What It's Like on the Inside

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2010-04-24T19:06:00.001-07:00

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It's a Means, Not an End

2010-04-16T04:28:00.000-07:00

I find myself occasionally amused by the EdTech zealots---the ones who are convinced that technology in the classroom is the Be All and End All. They are the educators who will tell you that 19th and 20th century schools and their methods will be the continuing downfall of society. These are the very same ones who will shame you for not putting a computer into the hands of every student every class period (and further ridicule you if you don't suggest said computer be an Apple product).

I want to remind these people that my 90-year old stepfather functions just fine on the computer and internet. In his lifetime, any number of new technologies have emerged that his teachers had no inkling of, and he continues to learn and adapt. As teachers, we have always prepared students for an uncertain future---we have no way to tell what the world will be like (or the opportunities available) 5, 10, or 50 years from now. That was true for teachers 20 years ago (when I started) and long before that.

If you know one of these tech zealots, do us all a favour and ask them to take a breath. Technology is not an end we are preparing kids for---it is simply one of many ways and means to help students develop a mental toolkit for engaging with content. For example, blogging is a wonderful way for kids to practice reading, thinking, and writing skills...but it is not the only way to engage students with this work. Plenty of us made it through school and into the world with critical and creative thinking skills honed without ever having access to the internet. Tech can facilitate these things, but to assume it is the only pathway is silly.

I was thinking about this again as I read some suggestions that tech was going to be the catalyst for remaking schools. Sorry, but it won't be. Do I think schooling will look different in time---with learning extending beyond the classroom? Sure. But meatspace isn't going anywhere because it is the place where you learn a lot about forming and maintaining relationships. Being connected online is very different from learning to connect in person.

We spend a lot of time thinking about "ends" (standards, assessments) and not very much about the means (instruction). How do we encourage the zealots to take a broader view and think beyond tools to the possibilities? Do we need to start a "slow teaching" movement like the foodies have done?

The Gift

2010-04-14T04:14:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, I was hanging out at an area watering hole enjoying a late lunch and the opportunity to do some people-watching. While ensconced with my book and some chicken strips, a couple came in to talk to the staff person. They wanted a gift certificate for a football coach, as their son was just awarded a full-ride scholarship (worth $20K/year for 4 years). The parents wanted to thank the coach. They did their business and afterward, I listened to the cook and bar man talk about this noble gesture.

I sat there thinking about this little scene while I pretended to read my book. It was a wonderful gesture on the part of the parents. As teachers, we often get gifts from families (although not $75 worth of steak and wine). Genuine appreciation is such a rarity and all the more meaningful when you receive it as an educator.

But I was also bothered by the reaction of the restaurant staff that this student's success all belonged with the coach. When this student goes off to college, he won't major in football. He'll choose business or history or science or theatre or something else. What about all of the teachers in his K-12 career who taught him to read, write, and think critically---skills that will serve him in the decades of his life after his scholarship is gone? What about the teachers who inspired a passion for a particular area of learning?

I'm not treading new territory by suggesting that high quality teachers are under appreciated. And I don't want to suggest that this coach doesn't deserve a wonderful thank you dinner for his part in developing the athleticism of this student (or that the student shouldn't have a chance at college). I just hope these parents help their son to remember that he received a lot of support and gifts along the way.

Let the Voter Beware

2010-04-13T04:15:00.000-07:00

With the state budget bottoming out and school district rainy day funds drying up, many districts around our state are dependent upon levy dollars. Districts can ask their local property owners to pony up for two, three, or four years of funding. The four-year option is a recent addition to the mix and is very popular because it means having to run a levy less often.

A couple of weeks ago, I had lunch with a friend in the local district I once called my home. A program he's involved in was on the list for the latest levy. The district told voters that if the levy passed, the program would stay...if not, it would be cut. The levy passed. What did the district tell my friend? That was a different story. They told him that his program was safe for next year and probably the following year, but after that, the voters would have forgotten what had been promised and he could be cut. He went from being the levy poster child to being told he's headed for the trash heap in days.

Wow. As a teacher, what do you say to that? Kind of a political nightmare. On one hand, there's no use pointing it out to the district leadership, because they're the ones telling you they think the voters aren't too bright. And, on the other, if you tell the voters they're being played, it will be the kids who lose out in the end as budgets are slashed.

He has some time to figure this out. His job and program are safe for now and it will be nearly four years until there is another levy vote. In the meantime, he and many others are hoping the school board will wake up and smell the need for new leadership.

April 2010 Grading Roundup

2010-04-12T04:44:00.000-07:00

This month's cavalcade of grading comes early this month. Let's see what's caught in the net, shall we?
The Chronicle of Higher Education has an article on Outsourced Grading. There is now an option for professors to use "expert assessors" in India to provide constructive feedback on student papers. The outsourcing has grown from a frustration on the part of professors that students aren't doing high quality writing, but teachers do not have the time to provide feedback to large numbers (e.g. 1000) students. Even teaching assistants are not enough. For those who are using the service, there is an opportunity for teachers to review (and adjust comments), but I somehow doubt that anyone who does not have enough time to read 1000 papers is not going to have time to read comments on 1000 papers. You'd have to take a sample and call it a day. In the meantime, if the purpose of doing this is to provide support for student improvement, then the professor would need to do two things: teach students how to use the feedback and change his/her instruction to help.
My favourite quote from the article is at the end:

"People need to get past thinking that grading must be done by the people who are teaching," says Mr. Rajam, who is director of assurance of learning at George Washington University's School of Business. "Sometimes people get so caught up in the mousetrap that they forget about the mouse."

