Be of Use

A few weeks after the election Gov. Scott Walker spoke about changing the way we fund pubic K-12 and higher education. It's the usual tough talk about "outcomes" with on comment in particular that has turned some heads. "In higher education, that means not only degrees, but are young people getting degrees in jobs that are open and needed today -- not just the jobs that the universities want to give us, or degrees that people want to give us." Part of me could go on and on about where this could lead - plus  there are no specifics behind this statement, but I just want to focus my mental capital on things I know about - Schools of Education.  What we don't need anymore of are graduates who don't have a robust background in educating all learners. I recently ran into a former student who is now 21. He proudly told me he was getting an education degree to teach social studies. My response was "That's great! What do you think about gett...

I love big, new bold ideas for education. Anything John Seely Brown writes, I eat it up. Disrupting Class, couldn't put it down. The best books I've read lately about professional learning have been written by corporate trainers. I enjoy a wide variety of perspectives and experiences. Despite this, lately I've begun to get a little wary of the "education outsider as reformer" story line. What do they really do? Michele Rhee made a lot of noise, but wasn't able to keep her job long enough to see things through. She railed that the unions ran her out of DC, and now she spends her time raising money to elect school board members who are in line with her vision for change. Seems more like influence via Citizens United style tactics rather than reform. For all the talk about what Joel Klein did in NYC, there are plenty questions about the actual achievement that occurred during his rein. I don't know many teachers who are flipping over the Obama/Duncan agend...

My wife is in Philadelphia right now at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Annual Convention. Right away this morning she was texting about how inspired she felt right away in her morning workshop - seeing new things, sharing ideas with those around you in the room. A lot of goodwill all around. Education is tough. The day-to-day grind can grind people down. I commented on a message to someone on Twitter that I've seen way too many folks in my career that are checked out when they still likely have 30 years to go in their life. I wonder if those educators didn't do enough to revitalize their practice? Over the last few years I've been scoffing at conferences because first my Google Reader Feed fit my learning bill - long before I knew what a Personal Learning Network is - and now Twitter helps me to keep fresh ideas floating in. Those are the things we all need to make learning part of our everyday lives. Sure you can Email, Tweet or Post to sink y...

I've moved pretty much 100% of my reading to the Kindle or iBook format. There are a few holdout publishers out there - Teachers College Press is the most notable one that I can think of. Odd that they publish all these books from the Games + Learning + Society folks and none of them are offered outside of pulp products. That's also the reason why I haven't read Finnish Lessons yet - although I see its made it to Audible (and I have one credit left for it!). Of late, I've been having problems getting through any books efficiently. I'm a fairly responsible guy - my kids get fed and clothed, I pay my bills on time - but I'm having a hard time staying off of the Safari and in the Kindle or iBooks app. It dawned on me, it must be REALLY hard for a teenager or younger to do that - focus on the task at hand when Angry Birds is a few taps away. I believe this only reinforces the need to put devices in the hands of kids for educational uses. Some may think this is a...

For the last few months when a political ad wasn't on, there have been a few different ads running from Exxon on the importance of investing in our teachers. Is it just a feel-good ad campaign from Big Oil, or is this really happening somewhere? For the last several years I've been hearing about how important Professional Learning Communities are. Outside the bubble of Lincolnshire, IL who's really doing a PLCs in a way that is deep and meaningful? The DuFours have even admitted that the term is losing its meaning. Now the concept of becoming a Connected Educator with a Personal Learning Network is becoming popular, but districts still block Twitter and Facebook. I've never heard anyone involved in education say that professional development isn't important. It's just done really poorly. Here is a portion of  Learning Forward's  proposed definition of Professional Development for the reauthorization of NCLB. primarily occurs several times per wee...

At the end of the last week, I received an email from a teacher asking about how our Flipped Professional Development model will work inside the current Human Resources guidelines for what are called in our district professional growth hours. After so many professional growth hours - time outside the contracted day you are in a training session - you either cash out a set amount of money or take a credit on the pay scale (which I'm certain will look different by July 1 of 2013). This is certainly a fair question and I was honest with the teacher - I had no idea, but I'd get back to her. How do HR carrots apply to non-tradition modes of learning? Unless that teacher asks for time to meet outside of the school day to apply what she learned in the screencasts there's no set amount of time I could sign off on. I can't give anyone credit for watching the videos, because I have no clue who watched it. After reflecting on it for a couple of days, I feel the two don't ...