and used in our classrooms and beyond.

Thursday, August 30, 45:30 PM ET Systems Conveners in Education
Getting better at doing things across different geographies, departments or other silos is an increasing challenge for many of us. It calls for a new kind of leadership, which we are calling systems convening. Who are these systems conveners and what are the challenges they face? Join us for a special panel discussion to look at some early work on systems convening and to hear from people who have taken up this role.
  • Moderators: Darren Cambridge, Julie Duffield
  • Panelists: Etienne Wenger-Trayner, Beverly Wenger-Trayner, Patrice Linehan, Nancy Movall, Leisa Gallagher, Sylvia Currie
  • Location: Register for this session here today

Friday, August 31, 1112:30 PM ET: Professional Learning & The Learning Profession: 21st Century PD
So the revolution is underway, but so is the school year, or it's about to be.  What we can and should be doing to develop ourselves as 21st century educators was the focus of another CEM kick-off panel and month-long forum, and many, if not all, CEM events and activities created by participating groups were focused on professional development in one form or another.  We'll use all of the above, and the help of thought leaders like Jackie Gerstein, Will Richardson, Kathy Schrock (and more) to communally generate a PD road map for ourselves, as well as action items to share with the department and the field.

Friday, August 31, 12:30 PM ET The First Six Weeks: Getting 2012-13 Off To The Right Start
Even more immediately upon us are the critical first six weeks of the school year, which so often set the tone for what we can achieve throughout.  For this reason, the first six weeks were a final CEM kick-off and forum focus, and an implicit target of many CEM events and activities.  Of all the main CEM themes, this is the one we most fully control ourselves today, and as result this open discussion, drawing on the First Six Weeks forum and other relevant CEM events/activities (as well as the expertise of Suzie Boss, Lyn Hilt, David Rosas, and others) will be about generating takeaways and action items not for the Department or 'the field,' but for ourselves, to begin to put in place today.

Friday, August 31, 34:30 PM ET Connected Educator Month: What We've Learned
Beyond the explicit themes of CEM, there have been a huge range of events and activities during the month.  And even within the areas most explicitly covered, there has probably been more learned than we can all assimilate right away.  In this final CEM session of the month, and with the help of a number of special guests, including Barnett Barry
Milton ChenGavin Dykes, Stephanie Sandifer, and others, we consider the entire expanse of CEM activities and seek to distill them down to a handful of the top takeaways we can and should all carry with us into the school year and beyond, as well as the top policy implications of the month.

For more CEM help and resources,  see the CEM Calendar and the CEM Getting Started page, which includes links to our CEM Starter Kit, Help Desk, Book Club, District Starter Kit, CEM Supporter Kit and more.


The Connected Educators project is funded by the U.S. Department of Education under contract (ED-PEP-10-C-0059) with the American Institutes for Research in partnership with five organizations, including the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), Forum One Communications, the Friday Institute for Education Innovation, Grunwald Associates LLC, and the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA).
Copyright © 2012 American Institutes for Research, All rights reserved.
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Monday, August 27, 2012

@edutopia, 8/27/12 6:24 PM

Put this above your desk at school. Put it in the mail room in your school. Put it on you computer monitor... and any place else that you will see it. 

edutopia (@edutopia)
8/27/12 6:24 PM
"The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery." - Mark Van Doren bit.ly/PlkKzf #quote #edchat


- Dr. Gary Ackerman

@iTunesU, 8/22/12 12:50 PM

Need a reason to join Twitter? Here's one... And follow @drgaryackerman


iTunes U (@iTunesU)
8/22/12 12:50 PM
Learning just got more engaging. Follow @iTunesU for featured courses & lectures.


- Dr. Gary Ackerman

@susanoha, 8/27/12 7:53 AM

For my librarian friends... But you knew this already... Share with your teacher and parent and principal and school board and curriculum coordinator and superintendent and politician friends!

Susan Ohanian (@susanoha)
8/27/12 7:53 AM
I pledge allegiance to children
& to books that bring them pleasure;
A library in every school.
With joyful, unstandardized reading for all


- Dr. Gary Ackerman

826 Writing

Some motivation for your students to write...



- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Try these this year...

I am encouraged by the number of educators who are blogging and tweeting (and writing) about the principles they have found to guide effective education. These teachers share the big ideas that guide their work rather than the minutia of their practice. (Unfortunately many of our colleagues want those minutia, as they have the mis-guided belief that if they replicate another's methods, they will replicate another's success.)

Anyways... Here is Advice worth following:




- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Technology leaders

6 gear ideas... Hey leaders, I dare you to live all of these!



- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Teacher Leaders

This article requires suggests teachers are a valuable (and under-utilized) resource in schools. I concur with the author (although many teachers who believe themselves to be expert teachers who should be leaders are neither expert nor potential leaders). My observations suggest as well that the administrator (either principal or superintendent) who is willing to recognize teachers as experts and accept them as leaders is becoming rare. Very rare. In the area where I most recently worked as a teacher, that leader was extinct. (I will miss the students and my colleagues from that school.)

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning_forwards_pd_watch/2012/08/give_teachers_more_opportunities_to_lead.html?intc=bs


- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Fwd: Welcome Back!



- Dr. Gary Ackerman


Begin forwarded message:

From: nelms@nelms.org
Date: August 22, 2012 1:20:51 PM EDT
To: "Dr. Gary L. Ackerman" <gary@hackscience.net>
Subject: Welcome Back!
Reply-To: NELMS <nelms@nelms.org>

August 22, 2012 - Welcome Back
nelms logo

bus imageWelcome Back!

Be watching for MidLines coming in September!

Rick Wormeli is coming back in November

November 13 & 14, 2012

UMass Lowell's Inn & Conference Center
Lowell, MA

This is what attendees had to say about Rick and the last conference...

Wow! This conference was outstanding! Rick is dynamic and totally engaging. The ideas and info are already percolating in our 8th grade team. We are planning to try something new, soon.

This was my first time ever being at a NELMS conference and it was a very enjoyable experience. I can't wait to go back to school and share some stuff wth my colleagues and begin planning motivating lessons!

This was the best conference I have ever attended. I can't wait to try the strategies/ideas.

Click for more about Rick's workshop

Literacy Summit with Keys to Literacy coming as wellkeys to literacy logo

Literacy Summit Day 1-November 2, 2012 (location: TBD)

Literacy Summit Day 2-December 7, 2012 (location: TBD)

Read what folks had to say about the 2011 conference:

"Lots of great ideas!"

"Informative, relevant and thorough. Thank you."

"Very informative and responsive. Real life examples are so helpful. I loved the reviewing and application on morning of Day 2..."

"Useful skills and strategies that can easily be used in my classroom as soon as tomorrow (and easily)..."

Click for more about the Literacy Summit

Help support NELMS' mission

poster for NELMS beads

For more information about purchasing a NELMS bead contact Karin by clicking here.

 


 

jognog logoScience Teachers

Are You Using Instructional Technology to Give Students a Stronger STEM Education?

Your colleagues' "musts" for instructional technology, Part One:
Digital learning tools must increase teacher efficiency

Instructional technology must do one of the following:

Free precious class time to use for creative activity

Help teach higher order thinking skills (HOTS)

Use of educational technology must be smooth and simple:

Logging in must be effortless

User interface must be intuitive

Students must find assignments with one click

Join JogNog's American Science Challenge to set a higher bar for middle school STEM education and increase test scores. For more information contact Kris Carlson, Director of Education Development.

American Science Challenge

 

 

Rick Wormeli
Nov. 13 & 14, 2012

Literacy Summit
Day 1 - 11/2/12
Day 2 - 12/7/12

Join us on Facebook and Twitter

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Net Atlantic

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

@TechHive, 8/14/12 10:10 AM

This tweet Gives evidence that educators need to adopt BYOD (bring your own device) in a serious way. Students with iPhones are probably using these tools anyways, so we might as well leverage that skill and those devices. 


