Copy / Paste by Peter Pappas

First Day of School? Don't Pass Out Books - Problem Solve!

I first published this post at the start of the 08-09 school year. It proved to be very popular and I've had thousands of downloads of the murder mystery students were asked to solve. I've added a second mystery - a bank robbery - and republished my original post below. Enjoy!

~ Originally published August 27, 2008 ~

As a social studies high school teacher, I faced over 25 years of the first day of school. When I first began teaching, I did usual thing – working through the class list (“do you prefer Patrick, or Pat?), a dry recitation of the class rules,  passing out the textbooks. Blah, blah, blah – think of the message it sent to my students.

As my teaching style evolved from the lecture / work sheet model into a more engaged learning environment, I redefined how I wanted to introduce my students to my course. I also came to understand that it was imperative that I get all my students to contribute a few comments to the class during those first few days. Very quickly classes learn which students are the talkers and non-talkers. Once those roles are locked in – it’s very difficult for student for break out of them.

So I did not waste the opening week of school introducing the course – my students solved murder mysteries. I took simplified mysteries and split them into 25-30 clues, each on a single strip of paper. You can download one of the mysteries and a set of rules from my website.  I used a random count off to get the kids away from their buddies and into groups of 5-6 students. Each group got a complete set of clues for the mystery. Each student in the group got 4-5 clues that they could not pass around to the other students. They had to share the clues verbally in the group and that guaranteed that every student is a talker on day one.

While the students worked to solve the mystery – I concentrated on learning the student names. After I introduced the mystery, I bet them that by the end of the first class, I could go around the room and recite their names. While they worked on the mystery, I circulated getting to know students and their names. Another message – in this class, we’re all learners.

Over the next few days we would process their problem solving skills, group dynamics, differences between relevant and irrelevant information and introduce the idea of higher-order thinking like analysis, evaluation and creating. We might even have time to try another mystery to see if they got better.

Use Wiffiti to Engage Your Audience - Big Screen Live Presentation of Feeds from Twitter, Flickr and Text Messages

I'm always looking for ways to make my presentations more engaging and interactive. (A must if you're advocating more student-centered instruction.) I've been using a TurningPoint ARS for years with great results and have tried live blogs at my larger workshops. As a convert to Twitter, I thought it was the logical next step. 

I've experimented with Twitter visualizers on my blog- StreamGraph,  TwitterCloudExplorer, and most recently, Wiffiti. When I saw how good Wiffiti looked on my blog, and I realized it would be a great way to capture the backchannel at workshops. Users can interact with Wiffiti from their mobile phones or the web. It looks great on the big screen - plus it can feed from Twitter, Flickr and text messages.  

I opened a free account and gave it a trial run at my recent workshop in Moriarty-Edgewood SD, New Mexico. It was easy to create a new Wiffiti screen with custom background. (I selected a local landmark neon sign from old Rt 66 in Moriarty.)  I set up the Wiffiti screen to capture Tweets tagged with my Twitter user name @edteck.

The evening before the presentation, I posted a Tweet asking for greetings - “Say good morning to my teachers' workshop on old Rt 66 in NM. Where are you from? Why do you Twitter?”  As participants arrived in the workshop,  they were greeted on the big screen with encouraging words from all over the world. Pretty impressive when you're talking about the impact of technology on teaching and learning!  Special thanks to all that sent greetings - it was an powerful demonstration of the new landscape of information and a display of the power of Twitter / social media!

I shot a bit of video to give you and idea what it looked like.  
 (Remember, the live version of this screen no longer has Tweets relevant to the workshop.)

New Wiffiti messages are instantly displayed center screen and are easily viewable from a distance. Older messages then fade back and move as an animated cloud. Updates from both mobile and web are displayed synchronously across all screens subscribing to the same tags, encouraging the creation of a wide, cross-channel audience.

 Using Wiffiti in Breakout Sessions

I also created a second Wiffiti screen to use during break outs. This one was designed to capture text messages from participants. For those that did not have cells, we set up computer stations where they could make comments directly from the Wiffiti website.