Really, I'm shaking my head in disbelief. Dude, if anyone is forgetting about the mouse, er "student," it's you. I can understand that it is unreasonable for one person to score 1000 papers at a time and provide appropriate feedback---but it is also ridiculous to assume that professors who are "freed from grading papers [so they] can spend more time teaching and doing research" is going to benefit students.

In other college news, Loyola Law school in Los Angeles has been retroactively changing grades (back to 2007) in order to alter their scale and make their graduates more competitive. It's not a major shift, but intriguing with continuing conversations about "grade inflation" that a college would choose to boost its students' transcripts (as opposed to look at what goes into the grades or supporting students to meet expectations). You can read more at the LA Times.

Speaking of grade inflation, have a look at this graph from I Love C harts:

No explanation as to its origins. Not sure how meaningful the information is. If I'm reading this correctly, then the average change in GPA is about .5 grade point (13%) spread out over 40 years. Is this a significant difference? Not going to pull out my stats here, but someone else is welcome to whip out a chi-squared analysis. I also wonder about the change in college populations over that time frame. Draw your own conclusions here---just wanted to offer it up for consideration.

Finally, Science News has a story on how Homework Makes the Grade. Surprise, surprise: Physics students who actually do the homework/practice score higher than students who just copy homework from others.

Students at MIT and other universities commonly complete homework using an online system, giving Pritchard and his colleagues a wealth of data to analyze. The team tracked homework for four terms of introductory, calculus-based physics, a requirement for all MIT undergraduates. Since all of the students’ entries were time-stamped, Pritchard and his colleagues knew how quickly the problems were completed once the question appeared on the screen.
In the team’s analysis, three clusters emerged: One group of students solved the problems about 10 minutes after the problem first popped up, another answered a day or two later, and a third typically answered correctly in about a minute. Because the online system presents problems one at a time, it precludes working out all of the answers ahead of time and entering them all at once.
“Our first reaction was “Wow, we must have some geniuses at MIT’,” Pritchard says. The team soon realized that the answers in this quick-solving group were entered faster than the time it takes students to read the question, raising suspicions that these students had a cheat sheet of copied answers.
Equating speedy answers with copying, the team concluded that about 10 percent of the students copied more than half of their homework, about 40 percent copied 10 to 50 percent of their homework, and about half the students copied less than 10 percent of their homework. By the end of the semester, students who copied 50 percent or more homework earned almost two letter grades below students who didn’t copy very much, the team found. Heavy copiers were also three times more likely to fail the course.
Other patterns emerged from the data as well. Students who copied were much more likely to put off the majority of their homework until the last minute. And copying rates increased dramatically after the first midterm.
In the study, the heaviest copiers were male, and although most of the students in the classes were freshmen and had yet to declare a major, subsequent analyses turned up an interesting trend: “Copying homework is a leading indicator of becoming a business major,” Pritchard says.

As I've written here many times, as long as grades are valued over learning, you will have cheating. This does not mean that homework is evil. It doesn't mean that students don't need practice. What it does mean is that we as teachers need to make it clear to students why we're assigning the work.

That's all the grading news fit to print for the month of April. There appears to be a dearth of K-12 information at the moment, probably because it's testing season. I expect another fit of discussion as the year draws to a close in May.

Spring Cleaning

2010-04-11T06:49:00.000-07:00

I'm still getting the blog ready to move to its new digs. Google, in its magnanimity, extended the deadline from end of February to first of May for blogs like mine to bend to their will. If all goes well, readers should notice no changes.

In the meantime, I'm doing a little spring cleaning on my sidebar. For those of you reading posts via an aggregator, this won't be a big deal. However, I like to keep my recommendations current. This means that nearly everyone occupying that space represents a blogger who posts regularly, looks for solutions, challenges my thinking, and makes me laugh. Perhaps not all blogs hit all of those sweet spots, but those are my basic criteria for sharing with others. So, I've removed a few links and added some others.

The new additions fall under the category of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Although this concept may have originally been seeded by special education, it's really much more than that. In my mind, it's really about differentiation with a focus on accessibility. So, without further falderal, I would like to welcome the following to my sidebar and hope that you will give them a look:

Assistive Technology bills itself as a "blog on the topic of assistive technology, eLearning, mind mapping, project management, visual learning, collaborative tools, and educational technology" and is written by school psychologist Brian Friedlander. The blog is primarily a showcase for computer and web-based tools.
Karen Janowski writes over at EdTech Solutions: Teaching Every Student. Her posts are an amalgam of tools, instructional strategies, and her reflections on working to create an accessible learning environment for every student.
Over at Free Resources from the Net for Every Student, Paul Hamilton not only shares links for tools, but instructional ideas and support for teachers in implementing these tools.
Finally, I am late to the party in noting Ira Socol's blog: SpeEd Change. Part policy, part ed theory, part tech, and part awesome, the blog is a thoughtful examination of UDL.

I hope you'll have a look at these. Are there other UDL blogs (or just new to the edusphere blogs) I should know about? Drop me a comment or email.

I Told You So

2010-04-01T17:48:00.000-07:00

In August, I wrote a post about some impending plagiarism. My ideas were being kidnapped and there would be no ransom---just wholesale stealing with no credit offered or permission requested.

