Curriculum Neutrality

I am starting a Theories and Research in Educational Psychology class and one of the first assignments is to discuss whether there can be curriculum neutrality in education. The idea of curriculum neutrality is when the teacher attempts to not to place any of his or her personal, political, religious, or moral beliefs when developing curriculum for their classes. This poses two interesting questions:

1. Is curriculum neutrality possible?

2. If curriculum neutrality is possible, is it desirable? 

Personally, I say no to the first question. Curriculum will always reflect the values of the teacher, school, and community. Watch what happens whenever mentions teaching sex education at a school board or PTO meeting and you get my meaning. On the second question, if the teacher does not go overboard then yes. I have always tried to be a moral compass for my students so they would have an example to follow. All of the teachers i know always want their students to do the right thing. Sometimes it is the teacher who is the only one to provide that moral grounding and that is unfortunate.

How would you answer these two questions? Discuss!

Crossing Over

The past couple of weeks I took my first steps in reaching out to other teachers for the purpose of doing a Cross-Curricular project. The group I identified was the sixth grade Math teachers. My plan was simple, teams of students would create instructional videos demonstrating how to solve a type of math problem chosen by their Math teacher. The videos would be the Paper Slide because they are simple and quick to create. Next, I met with each teacher to explain the project and see what problem they wanted see their students to explain. Once I had the problems, it was time to organize the students into teams and give them their assignment. I grouped my students in class according to the team they are on to make this organization easier. All I had to do was use Team Shaker on my iPad to pick the teams at random. Once I informed the students of their teams and task to perform they were off. 

Imagine my surprise when our school's Math Coach, Kim, stopped me in the hallway telling me she heard about my project and offered her help which I readily accepted. Was I glad for her help because I have trouble adding 2+2 (three right?) and even more grateful when she answered my students' questions I would have had trouble with. 

The teams were given storyboard templates for them to design the slides they would use for their video. Kim and I moved around the students offering bits of advice about both the math and design of the slides. The students were also encouraged to show their storyboards to their math teachers to make sure they were correct. The students were very enthusiastic about the project and I had very little trouble keeping them on task. The biggest problem I saw, like their presentations, is they wanted to write every instruction down on the slides. I had to keep reminding them to just pick a problem and write the individual steps in solving the problem on each slide. I further explained one of the team members would explain what is going on while another team member was videotaping and another was working the slides. 

My students are almost finished with this project. Once a team tells me they have finished a video to my specifications (it has to be sharable), I come look at it. If there are any problems then I explain that the team needs to try again with the corrections I suggested. When I am satisfied, the videos are to be sent to their Math teachers via Edmodo for their evaluation and I enter my grade in the books. Once we are finished, I plan on going back to the Math teachers to see how things went and how this project could be done better next time. 

Was this project effective? One student came up to Kim and I to tell us this project was harder than she thought it would be. We asked why and she replied that that she had to know more to explain how to do a problem than just solving the problem like she normally would. Kim and I looked at each other and smiled. Mission accomplished!

Here is a video on how to create a Paper Slide Video.

Computer Tech in a Common Core and iPad World

The start of the 2012-2013 school year seemed to be more hectic than ever. First, my family was finishing picking up the pieces of a house fire that happened in late May. It was not fun living in hotel rooms over the summer except for that week we spent in Florida. Bluffton Middle School got a new principal because our former principal was promoted to be the district's new Chief Instructional Support Officer. While she has not made too many changes, she is naturally curious about what our school does and Computer Technology is no exception. The state of South Carolina is making changes as it moves toward the Common Core State Standards and a new way to evaluate students, teachers, and schools so the No Child Left Behind requirements may be waived. The biggest news of all is our school's core academic teachers are receiving iPad carts for students to use this year. All of this means big changes in the focus of Computer Technology but I had been moving toward this since last year because I saw it coming. 

First, we all knew about state's shift towards Common Core which is required to get out from under No Child Left Behind. The features I like best about Common Core is how it requires students to be able to think about problems and seek solutions. This includes being able to seek information to help solve those problems. Anything that requires students to research information and then present the results of that research is always welcome to this Social Studies (yes, that's right) teacher. The other aspect of Common Core is how it encourages teachers to create cross-curricular projects. This is something I have wanted to do with Computer Technology from when it was created. So far I have had some great discussions with the academic teachers about how we can do joint projects and I am excited by their enthusiasm so far. There will be fits and starts but once the kinks are worked it out it will be a great experience for everyone involved. Another thing is that I have my students do research on effective presentations and cyber safety then present their findings. As I explain to them I could do a whole group lecture but it would not mean as much as to have them learn it then give a whole group lecture. 

Second, while our school is getting iPads, I was put on notice that the only iPad I will even get a sniff at is the one I bought recently and carry to work everyday. Students will not be allowed to bring the Apple tablets due to security and logistical concerns. The iPads will not be allowed to go home with the students. Hopefully, as the district gains experience and confidence this will change. For now it poses a problem for me. How do I teach students how to create technology projects using iPads when I only have PC's? Believe it or not this problem is actually simple: I teach students the basics of design. This means instead of teaching PowerPoint, I teach students how to design presentations that can be effective using PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Presentation or any other presentation application. The same goes with video, photos, audio, documents, etc.... I teach enough of any application for students to create that basic project. My students still want to throw everything into a project but the kitchen sink but I keep after them to keep things simple as I explain they will not have time to do this in their other classes. There is a lot of bad habits they have picked up over time and most of it done by teachers who do not know how to design presentations for an audience. As students are working on projects they are slowly getting the idea that products are for other people and not themselves which is an important step. My students will not have the iPads forever and they won't have them at home either. This means students should learn how to use the devices he or she has at home because that can be depended on throughout their days in school and beyond.