Here's some sample comments - a nice mix of thoughtful observations, fun comments and a few critiques. (Note: I kept it real and I ran my system unmoderated, but it is possible to have someone monitor comments.) 

“School is where kids go to watch old people work really hard”

“My Brain Hurts!”

“Let's get going!”

"disequilibrium, change, and freedom”

"same old stuff, different day!"

“the table in the back rocks!!”

“English teachers and librarians rule -all others drool!”

“having a blast!”

“science is over here.”

“This is a great workshop!”

“Enjoying the presentation Peter. Especially the film clips!”

“Rigor and Relevance for the English Department: Rigor: Apply knowledge and skills in complex ways to analyze and solve real problems..."

My bottom line? Wiffiti is a great way to harness back channel workshop comments. The free version works well and paid versions offer more opportunities to customize and monitor comments. 

What Questions Should School Boards Be Asking about 21st Century Learning?

Next week, I'm keynoting at the New Mexico School Board Association's Leader's Retreat. I plan to take a "Socratic approach" and frame my talk around a series of themes and sample questions that I think school boards should be asking in response challenges and opportunities of 21st century learning. 

I wanted to offer readers the chance to offer their suggestions - via this blog's comment or Twitter/edteck.

I plan to address three themes and pose some reflective questions for board members to consider. 

Theme 1. Learning must engage student in rigorous thinking at higher levels of Bloom - analyzing, evaluating and creating. School boards should ask:

• Does our school community recognize the difference between higher and lower order thinking?
• Are students expected to just consume information, or are they asked to create something original that demonstrates their learning?
• Is our district a creative problem-solving organization?
Answers: We cut music and art for remedial math. (Wrong!!!)
We recognize music and art are vehicles to teach math. (That's better!) 

Theme 2. Learning is relevant when the student understands how the information or skill has some application to their life, has an opportunity to figure out their own process rather than just learn “the facts," and is given opportunities to reflect on their work and their progress as learners. School boards should ask ...

• Do our students get high grades for simply memorizing the review sheet for the test?
• Do our students “follow the recipe” or are they increasingly asked to take responsibility for their learning products, process and results?
• Is the audience for student work simply the teacher, or are students asked to share their learning with peers, family, community? 

Theme 3. The digital age has redefined literacy. To paraphrase David Warlick, Literacy now means the ability to: find information, decode it, critically evaluate it, organize it into digital libraries, and be able to share it with others. School boards should ask ...

• If we’re no longer the "information gatekeepers," are we teaching our students to critically evaluate information and use it responsibly?
• Does our technology get used mainly by the educators, or are students regularly employing it to create understanding and share their learning?
• Is our credit system based on seat time or can it be expanded beyond the school walls to any place / time virtual learning?

And finally I will wrap up the talk with an overarching perspective on accountability and assessment. I find it ironic that while schools chase NCLB “proficiency,” life has become an open book test. We need to unleash the power of assessment that targets and inspires. One-shot, high stakes tests are just autopsies. Students need regular check-ups where teachers can gauge student progress and target instruction. Ultimately the program must be designed to foster student self-assessment that gives them responsibility for monitoring their own progress. Students should be supported in on-going sell-reflection that addresses questions such as:

• How can I use this knowledge and these skills to make a difference in my life?
• How am I progressing as a learner?
• How can I communicate what I’m learning with others?
• How can I work with teachers and other students to improve my learning?

Schools will need to become places that create engaging and relevant learning experiences, provoke student reflection, and help students apply the learning to life. Authentic  accountability is reciprocal ...  leadership is responsible to provide resources for success, educators are responsible for results. Simply sorting students along the "bell curve" won't do.

... Please add a comment below or Twitter to let me know if I'm leaving anything out.

Sept 22, 2009 UPDATE: For School Board Leaders' responses to the workshop see: School Board Leaders Reflect on Essential Questions / 21st Century Learning 

Students Tell Us About “Living in a Digital World”

Congratulations to Karen Rose and her 3rd grade class from the Melissa, Texas. Selected by attendees at the 2009 National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) as "Best Picture" from among digital shorts produced and edited by students and teachers from across the country.

