Councils Release New Maps

Many of the curriculum councils are partnering with the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21). In June the National Science Teachers Association, and the National Council for Geographic Education released new curriculum maps that included the 21st century survival skills that Tony Wagner highlights in The Global Achievement Gap. Maps for social studies and English were released in 2008.

Read about these new maps in Education Week's Curriculum Matters column.

Wagner on YouTube

"No one has done anything wrong." This is what Wagner believes. The problem, or a better word, is that the world has changed. Fundamentally changed, and education has not. The American education system (public and private) is much as it has been over the last 120 years. Very much design (that you Frederick Taylor) to prepare its students for work in an industrial economy (think GM, Xerox, IBM, newspapers). We now have an information society (think Google). Wagner's message is much like what we heard from Thomas Friedman in The World is Flat, Daniel Pink in A Whole New Mind, and Howard Gardner's Five Minds for the Future. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is not a passing pad. This is a fundamental, lasting shift. Just as we could not imagine going back to carbon copies, memeograph machines, and Britannica Worldbook Encyclopedia A-Z, we will not return to a slower, more stable culture. Schools are in a gap and have to adapt. And, it's difficult for lots of reason.

What are the main reasons we find adaptation difficult?
How might we break through in our understanding, our sense of necessity, and our sense of urgency?

Global Achievement Gap Powerpoint

This is a nice Powerpoint that summarizes Wagner's GAG. It was posted to YouTube by Ben Johnson, Iowa State University student and Assistant Principal at Fort Dodge Senior High in Fort Dodge, Iowa.

Tony Wagner at The Asia Society

This is a longer keynote address that Tony Wagner gave to educators this summer at The Asia Society in New York. I like how he formulates the situation in which we as teachers, administrators, and citizens find ourselves: between a rock and a hard place. This is an especially good presentation to help grasp the essential imperative which is a different sort of education that creates different needed outcomes.

Do you believe his case statement and argument?
If not, why not?
If so, what are you prepared to do about it?
How can others support you?
If it were your child caught in this gap, what would you want for him or her?
How would you want school to be different for him or her?

Some Wagner Quotes

Below are some quotes that I have collected from Wagner's The Global Achievement Gap. As you can infer from his bio and seeing his videos, he is not puffy like some academics. His written language is down-to-earth, clear, yet determined to make his case.

"In today's highly competitive global "knowledge economy," students need new skills for college, careers, and citizenship. The failure to give all students these new skills leaves today's youth-and our country-at an alarming competitive disadvantage. Schools haven't changed; the world has. And so our schools are not failing. Rather, they are obsolete-even the ones that score the best on standardized tests."

"The "problem," simply stated, is that the future of our economy, the strength of our democracy, and perhaps even the health of the planet's ecosystems depend on educating future generations in ways very different from how many of us were schooled."

"The global achievement gap remains invisible to most of us-in part, because it is fueled by fundamental economic, social, political, and technological changes that have taken place so rapidly over the last two decades that they seem more like static in people's lives than like tangible forces that are shaping our future. But these changes are powerful, and until we understand them and rethink what young people need to know in the twenty-first century and how they are best taught, our future as a country remains uncertain."

"I have observed that the longer our children are in school, the less curious they become. Effective communication, curiosity, and critical-thinking skills, as we will see, are much more than just the traditional desirable outcomes of a liberal arts education. They are essential competencies and habits of mind for life in the twenty-first century."

"Corporate CEO most values asking good questions; his child gets into trouble at school for asking the teacher a question. The problem of students getting into trouble for challenging something a teacher says is not new to me, but I found this juxtaposition especially jarring."

"Taking issues and situations and problems and going to root components; understanding how the problem evolved-looking at it from a systemic perspective and not accepting things at face value. It also means being curious about why things are the way they are and being able to think about why something is important. Indeed, Ms. Neal herself went on with a list of questions: What do I really need to understand about this; what is the history; what are other people thinking about this; how does that all come together; what frames and models can we use to understand this from a variety of different angles and then come up with something different?"

(about the schools in Singapore which are called Thinking Schools. Singapore aims to become a Learning Nation)
"Thinking Schools will be learning organizations in every sense, constantly challenging assumptions, and seeking better ways of doing things through participation, creativity and innovation. Thinking Schools will be the cradle of thinking students as well as thinking adults and this spirit of learning should accompany our students even after they leave school. A Learning Nation envisions a national culture and social environment that promotes lifelong learning in our people. The capacity of Singaporeans to continually learn, both for professional development and for personal enrichment, will determine our collective tolerance for change."