There are other minor changes that I have made that show promise and I may write about over the course of the year. It is safe to say that so far I am mostly pleased with the way things are going and I hope it stays that way. 

The start of the 2012-2013 school year seemed to be more hectic than ever. First, my family was finishing picking up the pieces of a house fire that happened in late May. It was not fun living in hotel rooms over the summer except for that week we spent in Florida. Bluffton Middle School got a new principal because our former principal was promoted to be the district's new Chief Instructional Support Officer. While she has not made too many changes, she is naturally curious about what our school does and Computer Technology is no exception. The state of South Carolina is making changes as it moves toward the Common Core State Standards and a new way to evaluate students, teachers, and schools so the No Child Left Behind requirements may be waived. The biggest news of all is our school's core academic teachers are receiving iPad carts for students to use this year. All of this means big changes in the focus of Computer Technology but I had been moving toward this since last year because I saw it coming. 
First, we all knew about state's shift towards Common Core which is required to get out from under No Child Left Behind. The features I like best about Common Core is how it requires students to be able to think about problems and seek solutions. This includes being able to seek information to help solve those problems. Anything that requires students to research information and then present the results of that research is always welcome to this Social Studies (yes, that's right) teacher. The other aspect of Common Core is how it encourages teachers to create cross-curricular projects. This is something I have wanted to do with Computer Technology from when it was created. So far I have had some great discussions with the academic teachers about how we can do joint projects and I am excited by their enthusiasm so far. There will be fits and starts but once the kinks are worked it out it will be a great experience for everyone involved. Another thing is that I have my students do research on effective presentations and cyber safety then present their findings. As I explain to them I could do a whole group lecture but it would not mean as much as to have them learn it then give a whole group lecture. 

Second, while our school is getting iPads, I was put on notice that the only iPad I will even get a sniff at is the one I bought recently and carry to work everyday. Students will not be allowed to bring the Apple tablets due to security and logistical concerns. The iPads will not be allowed to go home with the students. Hopefully, as the district gains experience and confidence this will change. For now it poses a problem for me. How do I teach students how to create technology projects using iPads when I only have PC's? Believe it or not this problem is actually simple: I teach students the basics of design. This means instead of teaching PowerPoint, I teach students how to design presentations that can be effective using PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Presentation or any other presentation application. The same goes with video, photos, audio, documents, etc.... I teach enough of any application for students to create that basic project. My students still want to throw everything into a project but the kitchen sink but I keep after them to keep things simple as I explain they will not have time to do this in their other classes. There is a lot of bad habits they have picked up over time and most of it done by teachers who do not know how to design presentations for an audience. As students are working on projects they are slowly getting the idea that products are for other people and not themselves which is an important step. My students will not have the iPads forever and they won't have them at home either. This means students should learn how to use the devices he or she has at home because that can be depended on throughout their days in school and beyond.

There are other minor changes that I have made that show promise and I may write about over the course of the year. It is safe to say that so far I am mostly pleased with the way things are going and I hope it stays that way. 

Solving a Mystery

On a recent trip to Orlando, Florida my wife and I decided to try out Sleuths Mystery Dinner Show. At Sleuths the guests try to figure out a mystery that was portrayed by a group of actors while dinning. The actors setup the mystery with a skit that introduces the characters and any relationships they have with a crime at the end of the skit (we had a murder). While we dined, the actors encouraged guests at each table to discuss the mystery and come up with a question to ask the suspects. After dinner, each group had a spokesperson ask the question the group came up with. While we ate desert we were supposed to write down who did the dastardly deed and the motive for the crime. Once the desert dishes were cleared, the actors revealed the murderer and asked who in the audience solved the crime. Those who fingered the criminal and the motive for the crime received a small prize.

As the night went on I thought this is how a flipped class should operate. The skit that setup the problem could be done with a video. The actors wanted the guests, randomly grouped by table, to engage in collaborative discussion about who may have committed the crime to come up with at least two questions (in case yours was asked by another group) to ask the suspects. Finally, a formative assessment was given when the actors wanted the guests to write down who did the crime and, more importantly, why he or she did it. In other words it was a critical thinking exercise to come up with a possible solution based on using available information and group discussion. To top it off we paid $55.95 plus tax (take off $6.00 with coupon) per person for the experience. 

It was great fun that my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed. If you or someone you know wants to know how a flipped class with critical thinking exercises looks like and are headed to Orlando, Florida then I urge you to spend an evening at Sleuths Mystery Dinner Shows. Not going to Orlando? The actors did tell us they take their act on the road too.

Why Do We Do It?

 

Last week was the Beaufort County School District's Summer Institute. This our school district way to bring the conference experience to teachers every year and save money as teachers get some great professional development. The theme for this year's institute revolves around the 4 C's of 21st century learning. This concept comes from the Partnership of 21st Century Skills, a national group whose goal is to prepare our students for the 21st Century world by fusing the "3 R's" with the "4 C's." The 4 C's identified are:

-Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
-Communication
-Collaboration
-Creativity and Innovation

It should be clear these elements will make students stand out from tasks that can be routinely done by machines. Add Common Core standards (another two C's) and we will have students that can tackle any future problem they will encounter. Since we have no clue what will be required in the future as far as careers are concerned it is safe to say there will be many problems. All of the sessions at the Summer Institute touched on all of these themes including my session on the Flipped Classroom.