TechHive (@TechHive)
8/14/12 10:10 AM
Turn your iPhone into a miniature video-production studio with these excellent free apps. (Beret sold separately). hive.rs/QxZyAY


- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Leadership traits

Here is a short piece from Harvard Business Review-- it is unfortunate that school leaders (and teachers and parents) do not understand the importance of these.

http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/nayar/2012/08/three-leadership-traits-that-n.html


- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Monday, August 20, 2012

Support NELMS!

Grading questions

This one came across my Twitter... The story behind this is familiar to me, and I am sure will be experienced by many on the coming weeks as schools reopen: Teachers who seek to blame students for "not getting it" change the grading system, but nothing else! 

I am reminded of the teacher a few years ago who led us in a day-long discussion about "failure is not an option," in her attempt to require students to retake exams until they passed and require students to stay after school to complete missing homework. I posed questions such as these (I wish I had had this comprehensive list back then) for the first hour. Her responses became what her teaching was (and apparently still is according to her students), namely to say the same thing again in the same way... She never deviated from the buzz words she heard at the conference where she got the idea just as she never deviates from her prepared script when "teaching."

These are great questions to get you and your colleagues thinking about what you do and how you measure it. Politicians, business people, and my former colleague from above, will find this lust dissatisfying. Some of us know to ignore these is to give the illusion of progress.  



- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Online tools

In response to several questions... this is Ackerman's take on the basic web 2.0 tools... and how to choose with one to use in your classroom:


Tuesday, August 14, 2012

gary@hackscience.net has shared: MOOCs Fail Students With Dark Age Methods

With all of the talk about "flipped" classrooms (which usually means "give 'em a video to watch at home and I will help 'em with homework in class"), it is important to think about learning (and teaching) to tha we don't take a big step backwards.
MOOCs Fail Students With Dark Age Methods

Source: i-programmer.info

Programming book reviews, programming tutorials,programming news, C#, Ruby, Python,C, C , PHP, Visual Basic, Computer book reviews, computer history, programming history, joomla, theory, spreadsheets and more.

 

gary@hackscience.net sent this using ShareThis. Please note that ShareThis does not verify the ownership of this email address.

Great story/ advice from a MS teacher



- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Monday, August 13, 2012

Invasive species!

Education Week
This article was sent to you by: gary@hackscience.net
Message from sender:
This article ends with... "many of the teachers were 'mortified' when they learned that they could be creating an invasive-species problem in their local surroundings." Really? Science teachers aren't aware of the potential dangers of releasing animals into the environment? Wow.
Are Science Teachers Spreading Invasive Species? - Teaching Now - Education Week Teacher
December 31, 1969  by null
Education Week Teacher's take on the latest news, ideas, and resources for teacher leaders. Coverage runs the gamut from the inspirational to the infuriating, from practical classroom tips to raging policy debates, and from
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2012/08/are_science_teachers_spreading_invasive_species.html?intc=es
© 2007 Editorial Projects in Education

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Writing advice

A tweeted article about writing dialogue that is worth revisiting as you begin the school year with a room full of emerging writers. 



- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Monday, August 6, 2012

Connected Educators - On Target

Just found this on the Connected Educator site... middle school-specific resources!

http://www.amle.org/Publications/OnTarget/ConnectedEducators/tabid/2666/Default.aspx


- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Social networking in schools

Last winter, EdWeek published this collection of stories about social networks in K-12 education. There is some great advice on how to adopt responsible practices for using these sites for educational purposes. Downloading the PDF does require providing some contact info.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/marketplace/products/spotlight-social-media-in-the-classroom.html

A Computer Infection that Can Never Be Cured

Share this one with your IT people... Watch them shake their heads and sigh.

I thought you might be interested in the following story on TechnologyReview.com:

"A Computer Infection that Can Never Be Cured"
A hacker demonstrates that code can be hidden inside a new computer to put it forever under remote control, even after upgrades to the hard drive or operating system.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/428652/a-computer-infection-that-can-never-be-cured/

To view this story, click the link above or paste it into your browser.


- Dr. Gary Ackerman

Thursday, August 2, 2012