And, as unfortunately expected, things have turned up here (the "Physical Science and Inquiry" section). The materials are not the same format, but there is no mistaking what I published in August as being used. If there is any question of which came first, one only need right-click their page and view the Page Info (shown below):

They posted on December 15, 2009---nearly four months after I posted here. Rather sickening to think that one of the people who participated in the thievery is involved with conversations about national science standards. It will be quite ironic to see concepts of integrity show up in those, don't you think?

March 2010 Grading Roundup

2010-03-28T05:36:00.000-07:00

This has been a busy month for me in terms of grading practices---three presentations for very different groups and lots of email inquiries for resources. I think my favourite message was "I'm now going to start a grading revolution in my school and eventually district!" You go, girl!

In other news...

Education Week is reporting that DC's "Money for Grades" program needs more money. I'd love to go into detail, but the info comes from an Associated Press story, and you know how possessive they are about their content ("This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.") Let me just pull these bits from the piece: Last year, the district paid out nearly $2M...and they are on track to need 20% more in funds for this year. What the article fails to mention is whether or not anything is happening in terms of student learning. Quite the pricey experiment DC schools and Harvard are running.

Speaking of Harvard, an academic there has looked into the "fairness" of grade weighting for honors and AP courses. Many schools---like the one I used to teach at---assigned extra grade points for AP coursework. We only used it to determine class ranking because there were years where the valedictorian was a kid who'd taken 3 periods of PE and being a TA for a teacher and ended up with a 4.0...while a kid busting their hump with a full load of challenging coursework didn't end up on top. However, some schools do figure extra points into the overall GPA. This has an impact on how colleges look at transcripts.

To encourage high school students to tackle tougher academic classes, many schools assign bonus points to grades in Advanced Placement or honors courses. But schools’ policies on whether students should receive a grade-point boost and by how much are all over the map.

My local public school district, for instance, used to add an extra third of a grade-point to students’ AP course grades while the private high school on the other side of town would bump up students’ grades by a full letter grade.

Since students from both schools would be applying to many of the same colleges, and essentially competing with one another, it didn’t seem fair to me that the private school kids should get such a generous grade boost.

That’s why I was heartened to come across a new study by a Harvard University researcher that takes a more systematic look at the practice of high school grade-weighting.

For his study, Philip Sadler asked college students in 113 introductory-level physics, biology, and chemistry classes across the country about the level of science classes they took in high school and the grades they received in them. He then compared those numbers with the grades those students were getting in their college science classes in the same subject.

He found that for every increasing level of rigor in high school science, students’ college course grades rose by an average of 2.4 points on a 100- point scale, where an A is 95 points and a B is worth 85 points and so on. In other words, the college grade for the former AP chemistry student would be expected to be 2.4 points higher than that of the typical student who took honors chemistry in high school. And the honors students’ college grade, in turn, would be 2.4 points higher than that of the student who took regular chemistry.

Translating those numbers, and some other calculations, to a typical high school 1-to-4-point grade scale, Sadler estimates that students taking an honors science class in high school ought to get an extra half a point for their trouble, and that a B in an AP science course ought to be counted as an A for the purpose of high school grade-point averages.

There is more to discover with the whole article, including the issue of accessibility to AP. A student who goes to a small school will not have access to the same amount of AP classes, so the transcript will not be as flush. However, I would hope that admissions officers would recognize this and adjust accordingly. Isn't this why a college application consists of more than a transcript?

That's all the grading news that fit to blog about this month. I have one presentation scheduled in April and a quiet calendar after that. I am working on various pieces of paperwork to be able to begin earning something from these presentations and other opportunities. Not sure that it will amount to much---but with pay cuts, furloughs, freezes, and other bad budget news looming, I need to try to make the most of what I have (part of which is in my head and slide deck).

All the Time

2010-03-26T17:56:00.000-07:00

I will let you in on a secret: There are times when the project I am working on is overwhelming in scope and complexity. I don't get to reinvent a wheel, or more accurately, I remain so unimpressed by existing models that it is far preferable to start from scratch than to try making chicken salad from chicken s***. It is true that I do not have to engage in this work alone. I am very fortunate to have a phenomenal group of teachers to work with; however, it is on my shoulders to ferret out the path and provide them the tools to keep us moving forward.

The good news is that we are making progress. The exciting news is that when we are finished, this state will have something no other state does (but don't worry, we'll share). And even more exciting, is that we are slowly finding ways to measure the unmeasureable: organize ideas, generate creative solutions, and more. We are doing so in ways that build in best practices for instruction. I can hardly wait to see what happens next.

Facilitating this work has been a real test of my skills. At the beginning of this part of my career---about the same time I started blogging---I was fortunate enough to be provided with some staff development on working with adult learners and have a supportive environment for learning to actually do this kind of work with teachers. I didn't realize just how fortunate I was to have been provided this until the last couple of years. I am grateful that I know how to change my position in a room and regulate my body language depending upon what is happening with a discussion. I know when to let a discussion range and how to pull back gently on the reins and refocus when it's time. I am very good about wait time---I don't believe that there is such a thing as an awkward silence. I can push a group on a task, but I also know when it the point of diminishing returns has arrived and can decide what the next move is. All of those "old" skills are as useful as ever.

But I am learning a lot of new things while facilitating this current project. I am learning that in choosing a group, the more diversity of experience, the better. No one feels the need to outdo somebody else or get pissy over a piece of territory. Everybody has something unique to contribute and the collaboration is stronger. I am learning about the kinds of things that are okay for my office and me to decide ahead of time and which things are better suited for large group discussion. I was completely surprised at a recent meeting how putting a copy of the synthesis of their work to date in their hands totally removed a sense of anxiety in the room. I think that they have been feeling just as overwhelmed by the size of the project as I have been---and to hand them something concrete was like tossing a lifesaver to one swimming in a stormy sea. I am getting better at rearranging pieces of work during meetings. I plan as best I can ahead of time and then remind myself to be flexible once the group gets moving.