Motivating Students - A Make and Take Workshop for Teachers

This week I head back to Edison School of Engineering & Manufacturing, to conduct a two day follow up workshop.  Our previous work together identified four target areas: 

1. Motivating students
2. Making learning relevant
3. Student-centered learning strategies
4. Effective use of technology

We are going to start by modeling a "Brainstorm, Group, Label" activity (See Tool 13).  It will also  set our agenda for the "make and take activities" of the workshop. Day two begins by modeling a "Fishbowl Discussion Group" on the topic of effective next steps. We'll use the ideas generated in the fishbowl to design a Strategic Planning Grid (below) to prioritize their staff development for the fall.

Most of our time over the two days will be spent assisting teachers in designing specific lessons. I've assembled some Literacy Strategies that teachers can use as starting points for modify their existing lessons. 

“Non-readers”  for students who lack decoding skills.

“Word-callers” for students who can decode, but lack comprehension skills.

“Turned-off readers" for students who have the decoding and comprehension skills, but lack motivation or engagement.

I'll also be showcasing some web tools that are very engaging for students.

Wordle (text analysis) 

Many Eyes (data and text visualizations)

Prezi  (presentation tool) 

Dipity  (timeline builder)

Bubbl.us (brainstorming)

Flickr Tag Related Tag Browser (image tag analysis)

Engage Student Discussion: Use the Social Network in Your Classroom

Watch a typical whole group discussion in the classroom and you'll most likely see a "hub / spokes" flow of information. Teacher to student A and back to teacher. Teacher to student B and back to teacher. So it goes as the "bluebirds" get to show how smart they are. 

Over time, students learn that their comments are of provisional value until "approved" by the teacher. That's because in this style of discussion the teacher is most likely searching for specific replies - sort of playing "guess what I'm thinking" with the "best" students in the class.

Students tend not to listen to each other and only focus on what the teacher says or validates - "will that be up on a test?" When students are put in small group discussion, they rapidly get off subject. With no teacher to validate their comments, they naturally gravitate to other subjects where peer   comments are valued - "what are you doing this weekend?" Often teachers then conclude that small group discussion doesn't work.

In my workshops I train teachers in discussion techniques that foster student reflection and interaction. The strategies are focused on getting the teacher out of the role of information gatekeeper and encouraging student-centered dialogue. 

With practice, teachers find that students are eager to engage and participate. We know they want to contribute, because outside the classroom, students are flocking to social networks to share their thinking with one another. It's unfortunate that our students can't be part of the (offline) social network sitting beside them in class.

While students don't need classroom computers to be part of an engaging discussion, technology can be a catalyst to foster engagement. I was interested to see the following video of The Twitter Experiment - Bring Twitter to the Classroom at UT Dallas.

"UT Dallas History Professor Dr. Monica Rankin, wanted to know how she could reach and include more students in the class discussion. She had heard of Twitter... The following is a short video describing her "Twitter Experiment" in the classroom with comments from students about the pros and cons of Twitter in a traditional learning environment." (Filmed by UT grad student kesmit3.) Link to notes on the experiment.

BTW - I found this video via my Twitter network. Follow  @monicarankin  @kesmit3 

Physics Department Innovates with Student-Centered Approach

There's an interesting piece in the New York Times "At M.I.T., Large Lectures Are Going the Way of the Blackboard" (1/13/09) that details an effort by the MIT physics department to move to a more student-centered, interactive approach to instruction. Physics is not simply a body of knowledge. It's a way of thinking, asking questions and discovering answers.

At M.I.T., two introductory courses are still required — classical mechanics and electromagnetism — but today they meet in high-tech classrooms, where about 80 students sit at 13 round tables equipped with networked computers.