While I did the Flipped Classroom in Greenville earlier this summer, I was given more time in Beaufort to actually work with teachers and let them experiment. After defining what the Flipped Classroom was and its possible benefits followed by a question and answer session, participants grouped by subject area created lessons and video them using the Paper Slide method I learned in Greenville. Later, each participant went on to create their own flipped lesson. I was struck by the fact that almost all of them worked together to share information and techniques even though it was an individual activity. The 4 C's in action and everyone learned something.

One of the great things I really like about conferences is the chance to see friends I have made at such conferences over the years and the conversations we have. Probably because we know we don't have much time we get down to business discussing educational issues. One such discussion was about the Flipped Classroom that I advocate. One friend said he could not grasp the flipped concept and pressed me hard on its merits because he felt it would eventually take away jobs from teachers. My friend later apologized for, in his perspective, upsetting me. There was no apology needed because my looks were actually me thinking about his questions and trying to formulate intelligent answers. If if my friend annoyed or upset me I should not take it personally. It is these type of questions that educators should always be asking each other because if we cannot adequately defend our classroom techniques then why are we doing them and even worse trying to get others to do them too. Too often we fail to ask the hard questions to each other out of fear of upsetting other friends and colleagues. If we wish to raise our standards and incorporate the 4C's in teaching students then we should be willing to use them amongst ourselves. If not then why are we doing it?

Lessons Lessons Learned

Soon I will be putting the wraps on another school year and my first experimentation with the flipped classroom. For those who are not familiar with the flipped classroom, it is a teaching style where the teacher records lectures for students to view or listen to at home instead of in the class while the students would do their "homework" or other assignments normally given to do outside of the classroom. In other words, the class is flipped. My experimentation is a hybrid of the true flipped classroom style. My lectures and demonstrations were recorded and made available to students but most of the viewing was expected to be done in class as well. My reasoning was for students to attempt to view what they needed to do then attempt to do the task themselves. This would free me to work with students who continued having problems with an assignment. After trying this with four classes over the last year I must say it was somewhat successful but I did learn some things along the way.

Lesson number one is that students need to be taught how to watch a demonstration video. One of the reasons I went to my flipped style class was based on how students performed after watching me do demonstrations in the past. Usually, it was like I did not do a demonstration at all. I would still have to go over the task about 30 times because students only saw the demo once and rarely bothered to take notes. When I told students to watch the video I created, they would watch the video all the way through and not stop to attempt the steps as the video progressed. Then they would look up and say they did not get it. Once I showed them they could stop the video at any point and rewind when necessary did the videos become more effective.

Lesson number two is that it is hard to break years of conditioning. This did not really surprise me because I have done other things in my class that runs counter to what students have done in other classes. Still students would sit at their seats and wait for me to do some kind of lecture even when I told them their assignments and resources are on Edmodo. This usually took a few days for students to get used to.

Lesson number three is the grades will be horrible at the beginning. As I implied in lessons one and two, students need a period of adjustment. They will keep trying to do things they are used to without success and get frustrated. Administrators and parents will want to know what you are doing by suddenly becoming the hardest class to pass in the school. Hold your ground because it is almost like a light switch turning on when students finally figure it out. The grades will shoot up like a rocket. Most parents who meet with me to put my head on a platter usually look at their child and say "I wish I had this when I was in school" after I demonstrate how the videos work.

Lesson 4 is to have your gradebook with you as move around the class. The grades will quickly let you know who needs the extra help and who does not. I carry around an iPad that is connected to my computer via Splashtop. This allows me to see grades at an instant to determine who needs help. Also, it allows me to enter grades immediately when a student shows me a successfully completed assignment which save a lot of time come grade report time.

Lesson 5 is to hold the students accountable. Many times a student will tell me he or she does not understand what to do. The first question I ask is if the student watched the video. The answer is usually no because students who watch the video usually have a more direct question about a certain step. In the past some students did have a legitimate complaint because the videos did not work due to technical problems but I would quickly work to fix the technical problems. If students are not working quickly enough then I make a call to parents to offer my after school services to give extra help. While that cures most problems, there are students who are in legitimate need.

Here is a lesson I learned from another teacher who is doing it with her class: make sure to upload the lecture video as soon after school as you can. I heard one parent complain that a video lesson to be viewed at home was not uploaded in a decent hour. The problem was technical but you should be mindful of parents who want to download the videos so their children can watch it. Also, there are those high-maintenance parents who can never be satisfied.

Now that one year of using a flipped classroom is almost in the books I will be looking and reflecting on what happened. There will be videos that will need updating as tools change. Also, I will look at lessons that need videos if no other reason than to show what a successful product looks like. Over the summer I will be sharing my experiences with teachers from one end of South Carolina to another and help them create their own flipped classroom lessons. Then I will be looking forward to doing it again next year.

SC to Wavier Bye-bye to NCLB?