I like building these skills. I don't know when I'll need them again, but I am frequently surprised at what I need to pull out of my tool kit and use to facilitate during a project. It's still good to be learning all the time.

Value Wars

2010-03-19T19:10:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that state budgets are in trouble---which means school district budgets aren't so healthy. There are many hard choices to be made between now and the start of the next fiscal year---choices based on what is valued the most (which isn't always kids).

An area school district has decided to keep funding its full-day kindergarten program. There are some (including The Union), however, who are against such a proposal because the money which funds those teachers and classrooms means that other district programs go unfunded. Class sizes in other grade levels increase, library and music programs are reduced---and that doesn't even consider the voices of secondary schools who are trying to avoid cuts. Is full day kindergarten more important than funding art specialists for every child in an elementary school? PE? The district views kindergarten as an investment---children who are well-prepared to read and have the best chance at success throughout their K-12 career. Is that better than being able to offer a more diverse curriculum?

I had a similar conversation with a friend last week. Some people are passionate about the arts, some place science first and foremost, others raise their voice for PE/Health. But there are some schools out there whose entire focus is math and literacy. Again, there's been a value judgment about curriculum---that it is more important to have children be able to read at grade level than to learn science (even with a kit). Is it better to have kids who can comprehend a text...or kids who understand a science concept?

I can hear you out there. I know you want it all---that all of those sorts of curricula and opportunities need to be present. You're thinking that they're all pieces of a rich and meaningful public education. For what it's worth, I agree with you. I think there shouldn't have to be these choices. I believe that every child should have access to a full range of opportunities in the classroom. All the same, schools and districts are making decisions based on budgets, which means that we have to take a hard look at what we value most.

If we can't do it all, what should we do?

Do the Right Thing

2010-03-12T08:26:00.000-08:00

I listened to lots of stories at the 2010 ASCD Annual Conference. Some were shared by presenters. Some were shared by neighbor attendees. A few were things I picked up while eavesdropping at meals or walking behind people in the halls of the convention center. With 10,000 attendees, there are no opportunities for anyone to be lonely or private. (I was even treated to someone's deep meaningful cell phone conversation about the Common Core Standards while in the bathroom.) And really, that is the point of a conference---to be able to get together with others who have a similar interest and share ideas.

What I noticed most at this conference was the number of stories about teachers and administrators working their asses off to do the right thing---or, at least, the expected thing. While it is not a surprise to hear about the number of hours required to plan, prepare, instruct, assess, and/or remediate, what was a surprise was the lengths some people were going to. I am sure that the results can only be beneficial for kids, but I would not reach the same conclusion for the adults involved.

In fact, one of my big take-aways from the event was a collective sense of desperation about assessment, grading, and data. The educators present cared deeply for students and for doing the very best that they could for kids---but I had the impression that no one thought that they had the “right” answer or were doing things well. I find that hard to believe. I find it distressing that there is no “good enough” in these situations. I understand that no child should be left behind. I applaud the efforts that go into ensuring every student has the opportunity to learn. But what is missing from the whole equation is a way to honor progress. I talked with a teacher from Alaska whose Title I school has been in AYP for five years now. She mentioned the huge gains the school has made in that time…and yet in the eyes of the state and feds, it’s not good enough. It is apparently not even worth recognizing. I find that appalling.

Thomas Guskey and others have called for similar measures on report cards for individual students. That there is more that happens in a grading period than just the final mark---there is progress and growth along the way. A gifted student who is already above the standard should still be able to show progress. The same is true for a struggling student who may have made great gains, but is still not at standard by the end of the grading period. There are examples for every student in between---and yet almost no examples of reporting for students or schools for this factor. I hurt for them all.

I’m never sure what to do about things like this other than to just keep talking about them and hope that at some point, the people in the positions to do something will choose to do the right thing.

Reporting Out

2010-03-10T20:20:00.000-08:00

As I sat in a session on progress monitoring at the 2010 ASCD Annual Conference, I started to wonder about a few new things in terms of report cards. The presenters were describing ways in which they used three different forms of data about students. One was the traditional form of scores on papers. The others are traditional in the sense that they represent data that is readily available in the classroom, it’s just rarely used for reporting: observations of and conversations with students. In my various bits of work with teachers and grading, these forms of data collection and use are the ones that make teachers uncomfortable because they rely completely on professional judgment. However, as the presenters at the session were quick to point out, when we visit a doctor, observation and conversation is the most common form of data gathering to make conclusions about our health. Certainly lab tests and vital stats inform the opinions, but we don’t think twice about physicians being unprofessional because they rely on their eyes and ears to reach a summary. Such forms should be no less valid in the classroom. I agree with this and think the key for most teachers is in finding and using data collection tools (running records or charts, for example) that are simple and meaningful to use.

But this brought me to another thought about report cards: Are letter grades “dumbed down” versions of reporting? Teachers have a rich opportunity in the classroom to gather all different forms of data---which we then expect to be crunched into a single representation. I’m not sure that even a standards-based report card would solve this, because summary progress on each target is still reduced into a symbol for that item. Do we use a single letter or number for a class on a report card because we don’t think families need or would use more meaningful information? Is the symbol good enough to represent all of the learning and evidence?