A Teacher on 21st Century Teaching

21st century Pedagogy: We need a new DNA. This is a rather nice video that just states the fundamental gap. A new world needs a new way of teaching the digital learner.

Writing with Voice

One of the areas most severely underdeveloped, the CEOs reported to Wagner, was young people's ability to write with Voice. They noted that students tended to write without much personality and unable to take a stand, that they writing lacked critical thinking.

These following articles offered further discussion of the importance of teaching students to write persuasively.

Researchers Try to Promote Students Ability to Argue

An Argument Worth Having

2009 - 2010 PLC Schedule

Wednesday, September 23:
The Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner, 21st century survival skills

Wednesday, October 28:
Making Learning Whole by David Perkins, teaching for understanding: "It's about the learning!"

Wednesday, November 18:
Blooms 3.0, technology is an essential tool.

Wednesday, February 10:
Disrupting Class by Clayton Christensen, Learning as we know it is obsolete.

Wednesday, March 31:
Immunity to Change by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey, why we don't do what we say is needed.

Wednesday, April 14:
Drive by Daniel Pink, understanding motivation.

GSL Professional Learning Conversations 2009-2010

Here are the dates and topics for this year's learning conversations.

Wednesday, September 23:
The Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner, 21st century survival skills

Wednesday, October 28:
Making Learning Whole by David Perkins, teaching for understanding: "It's about the learning!"

Wednesday, November 18:
Blooms 3.0, technology is an essential tool.

Wednesday, February 10:
Disrupting Class by Clayton Christensen, Learning as we know it is obsolete.

Wednesday, March 31:
Immunity to Change by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey, why we don't do what we say is needed.

Wednesday, April 14:
Drive by Daniel Pink, understanding motivation.

Everything Twitter Place

Alltop.com is the brainchild of Guy Kawasaki,successful Silicon Valley venture capitalist. He got his start as the guy that first marketed Apple's Macintosh computer back in 1984.

Alltop is a cool thing to know about because it can save you lots of time when you are searching a topic because other people have already collated information for you.

It you are trying to get the hang of using Twitter, or if you are trying to figure out why use Twitter at all, the Twitter Alltop space is really helpful. Twitter Alltop

Here is another helpful Alltop: All the top news in Education.

Twitter 101: Clarifying the Rules for Newbies

This is a helpful list of things to consider if you are new and learning to using Twitter.

Here are the basic considerations:

How many people is a lot of people to follow?

What, how, and why should I tweet?

What are good tweeting habits?

And, of course, do you have twalance (tweet balance)?

Read the brief post here and see if it makes sense to you.

Advice for Teachers New to Twitter

Liz Davis is the Director of Academic Tech at Belmont Hill School, an independent school outside of Boston. She blogs about the power of technology in transforming learning. I subscribe to her blog and follow her on twitter, and you can, too. Here is a link to her blog and to her twitter profile.

This particular recent post gives advice to teachers that are new to Twitter. It includes the basics like using your real name and a real photo of yourself, filling out your profile info, and what and how often to share. She also lists a number of good people to add to your network if you are a teacher.

Liz is a good teacher to follow. She shares a lot and gets what teachers are interested in and need. Once you follow someone like Liz, look at whom she is following, and start following some of them. That is utilizing good people as a filter. This is how you build up a good and useful network.

9 Great Reasons Teachers Should Use Twitter

Katie Donald shared this blog post with me tonight. I tweeted it to my network, and I hope you will do the same with yours. I also condensed the 9 things, and posted a link to the orginal blog post by Laura Walker, a Modern Language teacher in a high school in the UK. About Laura.

Here is a great quote from the post:

“Following smart people on Twitter is like a mental shot of expresso!”

1. Together we are better.

2. Global or local: you choose

3. Self-awareness and reflective practice

4. Ideas and workshop sounding board

5. Newsroom and innovation showcase

6. Professional development and critical friends

7. Quality-assured searching

8. Communicate, communicate, communicate

9. Getting with the times has never been so easy.

I would add a 10th, because top 10 lists just rest better: It's fun!