I just returned from a meeting held by the South Carolina Department of Education seeking public feedback on a flexibility wavier request from requirements under the Education and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) otherwise known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). When it looked like many states would not meet the Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements that 100% of students meet educational goals because this is not a realistic number, the United States Department of Education allowed individual states to apply for waivers to seek relief from the punitive repercussions of not meeting upcoming AYP goals. It was stated by SCDOE presenters that this wavier request is not a permanent solution to NCLB problems, just temporary relief. Once the current version of ESEA, already about four years overdue, is revised and unauthorized by Congress and signed by the President (whoever that will be). The waivers need to meet conditions under four principles outlined by the USDOE for a wavier to be considered. Those principles are:

1. College and Career Ready Expectations for All Students
2. State-Developed Differentiated Recognition, Accountability, and Support
3. Supporting Effective Instruction and Leadership
4. Reducing Duplication and Unnecessary Burden

Here are my thoughts about what I saw tonight.

• Principle 1 College and Career Ready Expectations for All Students The biggest reason we educate our students is to prepare them to, hopefully, become productive members of society. This means students need to be ready to enter college, the work, or (I am adding) the military. This includes English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) or similar type students. South Carolina will also be adopting the Common Core Standards in English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics. As with NCLB all students will be assessed yearly that may or may not be an adaptive test. The current PASS test given to students in grades 3-8 will have to change because they mainly measure what students have memorized. Common Core Standards are mainly geared around critical thinking and problem solving which PASS does not assess. All of this sounds good so far.
• Principle 2 State-Developed Differentiated Recognition, Accountability, and Support I am not going to go through all of the details but this is the meat of the wavier. Schools will be measured on student growth. The problem is that the growth is measured from year to year based on a annual assessment like PASS testing. I would rather see growth be measured from a pre assessment to post assessment. I thought it was funny when the SCDOE officials said they did not want to overburden students with assessments. Guess they have not heard our students are given Measure of Academic Progress assessments three times a year. Schools will be given a "report card" based on the following criteria for high schools: ELA Proficiency, Math Proficiency, Biology Proficiency, History Proficiency, ELA % Tested, Math % Tested, and graduation rate. For grades 3-8 it will be ELA Proficiency, Math Proficiency, Science Proficiency, Social Studies Proficiency, ELA% Tested, and Math% Tested. The normal subgroups are broken down with the addition of gender. To make AYP schools must have 90% in all categories. Schools that do not meet AYP may allow children to transfer to higher performing districts and must give other academic support to those students who do not make the growth cut. Schools that do not make AYP will be labeled either Focus or Priority schools depending on how much growth is needed. No school will be listed as failing. The biggest problem I have with this is what stake do students have in this testing? What is their incentive to do well? School pride? I think not.
• Principle 3 Supporting Effective Instruction and Leadership Probably the biggest thing I saw is that ADEPT will be five ADEPT Performance Standards and 19 Indicators. This is down from the four Domains, 10 APS's, and 34 Indicators. After that things get rather fuzzy. Since ADEPT will be streamlined are all teachers going to go through this evaluation process every year? Teachers will also be measured on the growth of their students as well. Nothing was said about how this will be used but it needs to be addressed. Will this become the tool to weed out the "bad teachers" whose students do not do well on the tests?
• Principle 4 Reducing Duplication and Unnecessary Burden Anything to make our lives better and easier I am all for!

The attempt by South Carolina to seek the ESEA flexibility waivers are commendable. If we must test then showing student growth is better than attempting to make some arbitrary line drawn. It also looks like there are attempts to ease the burdens of teachers which is a good sign. However, some of the glaring holes that are in NCLB are still there in this growth model but those are the federal government's making and not South Carolina's. This includes no student incentive to do well on these tests and taking into account the family situation a student comes from. One day we may have the technology to do ongoing assessments of students over the course of a year that gives a teacher the immediate feedback to help a child do their best academically. Also, we may have the tools to deal with all factors a child must go through when he or she enters the school everyday. For now, as my principal always tells us, we are being sent the best children each family has so we must do our best to cherish and see to their academic growth as best we possibly can.

Goodbye 2011 and Hello 2012

Another calendar year has come and gone. Of course teachers generally go by the school year calendar which usually ends in May or June but everyone else looks at the past year and what to expect in the upcoming one. Here are some of the highlights of 2011:

I survived my first year as a middle school teacher. This was something I thought I could never do because I know myself enough or thought I knew myself to believe me teaching in a middle school would be a bad idea. Of course I could not have achieved this without the support of the administrators, faculty, and staff of Bluffton Middle School. This is surprising because those who taught at the previous school where I served as a technology coach sometimes thought of me as a dangerous mutant alien influence that needed to be destroyed. I guess now that I proved I knew my way around a classroom I was not so dangerous after all. Of course there could be a sign somewhere near my lab that says "Dangerous Contaminate, Do Not Open."

Computer Technology 6 and 7 are off and running! I was able to make some adjustments to the Computer Technology 6 Program with the other Computer Tech teacher that made the experience much better for students and teachers. Computer Technology 7 was created with some radical new ideas such as a modified version of the Flipped Classroom. Despite a rocky start, the class took off and i believe most students are actually enjoying the experience. The class proved to be a disruption that students needed and with some tweaks it will be a great success.

Winning a Second TIPS Award. I have met many people who have only won one of these awards given by the South Carolina Association of Education Technology but I don't recall meeting many mulitple winners of this prestigious award. I was excited and humbled to hear that Computer Technology 6 won the 2011 award.