Instead of blackboards, the walls are covered with white boards and huge display screens. Circulating with a team of teaching assistants, the professor makes brief presentations of general principles and engages the students as they work out related concepts in small groups.

Teachers and students conduct experiments together. The room buzzes. Conferring with tablemates, calling out questions and jumping up to write formulas on the white boards are all encouraged.

“There was a long tradition that what it meant to teach was to give a really well-prepared lecture,” said Peter Dourmashkin, a senior lecturer in physics at M.I.T. and a strong proponent of the new method. “It was the students’ job to figure it out.”

The problem, say Dr. Dourmashkin and others in the department, is that a lot of students had trouble doing that. The failure rate for those lecture courses, even those taught by the most mesmerizing teachers, was typically 10 percent to 12 percent. Now, it has dropped to 4 percent.

... The traditional 50-minute lecture was geared more toward physics majors, said Eric Mazur, a physicist at Harvard who is a pioneer of the new approach, and whose work has influenced the change at M.I.T.

“The people who wanted to understand,” Professor Mazur said, “had the discipline, the urge, to sit down afterwards and say, ‘Let me figure this out.’ ” But for the majority, he said, a different approach is needed.

“Just as you can’t become a marathon runner by watching marathons on TV,” Professor Mazur said, “likewise for science, you have to go through the thought processes of doing science and not just watch your instructor do it.”

Visual Literacy: How Do Your Students Share Their Thinking?

The perceived audience / purpose for most student work is the teacher / because it was assigned. Learning becomes more meaningful when students are given chances to share their thinking with more authenticity. It's as simple as adding an audience to an assignment. Example: "How would you explain your solution to younger students?" This also opens the door to more relevant self evaluation. "Did my presentation suit my audience and purpose?"

Visual literacy is the ability to evaluate, apply, or create conceptual visual representations. Visual-Literacy.org has assembled a collection of visualizations in as a periodic table. Mouse over each element and a sample pops up. The examples range from simple to complex and they provide a vast array of approaches beyond the overused Venn diagram or T-chart. 

A pdf of the table is also available. On another page you can group the visualization methods by your criteria and  find background information for a specific visualization method via Google Images and Wikipedia

Transforming Information Flow in School Libraries

Schools have long functioned as information gatekeepers. The flow of information in most classrooms is simply teacher > student > teacher. Many whole group "discussions" are dominated by teachers playing "guess what I'm thinking" and feeling the need to validate every student response. Picture the economics teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off . "Anyone.. Anyone..?" Much of the rest of schools - textbooks, libraries, labs - support the idea that the adults have the information and will ration it out to students in a measured flow. 

We lament that many students aren't motivated in class. I suspect that's because our students are becoming accustomed to a more horizontal and open information flow. They have an ever growing expectation for more control and functionality over the information they access, save, repurpose and share.

How long do we think public schools will be able to monopolize the flow of academic information? Look around us and see that the traditional information gatekeeper  model is failing. Chicago Tribune? Layoffs at NPR? Christian Science Monitor going to web only? Shouldn't we be rethinking the information architecture in our schools?

In his recent article, "Flip This Library: School Libraries Need a Revolution" School Library Journal (11/1/2008),  David Loertscher,  calls for a  a revolution in thinking about the form and function of information in the school library. He envisions a 

"learning commons - both a physical and a virtual space that’s staffed not just by teacher-librarians but also by other school specialists ... such as literacy coaches, teacher technologists, teacher-librarians, art teachers, music teachers, and P.E. teachers..."

The main objective of the open commons is to showcase the school’s best teaching and learning practices... a typical classroom assignment and library Web site are examples of one-way communication. Adults tell learners what to do, how to do it, and where to find information. But in the new learning commons, homework assignments and library Web sites offer two-way communication.  

... Having done that, note that you have created a revolution in thinking. Directive adults have been transformed into coaches; direct teaching has been transformed into collaborative inquiry. 

Sidebar from the article below. 