I'll admit that it takes a little time to get your head around why you should invest the time and energy, and it takes a little time and work until you see any payback, but it can become a great source of encouragement, connection, and information for passionate professionals.

Thanks for passing along the info, Katie!

Follow MrsLWalker on Twitter.

9 Great Reason Teachers should Use Twitter original blog post

The Lubin Files: Annotate the web with Diigo. A Technology Review

Check out this website I found at lubinlib.typepad.com

I am liking Diigo. It has helped me learn to enjoy reading on the web. In fact, I am liking it so much that I transferred all my Delicious bookmarks, so my devotion is feeling pretty permanent at the moment. (That was rather Yogi Bera-ish!)

Posted via web from jamiereverb's posterous

Marc Prensky Bio

Marc Prensky is an internationally acclaimed speaker, writer, consultant, and designer in the critical areas of education and learning. He is the author of Digital Game-Based Learning, and Don't Bother Me Mom -- I'm Learning.

Prensky is also the founder and CEO of Games2train (whose clients include IBM, Nokia, Pfizer, the US Department of Defense and the LA and Florida Virtual Schools) and creator of the sites www.dodgamecommunity.com and www.socialimpactgames.com.

Prensky has created over 50 software games for learning, including the world's first fast-action videogame-based training tools and world-wide, multi-player, multi-team on-line competitions. He has also taught at all levels.

Prensky has been featured in articles in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, PBS, and the BBC, and was named as one of training's top 10 "visionaries" by Training magazine. He holds graduate degrees from Yale (Teaching) and Harvard (MBA).

Marc Prensky on YouTube

This YouTube features Marc Prensky talking about handheld learning.

Read About Digital Learning

Forty years after Joan Ganz Cooney's landmark study stimulated the creation of Sesame Street, Sesame Workshop has established a new center devoted to accelerating children's learning in a rapidly changing world. The Joan Ganz Cooney Center will focus new attention on the challenges children face today, asking the 21st century equivalent of her original question, "How can emerging media help children learn?"

These studies are worth looking at:

Pockets of Potential -- Examining over 25 handheld learning products and research projects in the U.S. and abroad, the report highlights early evidence of how these devices can help revolutionize teaching and learning.

The Power of POW! Wham!: Children, Digital Media and Our Nation's Future -- this paper specifically deals with digital technologies and elementary school students.

Getting Over the Slump: Innovation Strategies to Promote Children's Learning -- this report deals with using media technologies to help 4th grade students get over the reading slump.

Engaging Digital Natives

In the 21st century, teaching is about "engaging digital natives." What this means is that we adults have a lot of learning and catching up to do compared to our students who were born into a digital age and seemingly with digital intuition.

Below is a comprehensive slideshare presentation that outlines the different aspects of "engaging digital natives."

Marc Prensky Articles

Marc Prensky has tons of articles posted on his website.
Our discussions are going to focus on these articles:

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Digital
Natives, Digital Immigrants Part II
Backup Education?
Marc Prensky's Essential 21st Century Skills
The Role of Technology and Teaching in the Classroom

All of these articles can be downloaded and none are very long.

Digital Learners New Literacies

This video illustrates Curriculum 2.0

The iTouch for Learning

How can we use technology in learning everyday? You know the students would like it, so why not?

Just the Right Touch: Culbreth Students Show Off Their iTouch and its Capabilities

"About a dozen Culbreth faculty members also demonstrated how the iPod Touch is useful in their classrooms. Pre-algebra teacher Robert Bales showed how students can pull stats from a recent Carolina basketball game, for example, off of the ESPN application. Bales said the stats are a fun and exciting way to learn about important math fundamentals like fractions, decimals and percentages.

Ann Collins said students in the Culbreth writing center used their iPods to look up YouTube videos of Supreme Court Justice John Roberts swearing in President Obama as part of a discussion on the finer points of public speaking."

Trends in Technology

The link below is to the 6th Horizon Report which is published annually highlighting and describing the emerging technologies likely to have a great impact on teaching, learning, research, and creative expression in learning environments. This report is the culmination of a long-term research collaboration between the New Media Consortium and EDUCASE Learning Initiative.

Some of the trends discussed in detail are:

Mobile everything
Cloud Computing
Geo-everything
The Personal Web
Gaming for learning
Cell phones in learning

Reading this report gives a great overview of what is on the horizon in technological advancement.