The presenters did not have to wrestle with this in their school. On the report cards, they were expected to report on three aspects: what were the learning targets for the grading period, a description of student progress toward those targets, and the plan for upcoming improvement/extension for the student. Because of the qualitative data collected throughout the reporting period, the end of term descriptions were a snap to write. I am sure this idea sends a shiver down the back of many a secondary teacher---but remember that these presenters were elementary teachers having to track and write summaries for each of 30 students in every subject (reading, math, writing, science, social studies…). The number of boxes to fill in is very similar.

I have to wonder how other stakeholders (e.g. college admissions) would view this sort of reporting. If the Carnegie unit goes away at some point (and it should in a standards-based system), what will colleges do with “transcripts” that are full descriptions of student strengths and needs as opposed to a simple list? Can they handle the truth?

Doing away with grades is not a new idea. I can think of plenty of people I’ve chatted with over the last few years who have told me about schooling where grades aren’t used and things move along just fine. I do think that an emphasis on qualitative data and more descriptive communications at secondary would shake a lot of trees. Maybe it’s time we did.

Anonymouse Update

2010-03-09T11:09:00.000-08:00

A quick note before disconnecting from the airport wifi nipple and boarding the plane for home.

Before I headed to San Antonio, I mused about the being at a conference anonymous(e)ly...and wondered what would happen afterward. I no longer have to wonder.

I had someone in line at a Starbucks (at least a mile from the conference center) turn to me yesterday and tell me how much she liked my presentation. And someone on the shuttle over to the airport this morning knew me by name (even pronounced it correctly) and then complimented me and talked grading all the way here. Very sweet and unexpected events. And another couple of examples for me about the oddly public nature of sharing---when people know me and I don't know them at all.

The odd thing to me in all of this is that I only get these sorts of shout-outs from my presentations about grading. I have presented on differentiation, standards, using GoogleApps, data visualization, and a host of things in between. Somehow, only when I talk about grading practices do I make new friends. Who knew?

Life is full of wonderful surprises. Here's hoping I learn from them all.

ASCD 2010: Parting Thoughts

2010-03-09T07:57:00.000-08:00

Today is a travel day for me. In a few hours, I will be on a homeward bound plane. I am ready to be home and have a couple of days of "normal" before the next conference (now only 4 days away).

The ASCD annual conference was a fantastic experience and I highly recommend attending one if and when you can. There is an incredible amount of expertise available for access. I really appreciated that this conference is not specialized. I've been to plenty of science conventions...a couple of tech ones...gifted ed...and a few other boutique things. They were wonderful in their own ways---and I do believe that the science specific ones helped me the most early in my career. But now, it is much more valuable for me to see the big picture. I liked the smorgasbord of possibilities offered here.

As with any conference, the quality of the presentations was hit and miss. I had a couple of outstanding and engaging sessions to sit in on...a couple so-so...and two truly awful eye-bleach necessitating ones. There is always a roulette feel to picking a session. There were so many (seemingly) wonderful choices which you finally narrow down to one before hauling your cookies to the room and discovering if you're a winner or loser. Generally speaking, I would say that classroom teachers have the most difficulty with presenting to other adults. They are obviously very knowledgeable about a given topic and passionate about what they do. They are probably amazing in the classroom with kids. They have a lot to share---they just need some help in getting their message out in a way that connects with an adult audience.

One of the things that impressed me most about this conference is ASCD's commitment to social media and using that to help members connect with one another and have a voice. I did get to meet the two communications staff members who tweet for the organization. I was very impressed with their professionalism and their earnestness in listening to us. For example, it was nice to actually be involved with a conversation about the Common Core Standards (instead of being told what I should think about them...as I am at home). How refreshing to not be bullied into giving up critical thinking.

I have a couple of posts started that will pull out some of the larger take-aways for me. Thank you, ASCD, for allowing me to present and to learn. At the moment, I am physically tired, but my professional spirit is rejuvenated, refreshed, and ready to work even harder on behalf of students everywhere.

The Big Show

2010-03-07T16:49:00.000-08:00

About this time last year, I tossed my hat in the ASCD Conference ring. It was not the first time that I had applied to present, but this was the first time my presentation was accepted. And since finding out that last July that I had made the cut, I have looked forward to today. Whether or not it's true, I have always looked at ASCD as The Big Show. This is the premier conference in education. It's where the experts come out to play. While I do not consider myself an expert, I do believe that I have things to share and can do it in a meaningful way. I like working with teachers.

The shot above was from my vantage point about 10 minutes before the official start of my session. And just like NSTA last year, they had to close the doors and declare the room full prior to my scheduled start time. We had at least 200 people in a room that had been scheduled for 160 (and I had prepared only 150 copies of my handout). This was far and away the largest group I have ever presented to and it was such an adrenaline rush that two hours later, I still have some butterflies and shakes. They were an amazing crowd to be with: fantastic energy.

I took my new powerpoint out for a test drive. I liked its look and flow, but I also tried to squeeze in too much for the 90 minutes. I had to rush a bit at the end. I think the other part of that was simply the size of the crowd. Getting 200 people to start and stop their conversations takes time, especially when the discussion is so rich. I will have to rethink things a bit if I have another opportunity like this.