Learning to work with Tablets in my classroom. I purchased an Android tablet this past July and finally got to work with it along with the iPad our school received in my classroom. The experience has been great because it lightened my workload and allowed me to share things with students one-on-one or small groups. Also, it has been a liberating experience to break free from the front of my classroom and move around the students. If you have a tablet then invest in Splashtop and other apps and start using it in your classroom.

Now it is time to look ahead at what to expect in 2012.

Integrating what I learned in my years in technology as I plan my return to Social Studies. While I love technology and have learned how to use it in the classroom, my true passion is teaching History, Government, and Economics. This is why I got into education to begin with. While I enjoy working with the students, faculty, staff, and administration of my present school, outside circumstances have made it necessary to explore making a change to another teaching position.

Finish the coursework needed to become Gifted and Talented qualified.

Start working on a doctorate. I have put this off long enough plus I believe there will be major changes in education in the near future. These changes will require professionals who are knowledgeable in technology, learning research, and 21st Century skills to help lead schools in this change. This will be an exciting time and I want to be in at the ground floor.

If you want more about innovations in 2011 you can read this article from Good and this collection of articles from the The Next Web.

Happy New Year to all of you and I hope 2012 brings you good health and prosperity. 

Check your sources!

The other night I was settling in for a too short of a late summer nap when my son turns the light on and jumps onto my bed. Now he wanted my help with his upcoming U.S. History vocabulary quiz the next day. He told me about the quiz earlier in the evening and I asked him what era of U.S. History he was studying. He told me he thought it was the colonial era and the Constitution, a rather vague but normal answer from a 16-year old. I offered then to help him with his vocabulary since I was a history teacher once upon a time. He declined my offer because he wanted to do it himself. Another normal answer from my son but this trait comes from my side of his DNA pool. Getting back to the story, he asks me about various terms such as Shay's Rebellion, compromise (I am glad he did not ask Members of Congress about this one), Virginia and New Jersey Plans, and other terms about the time the United States Constitution was written and ratified (another one of the terms). I helped him as best I could then he threw his notebook at me and asked me to go over the terms with him. 

As I looked over his work I noticed what he had written was not quite right but not really wrong either. The problem was his definitions did not fit the context of U.S. History. I asked him where he got his definitions from. My son replied, "Dictionary.com." Huh?! No wonder things looked disjointed. I told my son that while Dictionary.com could define words, he needs to find a history site that would give him the definitions he needed for class. In the past I had students turn-in such work and I gave partial credit because the work did not encompass the historical topic we were studying. However, in those days, students who had Internet access was not very common.

This past Friday night I saw my son's U.S. History teacher, an old friend from when we taught together, and relayed the story about the study session with him. His hope was that the students were using their textbooks. News flash for all of you who think students really use textbooks at home or involved in the argument about virtual textbooks! Students stopped using textbooks at home years ago. The things are too heavy, get destroyed by rain at sports practices (who uses lockers), and too big a pain to use for students to use. Guess where they go? That's right, the Internet. You probably could tap into the browser histories of some of your better students and you would have your online textbook ready to go. However, there are students like my son who will make an honest effort but often go to the wrong website for information. I told my friend he might want to find a history website that would have the information he wanted and share that with his classes. This is something we all should probably do. It occured to me that students are now driving the innovations with our input or without it. Which way would you want it?

Thoughts Going Into the 2011-2012 School Year

As I get ready for the 2011-2012 school year here are some thoughts I have bouncing around my head.

Computer Technology 7: This is the course I really worked hard on since, in all honesty, last January. I have notes scribbled across three or four Livescribe notebooks, four notebooks in Evernote, one Livebinder site, and one blog post on this website. It was written across three states over the summer. I consulted PhD holders, Media Specialists, administrators, and people working in the technology field. Probably put my job in jeopardy by begging, pleading, arguing, debating, and discussing the course's needs with district Instructional Technology gurus. The only thing I have not done yet is threaten anyone’s life but the year is still young.

There are still some last-minute compromises left to do with the other Computer Technology teacher and it should be ready to go. I can tell you how it will look. The course is building off what students learned in Computer Technology 6 which was how to create basic digital text, audio, and video media. Now the seventh grade students will need to take these lessons and apply them to a variety of tasks designed to share their knowledge of cybersafety. For example, a student may research the topic of cyberbullying to create a presentation in Prezi. Once the presentation is create, he or she will do a screencast giving the presentation which will be uploaded to the student's Livebinder page.

After all the media options are done then the students will be introduced to computer programming using Scratch. I already have the ebook, Shall We Learn Scratch, by Jessica Chiang loaded on Edmodo for the students to read. This is the first time I have worked with an ebook with students and I am looking forward to the experience. The things I will closely watch is how well students like using an ebook and if any of them download the book onto an iPad, Nook, Kindle, or other device. Students will work through the problems in the book to get comfortable with writing programs. Then the students will create their own original program. If there is time, they may even write apps for Andriod and iOS devices.

While I have tried to foresee every possible problem, there are still about a million things that can go wrong with this course. Also, would someone please let me know where I can get a job that allows me to be a whinny, spoiled, overpaid teacher who only does this to get the summers off. I worked my tail off to create this course and did not receive one penny for the effort. Still, it had to be done if I wanted to make sure my students have a great experience.