Look into the Face of Student Engagement

It's easy for teachers to feel like their students are far too distracted by the many glowing screens that light up their lives.  Robbie Cooper, a photographer and video artist, explores the impact of these information screens in his new "Immersion" project.  It offers a fascinating look directly into the faces of British and American kids playing video games (with varying levels of violence) - including Halo 3, Call of Duty, GTA 4, Tekken and Star Wars Battlefront. Cooper uses a system that stations a high resolution video camera right behind the projected game screen.

It's painful to look into the faces of students so caught up in the (sometimes) violent world of video games. I wonder if the students are attracted to the violence or the fact that video games create environments that provide them with an engaging mix of interaction, feedback, and information control?  View more project still images here.

He has edited some of his material into this short video. 

Principal Academy - Rigor and Relevance Walk-Through Training

This past week I conducted a series of walk-through training sessions for principals. Our workshops were hosted by North West Regional ESD and they took us through NWRESD's four-county service area in the northwest corner of Oregon - Washington, Clatsop, Columbia and Tillamook.

Each day opened with a discussion of rigor and relevance "look-for's." I used videos of classrooms that allowed the local principals to generate observations with "virtual walk-throughs." Then we traveled to a local school where we could work in small teams to hone our observations skills using this basic guide. (16 kb pdf.) The day closed with a full-group session where we processed our reflections. Our goal was to assist principals in fostering dialog with teachers about a more shared vision of teaching and learning.

Evaluations from the principals were positive  - they wrote:

The real walkthroughs were beneficial because I was practicing what we discussed in the morning.

This will push me to look for a deeper level of instruction from staff - a deeper level of learning in students.

Just the nudge I needed to "refocus" my professional conversations. I'll be looking at classrooms with a more focused lens.

It makes me want to go back to teaching students - I would be a much better teacher.

Visualizing Data and Text - A Comparison Learning Strategy that Works

Comparing is the most powerful instructional strategy you can use in the classroom. But it's the person who does the comparing that's learning. Therefore, we must ask students to develop the comparison, not just learn and repeat the model that we present to them. (Remember, asking a student to fill out a Venn diagram that you created, is just a graphic form of information filing). After they have designed their comparison, students should also be asked to share what they learned.  A major component of 21st century literacy is finding meaningful ways to share information with others.

Many Eyes is a great new website that gives teachers and students a chance to easily use sophisticated graphic tools to analyze data and create interactive displays. Those who register at the site can use 16 visualization types to present data. My favorite visualization is the "Wordle," which enables you to see how frequently words appear in uploaded text, or see the relationship between a column of words and a column of numbers. You can tweak your word "clouds" with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. Why not have your students use Wordle to analyze a selection of non-fiction text to uncover the main ideas and key vocabulary of the piece? Or they could compare text from different sources. Want your students to more fully understand your course content? Let them use Many Eyes to visualize and discover patterns as a catalyst for discussion and collective insights about information, text, and data. As they say at Many Eyes, "Finding the right way view your data is as much an art as a science. The visualizations provided on Many Eyes range from the ordinary to the experimental."

Here's a few examples of the same data in three different Wordle visualizations that analyze the frequency of words in 30 school district mission / vision statements. 

Click on images to enlarge.

The original data and was uploaded to Many Eyes by PPreuss and used to create the visualization above.  I modified the existing online data set mission / vision statement words with the Wordle tools to represent the same data in different layouts and styles. In this second version (below)  I limited the analysis to the top 100 words.

Here's a third representation of the same source data that analyzes 2-word clusters and displays their frequency in alphabetical layout. Below is  a screen shot of the Tag Cloud, but in its original form at Many Eyes, when I click on any of the word clusters,  a pop-up shows the context of how the cluster is used in different sentences from the source mission / vision statements.

Wow! Looks like we educators have a lot on our plates. Personally I think we might want to admit our mission / vision may simply be  "Trying Hard Not To Become Obsolete."

Summarizing What's Important with a "How To" Video

Explaining "how to" requires students to research a subject, evaluate what's important, and create a guide for someone else to follow. It gives them an opportunity to write for an authentic audience and purpose and use skills that rank very high on Bloom's taxonomy. When we ask students to summarize without giving them an audience and purpose all we are doing is asking them to "guess what the teacher thinks is important."