Overall, feedback was positive. I had several people talk to me after the presentation to thank me and tell me how much they liked the session. ASCD has limited (as in 10) evaluations for each session and I was provided with a copy of each as I left. I scored all 3's and 4's and all but one "Yes" in terms of interest in learning more and attending a PD Institute on the topic. In terms of written comments, the most common theme was that they thought I had great technology skills. I used PollEverywhere and showed them my Delicious site and grading wiki. This was also the first time I put my blog and twitter handle next to my real name. It's a transition point for me.

Someone wrote that this was "one of the best presentations I have attended so far---articulate, knowledgeable, even-handed, informative." No negative comments, but a wish for "more examples on standards-based report cards and information on whether they improve student achievement." Point well taken, I think. It is something else I need to work on. I had one person ask me if there were any more evaluations because this was one session that she really wanted to give ASCD feedback about (in a good way). It was a very sweet thought.

On a personal note, I was delighted to have some friends in the room. One was someone I used to work with when I was in the Assessment division. She was a great help with handouts today and helped me celebrate afterward. There was also a science coach I worked with last year (total surprise to see him at the conference). I also met Joe Wood, whose blog I have enjoyed for awhile and have gotten to know a bit through Twitter and Facebook.

I feel like I can relax now (once the adrenaline rush wears off). Tomorrow is the final day of the conference. I am looking forward to the chance to continue to learn with others before folding up my tent and heading home.

Anonymouse

2010-03-05T20:10:00.000-08:00

I consider myself to be a relatively private person. My personal life is quiet and uneventful for the most part. I am enjoying living alone (at least for now) and getting out to visit with friends when I can. I'm a rather nondescript little mouse.

My job, however, is a stark contrast to this. In that role, I have a very public existence. I was reminded of that earlier this week when I was approached at a conference by one person who referred to me as "the assessment guru" and by another who had to tell me about the various presentations she's seen me do and the impact it is having on her classroom. All good things---all very pleasant interactions---all made me grateful that these relative strangers made an effort to visit with me. However, for those two, there were probably several others who did not make the same choice. The thing is, when I look into a crowd, I never know who is looking back.

This weekend will be a little different. I am in San Antonio for the annual ASCD Conference. It is an event I have been anticipating since last July. A lot of the excitement has to do with seeing presenters I've only been able to admire from afar. For example, I have used quotes from Susan Brookhart's work in many presentations. And bright and early Saturday morning, I get to be the ultimate fangirl and sit in on her session. There will be other similar moments through Monday where I get to be anonymous.

The lone exception will be Sunday afternoon, when it will be my turn to get up and stare into the void once again. I wonder who will be peering back at me.

Get It Together, Baby

2010-03-01T18:39:00.000-08:00

As we move forward with an assessment process for 21st century skills, some aspects are straightforward...and some are squirrely. For example, constructing a task can be something that follows a regular pattern. There are parts that should be included, ways to check for alignment, and so forth. It's the evaluation portion that isn't always predictable.

Let me give you a little piece that I'm wrestling with: Organize ideas.

What does that mean to you? What qualities come to your mind when you think about a student who has organized their ideas? Would your answer be different if I told you to just consider what an organized 8-year old would look like---or are organized ideas more universal in concept (you're either organized in your thinking or not, regardless of age)?

Suppose you were constructing a rubric for this...what would you include? Does organization need an audience---in other words, does your style only have to make sense to you...or do others have to be able to ferret out the method to your madness? Do there have to be levels of detail or an evident hierarchy, regardless of whether the organization is text-only or mindmappish? Are there any aspects to organization which transcend the medium used---if I organize using notecards, a task list in Outlook, or a flowchart in webspiration, can I identify the essence of organized ideas?

What would you suggest? What would you like to see?

Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

2010-02-21T08:35:00.000-08:00

Conversations in education are so thick with references to the Common Core Standards these days that one can hardly swing a virtual cat and not hit a blog post about them. All but two states are currently dancing with the math and literacy standards. Kentucky has already adopted them without having seen the final version. And while the hoopla will continue throughout the spring, something else has quietly started: a new set of national science frameworks are underway. "Once the framework is final, it will be used as the basis for teams from three national organizations—the National Science Teachers Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Achieve, a group formed by governors and business leaders—to collaborate on writing the standards." (from Work Begins on 'Next Generation' of Science Standards at Education Week)

Our state completely biffed its opportunity last year to do something positive with the state science standards. Instead of focusing on what was best for kids and the opportunity to deeply explore a set of fundamental concepts, we have a shotgun approach and an overwhelming amount of tediousness. This sad state should make me more excited at the prospect that we might get some "new" ones via the Common Core Standards initiative, but it doesn't.

First of all, the committee which is writing these new frameworks hasn't a single teacher. Scientists? Sure. People who actually understand what happens in classrooms and schools? Nope. I understand that there may be opportunity later for teachers to become involved, but if the process used to write math and literacy standards is any indication, there will be no educators included. Fail number two is simply the motivation behind this work. New standards will not lead to change in science literacy. You can only get there through instruction---and there is no money targeted for this.

If you live in a state where the Common Core Standards are on the table, be sure to ask your education leaders about the motivation in participating with this initiative. In our state, there has been no discussion about whether or not these standards and the ramifications of using them are in the best interests of children. Teachers participating on the review committees have told me that it has been made clear to them that the state is interested in the funding it might get by adopting these (or gaining funding freed up from other sources if the state doesn't have to create its own tests). Teachers in these groups feel the review committees are all for show---that neither state leadership nor the national groups are truly interested in feedback or comment about whether or not the state should move forward to adopting these. If this is true, I find this information deeply troubling.