Apps and gadgets I can't wait to use: This year I really want to test how mobile devices can work in a classroom setting (one of the things that can blowup in my face). I am going to set Edmodo to send me a text message whenever a student has a question. This would allow me to help students in turn, force the students to send proper messages, and inspire the students to use a social network as a collaborative tool. Students will be told to ask questions on Edmodo while they are working. I will encourage the class to post an answer to the question if anyone knows the answer. If a question is answered correctly before I get to the student who asked the question, the better off students will be. I plan on making use of my new tablet as well. One thing is to determine if a tablet will be good enough for a student to complete most of his or her assignments. I wrote about Socrative earlier but I am really can't wait to try this out with my students. This app is a web-based Student Response System and is much cheaper than makers of the so-called "clickers" that Promethean, Smart, CPS, and other vendors make. Apps can be downloaded to iOS or Android devices and works pretty good. Once an assessment is completed, the teacher will receive a spreadsheet report by email. I plan on giving Edublogs another chance this year. When I received emails saying no emails would be needed and there was no more advertising it made me one happy camper. While Kidblog is a great blogging app, the way it requires teachers to administer the blogs got to be a chore. Also, it was easy to accidentally delete an entire class's blogs. I still think Kidblog is a good blogging tool but probably more for elementary or some middle school teachers who may take care of only one blog per class or really does not care about creating tools students can use as they move from grade to grade. Finally, I hope I can get all of my team on Google+. The ability to communicate with each other using this platform has lots of potential. Also, if Hangout works, if a teacher is missing a meeting  or needs to talk face-to-face it can be done relatively easy.

Renewed focus on reading and writing in United States History and Social Studies in general: Last year I heard, to my dismay, that some high schools were telling history teachers to stop writing and only focus on preparing for the End of Course exam. This troubled me because I knew that this approach would not prepare students for college and the worship of test scores had gone out of control. This year reading and writing are put back into the curriculum. Teachers will be expected to have their students read primary sources, answer document-based questions, and write essays. Theodore Roosevelt and I say "Bully!"

Working with the adults: I am really excited to hear about the number of teachers who are willing to give Edmodo a chance when they realize Computer Technology would continue to use it. There are more teachers in my school willing to use technology and they would like something to help make the task easier. Attempting to use the school's network and website for communications, collaboration, and exchanging assignments is not getting the job done. Plus they like the fact that most of the students already have accounts and are trained on how to use it. Another thing I would like to do is gather a group of teachers who are willing and attempt to take charge of our own professional development. Two things I would love to work with a group on is creating and delivering better presentations. Another learning opportunity I would love to do is start looking more at brain research and how we as teachers can use it to help our students. One of the things I learned over the summer is that countries that outperform the United States had true professional teachers who were expected to research or get training the latest techniques then share them with the rest of the faculty. I wonder how many teachers will want to give this a try too.

Alright, here are my main thoughts as we start the 2011-2012 school year. It will be interesting to see how things progress over the course of the year. To all of you who will soon have young faces staring up at you as school starts I hope you have a great school year.

Kindergarten Cop 2011-2012

Today I watched Kindergarten Cop (1990) for probably the million-sixth time. After watching this movie I wondered what would happen if the movie took place in the upcoming 2011-2012 school year? The movie has a tough cop, played by former California Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger, going under cover as a kindergarten teacher to find the ex-wife of a ruthless drug dealer and enlist her aid in putting the scumbag away. Needless to say, the kids gain the upper hand on Schwarzenegger who thought the job would be easy. Unable to quit and loose the bad guy, the cop decides, in modified Schwarzenegger fashion, to get tough and kick some kindergarten tail. Some rather unorthodox measures brings the kids in line and they soon love Schwarzenegger's character as he begins to have a soft spot for the kids as well. The kids learn about discipline, physical fitness (a Schwarzenegger pet cause), and what to do if a stranger approaches. These are lessons the kids need for the inevitable confrontation with the bad guys. The experience changes the cop who decides to trade-in his gun and badge and return to the classroom permanently. Nice heartwarming and inspiring movie, especially for teachers right? Let's see, how long would Schwarzenegger's character last today? He would not even get inside the door and if he did he would be in jail and definitely not offered a contract. He is why:

No school principal would let him in the classroom. The cop had no certification and no experience teaching and the principal was going to let him in a kindergarten classroom to try to catch a drug dealer? I don't think so. Granted, another cop with teaching credentials and experience was supposed do the job but she got sick so Schwarzenegger's character had to step in. Possibly, the cop could have posed as a janitor or hall monitor but not a classroom teacher.

Now I don't profess how the police would actually do an undercover operation in a school but let's say he gets in with the kids. Now what? It seems the kids are not covering the material prescribed by state standards. The kids are too busy learning discipline, physical fitness, stranger danger, getting questioned about their parents, how to evacuate the building for a fire drill, and the Gettysburg Address. Where was the reading, math, and other subjects that the students will be tested on at the end of the year. My goodness! The students were not even taught test-taking strategies! How will the school make AYP? Needless to say, Schwarzenegger's character would not be offered a contract for the next school year and the principal would probably be out the door too. Come to think of it, the actress who played the principal (Linda Hunt) is now the federal agent in charge of the Los Angeles branch of NCIS.

What about the abused boy? Schwarzenegger's character really gave to that father didn't he? Actually, the cop would have gone to jail for assaulting the father. Also, the cop would have been kicked out of school for subjecting the school district to a lawsuit. Of course it would have been just one of the several lawsuits filed over having an unqualified cop in the classroom in the first place that exposed the children to danger. The cop would also be in trouble for not reporting the suspected abuse when he first heard about it which actually is a good thing.