A few weeks ago I posted on the great opportunities for students to teach others by creating how to videos. Since then I 've found a great source list of How To video sites at ReadWriteWeb.

Engage Students with the Wonder of Science Inquiry

Brian Greene is a professor of physics at Columbia and the author of “The Elegant Universe.” In a June 1, 2008 NY Times Op-Ed essay Put a Little Science in Your Life, makes an eloquent argument for engaging students with the wonder of scientific discovery. He argues that the recitation of facts and technicalities often prevents student from connecting with the motivational power of inquiry.

Science is a way of life. Science is a perspective. Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner that’s precise, predictive and reliable — a transformation, for those lucky enough to experience it, that is empowering and emotional. To be able to think through and grasp explanations — for everything from why the sky is blue to how life formed on earth — not because they are declared dogma but rather because they reveal patterns confirmed by experiment and observation, is one of the most precious of human experiences.

... As every parent knows, children begin life as uninhibited, unabashed explorers of the unknown. From the time we can walk and talk, we want to know what things are and how they work — we begin life as little scientists. But most of us quickly lose our intrinsic scientific passion. And it’s a profound loss.

...Science is the greatest of all adventure stories, one that’s been unfolding for thousands of years as we have sought to understand ourselves and our surroundings. Science needs to be taught to the young and communicated to the mature in a manner that captures this drama. We must embark on a cultural shift that places science in its rightful place alongside music, art and literature as an indispensable part of what makes life worth living.  

More 100KB pdf

As I have often argued, educators need resources and training to craft a rigorous learning environment where students can function as 21st century professionals - critical thinkers who can effectively collaborate to gather, evaluate, analyze and share information. We can reconnect students with their innate drive to thoughtfully explore the world around them.

K-12 Walk Throughs Foster Teacher Reflection

I recently conducted walk through training (WT) at Hood River County School District in Oregon. I thought the model we used was very effective at engaging teachers and administrators in reflective discussion on instructional practice.

In February, I did half-day presentations on Rigor, Relevance and Literacy to Hood River's K-5 and 6-12 faculties. In April, I led teams on WTs to give them on opportunity to hone their observational skills. It's one thing to talk about rigor and relevance in a workshop. It's another to go into a classroom and try to decide the level of Bloom's taxonomy being used by the students.

Observers were not in classrooms to evaluate teachers or instructional strategies, but to test their observational skills and have an opportunity to dialogue about their conclusions. We used this simple form to guide our efforts and keep our focus on observation, reflection and discussion. R-R-guide2.pdf  16kb pdf

One day was devoted to K-12 administrative and TOSAs. The next two days were spent with K-12 teacher teams. Each day we began with an orientation session. The team started doing WT's at an elementary building, then moved to middle and finally, high school. We only visited teachers who had volunteered to host our team. At each building we met periodically to process what we had seen.

The most powerful element of the day, was the K-12 settings of the WTs and the use of K-12 teacher teams. Teachers seldom see other classes in action and it rare that a high school teacher would be given a chance to observe an elementary class or vice versa.  All the participants agreed it was a very valuable experience and they came away with greater respect for the contributions being made all each levels of the program. Most importantly, they became more skillful at assessing the rigor and relevance of a variety of instructional strategies. They were then able to apply those perspectives to their own instructional practice.  The district intends to support teachers in collegial observation and peer reflection.

Motivate Students with FlipNLearn

I'm proud to serve as the educational advisor to FlipNLearn –  the innovate foldable that students design, print and share.  FlipNLearn uses a special pre-formatted paper and FREE design software to make it easy for students in grades 3 through  high school to design, print, share and learn. FlipNLearn enables students to think like designers, to apply their learning strategies and to organize and express their learning. It exemplifies the best of the information revolution –students as creators of content rather than as a passive audience.