The 2009 Horizon Report

Horizon Report K-12 Edition

Blooms Taxonomy 3.0

Blooms has been through versions that missed, namely 2.0. But, you can read about Bloom's taxanomy updated for the digial age here:

Blooms 3.0 - large downloadable .pdf

About Jenifer Fox

Jenifer Fox, author of Your Child's Strengths: Discover Them, Develop Them, Use Them will speak at Grace-St. Luke's Episcopal School on Tuesday, March 31 at 7:00 p.m. in the church sanctuary on the corner of Peabody and Belvedere. Jenifer Fox was the President of Purnell School, an independent, girls boarding high school in New Jersey until this fall when she became the full-time director of The Strengths Movement. Passionately written, Your Child's Strengths proposes a strengths-based philosophy that provides the tools to prepare kids for their future in a world that demands greater adaptability and creative thinking than ever before. Fox draws on both her research and her experience as Head of School to show parents and teachers how to identify a child's strength based on their actions, how to encourage those strengths once you have identified them, and how to help kids implement the strengths they reveal. Fox's strengths curriculum, The Affinities Program, grows out of a belief that building on students' strengths is the best way to help them grow into the people they were meant to become. The program provides specific and engaging exercises and activities to help young people discover their strengths and use them to carve out a path toward a meaningful future.

Jenifer Fox wrote and implemented The Affinities Program, the first four year strengths-based high school curriculum, at Purnell School. The Affinities Program won a Leading Edge Award in 2004 from the National Association of Independent Schools. In 2007, Jenifer Fox, the Purnell School and The Affinities Program were featured in PBS Special "Go Put Your Strengths to Work" with Marcus Buckingham. Fox, Buckingham and Purnell School were featured on The Today Show in April, 2007. Fox earned a B.S. in Communications from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an M.A. in English from Middlebury College and an M. Ed. in School Administration from Harvard University.

Grace-St. Luke's is excited to host Jenifer Fox because her perspective that education should focus on developing each child's strengths and abilities to their fullest potential is a long held belief and school practice. Teachers and school staff are leading the way at Grace-St. Luke's focus on strengths awareness and self understanding by assessing each of their strengths using Tom Rath's book, Strengths 2.0, determining their individual learning styles, which correlate to teaching styles, and by engaging in a multiple day school workshop on Myers-Briggs personality types and conscious communication. Being dedicated to educating children for their future, not our pasts, is driving Grace-St. Luke's initiative to align is programming, organizational learning, and curricular emphasis with the demands of the 21st century culture and marketplace.

Jenifer Fox in Independent School magazine

There are certain things that educators know, and that is why parents and society entrust them to educate children. One of those things is how children best learn.With rapid advances in technology, there have been rapid and paradigm-shifting streams of new information about how children learn and this creates a big challenge for classroom teachers and schools as they strive to know best how children learn. The rub: how to keep up with the most recent and most helpful information. One of the universal classroom tensions that this situation has created is this, as Jenifer Fox illustrates it:

"Tutoring vs. a Developmental Approach to Learning
If, as educators, we understand how children learn, we know that conceptual structures are formed in sequences and these sequences must be achieved through scaffolding of simple understandings to more complex ones. A variety of factors affect these essential linkages and, if one link is weak, each newly added concept becomes confusing to a child...Many teachers and parents believe that one-on-one tutoring works because kids perform better when the focus is only on one child. Or they believe that a child doesn't understand because the child takes longer to learn and, if the tutor can simply take more time with the student, he or she will grasp the concepts. Both assumptions may be true, but the problem is that, most often, tutoring is practiced as if they are always true. When there is a developmental weakness in a child's conceptual understanding, tutoring will not work unless the tutor understands both where the weakness in the scaffolding occurs, and how to ameliorate understanding. Unless tutoring takes a developmental approach, students will not understand the problems simply because the tutor is working one-on-one or taking more time. "

Learning - whose problem is it? This is one of the most crucial debates infusing education circles across the country right now in both the public and private school arenas: Are teachers responsible for teaching or for student learning, or both?

I am not suggesting that Jenifer Fox and The Strengths Movement is the answer, but without a doubt, Fox is weighing in on the paradigm shift and is one of the leading voices in the conversation.

What do you think?

Read full article:
Questioning The Tutoring Paradigm by Jenifer Fox, Independent School Summer 2008