Finally, what about the ferret? We can't have him in the class because the district's risk management specialist says it is a potential liability. Personally I am not against class pets because I used to have a hamster named Jeb Stuart running around my room and my high school students loved it. Alas, word came down from district and all the pets had to go. Perhaps Schwarzenegger's character can find out what the teacher on the Target commercial did with her hamsters, Lewis and Clark.

While Kindergarten Cop makes for an entertaining movie, it is unrealistic in terms of actual education. It does show even a tough cop can just walk in and become a teacher just like that. Since the movie came out in 1990 which predates NCLB, we can't gig it on high-stakes testing. Yet, there is plenty that exposes the movie as an over simplification of teaching which continue with this summer's  Bad Teacher. Again it is supposed to entertainment isn't it?

Please let know if I missed any other scenes.

Let the Gamification Begin

photo © 2009 Erin! Nekervis | more info (via: Wylio)
A few years and a few less pounds ago I belonged to a gym that had, what I thought, was a brilliant way to get people motivated to come to the gym and exercise more. The gym sponsored contests which had members do various tasks in the gym for some kind of reward. One example had members keep track of the number of minutes they exercised. Once a member reached a required number of minutes they were given a t-shirt. Another contest tracked the number of miles a member walked, ran, elipitaclled (okay, I made this word up), or biked. The member was given a toy car he or she moved from Bluffton to some destination with those arriving alive also receiving a t-shirt. Along with myself, many other members killed themselves in that gym not to get fit and healthy but to get the blasted t-shirt. Those shirts became badges of pride by those who put forth the blood, sweat, and tears required to get the reward. Instead of becoming fit, what happened is gym members were motivated by receiving the t-shirt reward. The term for this is gamification which is defined as "the use of game play mechanics for non-game applications". Gamification is being used more in the tech world as a way to attract people to websites to achieve multiple hits on the page. This is usually done as a marketing tool or a way to attract "eyeballs" to advertisements to a site.

I got to wondering if gamification would work for education on a large scale. The economist in me says that people do respond to incentives. Instead of grades, students who achieved certain levels of mastery or proficiency would earn rewards which would be tracked. Achieve mastery in all the levels of a unit then a larger reward is given. Achieve mastery in a number of levels of unit mastery then receives a larger reward. I have seen teachers do something similar with something as simple as candy (much to the chargrin of teachers who later greet students hyped up on sugar). Our school is trying disciplinary measures which students collect points or signatures based on behaviors such as doing classwork, meeting dress code, and behaving in class. Those students who receive the required number of points or signatures are eligible for priviliges, participation in special activities, allowed to go on field trips, etc....There are also negative rewards such as demerits which punishes those who score too high on total board. In the movie Freakonomics, at risk students at a Chicago area high school were paid for good grades each quarter with a bonus given to a student who won a lottery at the end of the school year. Unfortunately, grades did not go up overall but was there too much time between pay days? I wonder what would happen if students were paid every week or every other week?

Would students, conditioned to working toward a goal by demonstrating prior knowledge or performing learned tasks to get an instant reward when they play their video games, do the same if given similar instant rewards for learning in school? I have heard this argued at conferences and in blogs or articles. However, many students have told me school for them is boring because they are forced to sit down, be still, listen to someone attempt to give them knowledge that has no practical meaning for them because it will help them in some distant future they (and we) cannot comprehend. Given this uncertain outlook, is it any wonder students are not motivated? Perhaps educators should add gamification with its quick and relevant rewards for success to help motivate students to achieve more in the classroom. Why not get the local movie theater to give movie passes or a local restaurant give free meals to students who beat their targeted goals on Measures of Academic Performance or other test predictor assessments?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject.

Kirk schools Khan

Something I always wanted to do is teach a lesson on a new concept to students via video while I had to be away from school. I wanted to see how well this could work in delivering instruction and avoid giving make-work to students to keep them occupied. While creating how-to videos are nothing new to me, I had usually given instruction and used the videos as a supplement for teachers and students to use for review if I was not available for questions. However, I have never created a video that would replace me as an instructor. There were some questions about this always running through my mind. Would students totally understand it? Would they be totally lost? Would I do such a good job that I might actually produce my way out of a job?

The perfect opportunity to test my theory came last week when I had to miss two classes. I needed to teach a lesson on blogging I could no longer put off. Again, I did not want to create another make-work assignment of having students read a cybersafety or technology article online then answer some questions in Edmodo or the technological worksheet. I started putting together my video plan two days before I was to be absent. First, I wanted to outline what needed to be taught which turned into six individual lessons. Next, I used Jing to get the screen shots and screen captures of the blogging tool we were going to use. To create the edited video I used Microsoft Live Movie Maker (educator's guide)because I was doing this at school and I needed the practice since I was teaching it later. Finally, I created the blogging assignment the students would do while working with the videos and uploaded it all to Edmodo. I was amazed Edmodo was able to digest a blogging assignment, six video lessons, and a link to Kidblog.org. Later these videos were uploaded to YouTube so students could access them from home easily. When the day came, fortune smiled on me because the substitute who took my classes was a retired teacher I had worked with in the pass and greatly respected for her professionalism. I could have no better person to try this stunt with because she would keep the students on task.