FlipNLearn uses research-based learning strategies that produce results. FlipNLearn helps students master course content while developing project management and teamwork skills. Students are motivated by producing tangible evidence of their learning. Creating and sharing a FlipNLearn promotes peer discussion of both content and design decisions. It serves as an authentic assessment when shared with the wider audience of friends and family.

Visit FlipNLearn to find out more. Use the educators' discount code PPC-1001 to get free shipping on FlipNLearn paper.

Rigor, Relevance and Reading for Content-Area Mastery

This week I’m presenting four workshops at the 2007 MAPSA Conference in Detroit Michigan.

Three sessions addressed "Rigor, Relevance and Reading for Content-Area Mastery" at elementary, middle and high school. The sessions demonstrated that teachers don't have to sacrifice content to help their students achieve academic success. I featured practical examples of how teachers can support standards-based instruction in their subject area while improving student skills in vocabulary, comprehension and analysis. My goal is to present a session that is rigorous and relevant to teachers—we’ll actually use the strategies being promoted, not just talk about them!  Here’s the handout for these sessions.
Elementary Session (1.1 MB pdf)
Middle School Session (1.4 MB pdf)
High School Session (1.6 MB pdf)

I used my TurningPoint audience response system and posed questions which probed participant expectations of students and instructional strategies. The system allows me to capture participant thinking and use it foster some lively discussion and reflections. You have to model what you preach, so we worked through some higher-order thinking and problem solving ourselves. Thanks to Christina Stellers at Turning Point for supplying additional responders.

My fourth session was "Digital Publishing: Rigor, Relevancy and Literacy in Action."   In case you haven’t heard – print on demand technology has made it possible to produce beautiful hard cover and paperback books without minimum runs or prohibitive upfront costs. Kids are motivated by producing books for an authentic audience. Publishing helps students master course content and develop project management and teamwork skills. The power of publishing enables students to think like writers, to apply their learning strategies and to organize and express their learning. It exemplifies the best of the information revolution –students as creators of content rather than as passive audience.

I featured two new products: FlipNLearn, is an innovative learning foldable that student design and print on school printers using specialty paper. EdteckPublisher – is book design software that allows students to design paperback books and then easily upload them for publication by digital on-demand press.
Publishing workshop handout (1.6 MB pdf)

Rigor and Relevance Walk–Through Training for Principals

I’ve been working with Elizabeth Forward School District in Elizabeth PA to enhance the rigor and relevance of their instructional program. I’ve been impressed with the high level of involvement by the full administrative team. We started with half-day workshops for their K-5 and secondary teachers on classroom strategies. I used my TurningPoint audience response system to gather feedback from both audiences. The following day, the administrative team met to analyze the data and develop an action plan.

Soon I will return and we’ll conduct walk-though training for the administrative team. We’ll spend a day working in small teams to observe classrooms in action and alternately meet as a full team to process our observations. By the end of the day we should have a model for conducting walk-throughs that will help principals and teachers to collaborate in a way that is rigorous and relevant to them. Our goal is quick 5-minute walk-throughs that help principals manage the demands of instructional leadership and provide feedback that will enable teachers to reflect on their craft.

I value results over process so I’ve developed a walk-through observation form RR-guide that targets the essentials without becoming a burden to the principal. It designed to serve as the catalyst for a positive principal-teacher discussion. Hopefully that conversation can model the “student-centered” reflection we want to foster in the classroom.

For more on walk-throughs see: Leadership By Walking Around and Walk-Throughs are on the Move!

Rigor, Relevance and Technology

New technologies have put students in charge of the information they access, store, analyze and share.  To paraphrase David Warlick, “Literacy in the 21st century will mean the ability to find information, decode it, critically evaluate it, organize it into personal digital libraries and find meaningful ways to share it with others.”

Next week, I’ll be returning to Pottsgrove School District outside of Philadelphia to work with high school science, social studies and special education teachers on strategies for utilizing technology to incorporate more rigor and relevance into their classrooms. I’ll be joined by the Chris Shaffer, the principal of Pottsgrove High School. Together we’ll demonstrate strategies and technology resources and then give teachers time to work on integrating the strategies into upcoming lessons. Later in the school year we plan to reconvene the group to assess the impact on classroom instruction and student engagement.