I have to wonder if this is true in other states. Are we so out of balance in our education system, so overwhelmed with recession and unfunded mandates, so fixated on the bottom line, that the needs of kids have been completely pushed aside for the almighty dollar? I like the promise of a standards-based education---but it is useless without the needs of children being at the center of every decision along the way. From what I'm seeing and hearing, I'm very afraid that it isn't.

Tiny Bubbles

2010-02-17T04:35:00.000-08:00

The Southern Fried Scientist recently updated his post explaining How to Brew Beer in a Coffee Maker, Using Only Materials Commonly Found on a Modestly Sized Oceanographic Research Vessel. For me, this post represents the essence of scientistness. It is the sort of innovation which is often found in research labs---but for very good reason, never makes it into the news. Scientists are playful creatures. We are problem-solvers. True blue MacGuyvers.

But there are times when we are too inventive for our own good. And @SFriedScientist's story reminded me of one such event. Where I taught, we often did a fungi unit in the fall. It was good timing as that point in the year had mushrooms springing up everywhere. Their variety, pungency, and shapes (I'm looking at you, Morels) was certainly attention-grabbing. So, in the spirit of the moment, we had classes make root beer. Mind you, I only did this once. Cost, storage, and less than stellar results were all enough to realize that this was an idea best left to others. One of my colleagues did not come to this same conclusion and continued to have students crank out root beer each fall as an extra credit project. This would not have been such a bad thing if the results had stayed in his classroom. They didn't. He would bring them to department meetings---old 2L bottles of root beer (made with baker's yeast, for cryin' out loud) and dixie cups, pouring shots for each of us as if we were involved in some sort of perpetual double dog dare. A circle of Hell undocumented by Dante. Eventually he retired, but the root beer lived on. Bottle after bottle was found squirreled away in his prep room. No dates. No official labels. No way we were opening any of it. I can't claim to have had root beer of any kind since then.

It is probably a very good thing that it wasn't real beer, as proposed at the start of this post. I think I would miss that. But I have to wonder how many similar experiments are going on in labs everywhere. I think there should be a poster session at the next ScienceOnline for people to share the various gerryrigged items they have constructed. I know there's more out there besides tiny bubbles.

Everything You Never Wanted to Know*

2010-02-15T09:10:00.000-08:00

*...and were afraid someone would ask.

My ScienceOnline 2010 interview with Bora is available for your reading pleasure over at A Blog Around the Clock. Enjoy!

The Awful Truth

2010-02-15T05:08:00.000-08:00

One of the conundrums associated with educational technology is that for all the power that is associated with the various tools, instructional practices are changing very little. An interactive whiteboard (IWB) can be used as little more than a glorified mouse pad in a teacher-centered environment. Blogs, podcast, voicethread presentations, and wikis require access---both in terms of internet filters, computers for students, and broadband. Few places have solved the management issues that arise from having cell phones as educational tools in the classroom. There may well be some stigmas attached to being "techie" in the classroom---or perhaps a resistance or philosophical basis to become so if there are other instructional models which work just fine.

Whatever the reason, there is a clear separation between those who embrace tech in the classroom and those who do not. Until recently, I didn't think the twain would meet. They still may not, but I came to terms with an awful truth this week: EdTech lacks a compelling voice. There are many superstars within the EdTech community, but they have come from within. There has been a lot of ridicule from this same community about Robert Marzano and his current foray into researching interactive whiteboards and other tools. While I agree that the circumstances for his research (i.e. being paid by a IWB company) do not engender trust for the results, the EdTech community has failed to recognize something very important: They need Marzano. Why? Because he is well-respected in the curriculum and instruction world---the one outside of technology...the one most schools and teachers live in. Marzano will be the first crossover star, much like artists that move between musical genres. It doesn't make his message any better, it just means that he will be a Pied Piper leading a lot more people toward EdTech...more than would have ever looked at the realm on their own. Those who have risen within the EdTech ranks are likely to be typecast there. A crossover will not happen from there---it must come from the non-tech side.

I am hoping that EdTech will make its peace with Marzano, instead of continuing to wage a turf war. If not, then I hope that they will find a partner elsewhere on the "outside" that they can work with. Pick a Wiggins, Stiggins, Tomlinson, or McTighe. Get a Reeves, Popham, or Guskey. Because until you capture the attention of that sort of leadership, you will not have their audience. You will not be seen as having a meaningful impact on instruction and assessment, no matter what you know to be true.

Everybody Lean

2010-02-12T17:32:00.000-08:00

I was recently notified by Google (Blogger's daddy) that in about a month, they will no longer support the method I use to create content for this blog. This came as a bit of a shock to me, as I have been happily "FTP-ing" for nearly three years. My options at this point are...

Allow the googles to move my entire blog to a blogger managed URL.
Export my content and then import it into WordPress.
Create a subdomain at my current URL for blogger to use as a "custom domain" and publish there.
Start over with a new blog.
No longer blog.

Out of all of these, number 3 will probably be the option I choose. The reason why #1 isn't a good option is that I would lose management control of my blog---no way to keep the trolls away from honest readers and myself. No thanks. Option #2 is the back-up plan as it would allow me to keep publishing to the same domain; however, 5 years of content is a lot to move (and/or lose...including comments) and would also require a complete template redesign. I think I mentioned in a recent post that early March is off the charts in terms of scheduling. Not the best time to have to overhaul things online. Options 4 and 5 don't appeal to me on a personal level. I'm not ready to start over and/or stop writing---although those are always possibilities for the future.