Chris will be sharing a variety of websites that provide teachers and students with Web 2.0 tools to transform the learning environment. They include: www.Del.icio.us.com, www.Nettrekker.com, www.Unitedstreaming.com, www.Fantasycongress.com, www.Moodle.com.  I believe that rigor and relevance improves when students have an opportunity to read, think, write and publish for an authentic audience and purpose. I’ll be showing the Pottsgrove audience three approaches that give students a chance to share their learning with others.

Judy Kinz, a very innovative technology specialist, has developed “Virtual Books,” a clever PowerPoint template that simulates the turning pages of a book. I used it to make demo PowerPoints for the Pottsgrove social studies and science teachers. Here's a sample. Don't focus on the content - it's the look of the template that's the point. homefront-virtual-book (1.9MB PPT)  In partnership with a paper engineer, I’ll soon be launching FlipNLearn, an innovative learning foldable that student design and print on school printers using specialty paper. Presentation notes: Pottsgrove-10-08-07 (1 MB PDF)

Summer Academies that Support Ninth Grade Transition

A recent issue of Education Week featured a ninth grade transition program that combats the drop-out problem associated with movement from middle to high school – see “Pittsburgh Building ‘Nation’ of 9th Graders.” Education Week, August 29, 2007

The idea was to target not just the teenagers’ heads, but also their hearts. A week of getting used to their new schools, befriending their classmates and teachers, and undertaking adventures together was designed to forge what district officials are calling a “9th Grade Nation”—a freshman class that moves through high school feeling supported and confident.  Read 9grade-Nation (98KB pdf)

Reading about this program reminded me of a summer program that I designed and served as founding director from 1999-2000. The "Summer Prep Program" targeted students exiting 5th – 8th grade who were academically at-risk.  Elementary, middle and high school teachers (and a dedicated school nurse) delivered a specially designed three-week curriculum designed to engage students in their learning and foster a positive attitude towards school. A dozen high school and college interns assisted in the program, serving as positive role models and establishing friendships that will extend into the school year.  Summer Prep produced excellent results with nearly one-half of our students improving their grades in three or four of their core courses.

Specially trained teams of teachers provide daily instruction in English, math, technology, library research, learning and organizational skills. Each grade was divided into small sections. Classes were held from 8 AM - 11 AM, Monday – Thursday. Each Friday was reserved for an activity day - indoor wall climbing, ropes, obstacle courses, kayaking, and even a juggling workshop.  As one parent wrote about the program "The Summer Prep School was the best thing that could have happened to my daughter this summer. She struggled throughout the school year - and with the frustration of struggling, she lost confidence and enthusiasm for school in general. However, this excellent program spurred in her a renewed interest in learning. Every day as I picked her up, she had a fun and exciting anecdote to tell me about. She absolutely loved her writing class - believe it showed as I am leafing through her folder tonight at Open House. I would like to thank Mr. Pappas for his extreme enthusiasm and support of our daughter at a very difficult personal as well as scholastic juncture in her life."

The cooperation and teamwork of parent, student and teacher is essential to success. Parents' workshops were offered to support and inform the parents with practical activities and techniques in communications, discipline, academic support and problem solving.

As one parent wrote about the parenting workshops "Over the last 4 weeks – my relationship with my daughter has grown by leaps and bounds!! This program has helped me to identify the behaviors she exhibits that trigger me to get upset. The whole family has had benefits, especially with improvements in communications. More concrete boundaries and expectations have been established and our family life had been more relaxed, peaceful, and less stressful. Thank you for offering our expertise. I have looked forward to Tuesday evenings this summer."

Visit an archived version of the Summer Prep School website and read more about the program in the SAANYS Journal. Find out more about Summer Prep and Ninth Grade Academies at Small Learning Academies that Work.