The Great Googly has promised to write code that will automatically redirect to the new digs and maintain search results/page ranks. I'm not sure when I'll be transferring my content or what glitches will occur along the way. So, hang on. We'll keep leaning to and fro on this rollercoaster.

Retooling

2010-02-11T05:12:00.000-08:00

In an interesting confluence of events, I have six different presentations to give at three different conferences in two different states between March 4 and 14. The good news is that all of these presentations are on topics I've delivered before. The bad news is that the information I have needs to be retooled to fit different audiences and/or timeframes (because there is no universal session length, apparently). For the most part, this is not a big deal. I have enough variety in my slide decks these days to pull samples and arrange them to fit the occasion.

But one of these events is not like the others. In less than a month, I'm off to dance at the biggest ball in education: the ASCD national conference. As I presented to a group of teachers last week, I thought to myself that my slides and materials need to be kicked up a notch. Part of this realization is driven by the shift I'm seeing from presenting to having conversations. A lot of that is due to the audience. People I see now have the basic ideas and mechanics behind standards-based grading practices and they are moving into problem-solving and deeper connections with the classroom environment. I can reorganize my presentation to be less about "how to" and more about richer questions. It's a very exciting place to be.

Beyond that is figuring out how to have these conversations in a room of 150+ people. I haven't presented to a room with more than 100. Working with a group of 75 teachers (as I did last week) was a challenge in its own right in terms of how to make the experience personal in such a large room. ASCD is a very different venue and I want to make sure I create the best learning environment that I can.

Right now, I have a bit of calm before the early March presentation storms. It's a good time to have some headspace for thinking about all of this retooling and the road ahead. If you live in the San Antonio area and/or are going to be at the ASCD conference, drop me a line and perhaps we can carve out some time for a visit (and margarita).

Hurts So Good

2010-02-08T05:00:00.000-08:00

There are not a lot of perks in my job. I have not had a full week off of work since August 2008. I earned more as a teacher, considering the length of contract. And I have a ton more nonsensical bureaucracy to navigate now. But there are a few perks I mentioned last fall. In addition, I do get to work from home one or two days a week. Best of all? I get all the time I need for planning. I used to love this part of teaching---the creative energy that comes with sitting down with your materials and putting the pieces together in meaningful ways.

It is just as big of a rush to plan staff development for adults as it is lessons for students. The difference is the timeframe. With adults, I typically have anywhere from 90 minutes to 16 hours of meeting time. Quite often, I only get to present the material once. This can be a maddening thing. When I started doing staff development several years ago, the original Boss Lady told me that there is usually a 3:1 ratio of time for these events: three hours of planning for every one hour of delivery. It is a luxury that could never be afforded for classroom work (although I would argue it is more important there). There are 15 hours of content I will be managing next week during my assessment group meeting---which means that more than a work week should be devoted to planning. A part of this planning is easy, because this group does need time to work. All I have to do for that is set the task and budget the time, then support the process during their efforts.

Some of this planning, however, is mind-bending. It would be embarrassing to admit that I needed five hours to put together just a single hour of content (presentation plan, slides, materials), if the results weren't so good. I keep thinking that things will be easier as I accumulate experience---that I will be able to just crank out staff development. I suppose I could if I didn't care about quality (or didn't have the time to devote), I could easily whip out some PD. Doing so would probably be more painful for participants to sit through than it is for me to have to be so very tedious with my planning. I can't let that happen when it hurts so good to put something magical together.

The Importance of Play

2010-02-06T05:43:00.000-08:00

My assessment group will be meeting again soon. There is a very ambitious plan developed for our time together and I know that this group of educators will be focused and work hard on the tasks at hand. Those who work hard also deserve to play hard---not just at the end of the day when Happy Hour cranks up, but during the work sessions themselves. The brain likes a little novelty...some opportunity to think about different ideas and be creative.

At the first meeting, I kept things fairly simple. I used Paul Rog ers' Name That Movie posts to construct a series of slides. I inserted the slides at different break points during the work. Below is one example---the only movie no one in the room was able to guess. (Can you recognize it? If you need a hint, it represents a Hitchcock film.)

Not everyone is a movie buff, however, and there are a variety of ways to engage an audience without having to resort to the cutesy icebreakers that send educators screaming from a session. Pull a few questions from an old Trivial Pursuit deck you have lying around the house. Find a few good riddles. Print a list of brain teaser questions. Pick up or draw your own Droodles. Or, use my favourite: The Name the Baby Contest.

Jim and Jane Roe are the proud parents of a newborn son. What should they name the baby?

If you want to play, leave your best suggestion in the comments. This question is a lot of fun to leave in the staffroom (or to play over email) with teachers. You'll get some very creative answers.

The first key here is to know your audience. Select adult-friendly items (read: items that won't be perceived as insulting to intelligence or dignity) that reflect your group. You also want to look for items that will allow people to choose their level of engagement. Even those who lurk will still have something different to think about, if only for a few minutes. It only takes one to two minutes of change for the brain to be ready to focus again and you will stimulate some creative and critical thinking for the next task. This is very helpful when you have 90 minutes of writing rubric descriptors lying ahead of you.

My next challenge is to find a way to work in the graphics and post-it wall modeled in this TED talk by Tom Wujec:

I really like the idea of including visual elements that people create. Not only does it require them to represent information in different ways, but it allows them to manipulate the various pieces we are trying to put together. We can share ideas in a different way---take them out and play with them. It seems important to be able to provide this opportunity for learners of all ages, including what happens during professional development for educators.