Today was the first day back with the students I used with my little video experiment. I posted a poll in Edmodo to see what they thought of the video experience. The question was "How well did the video lessons on blogging work for you when I was out?" Forty-two students responded to my poll. 30.95% of the respondents said they "Understood everything about blogging now. 40.48% said they understood some of what the videos showed but still needed me to answer some questions. 14.29% said they still wanted me to teach them in class but the videos could be helpful later if they got stuck on something. Another 14.29% said the videos were not helpful at all and they needed the teacher to teach them. What I gathered from this small, unscientific sampling is while video instruction can be helpful but a teacher is still needed to guide and help the students totally understand a lesson.

Teachers can easily create their own lessons using screen shots, screen capture, Livescribe pencasts, and other recording methods. The biggest investment is the time it takes to create these lessons. Also, as one teacher friend who I helped in a similar project said, "It is disconcerting to be teaching to an empty classroom." He could never do a recording when students were around because he had to edit out so much. The Khan Academy and it's wealth of videos on a variety of math, science, economic, and other subject areas is another great resource. While there are some misguided people who think videotaping "great" teachers teaching and showing them to all students will help solve education's problems, it will be the best teachers who will use videos as one more tool in their toolbox of learning to reach all students.

SCETV is more than ferrets

photo © 2006 Sarah Marriage | more info (via: Wylio)
This past week I had the pleasure to give two presentations at the South Carolina Educational Television Spring Teacher Technology Workshop.  Teachers from across the Palmetto State come to Columbia to learn technology skills that will help them grow as educators and look for new ways to improve classroom instruction. For many teachers these workshops are the only way they are able to get any technology training. Some districts are so focused on giving priority to training that will help get test scores up. Other districts have spent lots of money on technology but failed to budget enough money for training or had to cut that part budget to save money. You have to applaud these teachers for taking their own time to better themselves. Unfortunately, more budget cuts at the state and even federal levels may may eliminate these workshops and the other valuable educational related services provided by SCETV. These are the things the majority of South Carolinians do not see. Unfortunately, when many people (and legislators) look at SCETV they only see Barney, Big Bird, and ferrets.

Ferrets? Barney, yes even if many adults want to do evil things to that unfailingly cherry dinosaur. What adult has not grown up learning how to count and recognize letters by watching Sesame Street? But ferrets? Yes, ferrets. A recent Facebook discussion I was privy to started when someone criticized SCETV of wasting taxpayer money because of a show about ferrets. The discussion became somewhat heated as those for and against SCETV weighed in on the topic. Here is a newsflash, the ferret program was not paid for by taxpayers. It was paid for by donors and foundations which includes individuals who may only give maybe $20 or corporations who may give millions. What the taxpayers pay for, according to an SCETV brochure, includes the network’s infrastructure such as towers, transmitters, buildings, and employees to make it all work. What the brochure did not mention is the many other things SCETV does that is not seen on regularly scheduled television and radio programing. So I thought I would mention a few of the SCETV programs do to help schools and teachers besides the technology workshops that most people outside of education did not know existed.

Teacher training: While I have already mentioned the technology workshops SCETV puts on twice a year, SCETV has two trainers who crisscross the state giving workshops to schools and various educational conferences. The dynamic duo of Debbie Jarrett and Donna Thompson work tirelessly to show teachers how to use the tools SCETV provides teachers to make instruction more informative and enjoyable for students. Debbie and Donna not only talk about SCETV services they also teach teachers how to use technology tools such as Microsoft Movie Maker, Photostory, podcasting, and other media creation tools to create digital storytelling projects. They are so good at their job, in a legendary tale, they went into a training session and did not know it was about the new Movie Maker Live but did not miss a beat as they showed how to make it work. For a private trainer to come and do the same thing it would cost $200 per hour or more.

ETV Streamline: This has to be one of the best things for teachers by far. This site has thousands of hours of free programing for teachers to copy and use in the classroom. Lesson plans with assessments can be created using the site and the programing is broken into clips so time is not wasted watching parts of a program that is not relative to a lesson. Students can access these clips for viewing at home and take online assessments. In my opinion this is a very underutilized tool in a teacher’s toolbox. If private companies provided this service they would charge each school thousands of dollars for this content. Actually, they may not want any copying of video due to piracy concerns.

Media Share: This is part of Streamline that is so good it deserves its own mention. Teachers and students can create and share online any media they create for viewing only by other Streamline members. This provides security for students if they produce audio or video projects for school. Teachers can select who can see the media such as school, district, state, or national. This is a great resource for sharing great teaching ideas or developing training materials that are school or district specific. There is YouTube and it has great content but do we really want to send students looking around there?

KnowItAll: A web portal for K-12 students, teachers, and parents to search the Internet safely. This includes appropriate videos, games, curriculum, assessment tools, websites recommended by the South Carolina Department of Education and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. There are other web portals out there but to make money they collect Internet surfing data to sell to marketers or do outright advertising.

OneplaceSC.org: This SCETV site brings all of the SCETV Internet offerings for educators into one easy to remember place. All of the resources I mentioned above are only a click away and I only have to remember one website to visit. Definitely worth its weight in gold.

Discovery Educator Network: Here is a great example of public and private working together and depending on each other. DEN is a network of teachers who collaborate and share instructional ideas with each other about technology, media, and other practices used in the classroom. SCETV promotes its services and hosts events for DEN teachers to gather and share ideas face to face. There was such a meeting at the technology workshop where member teachers showed off their favorite technology gadgets, websites, or ideas in a fun “American Idol” type forum. I came away with some ideas to use in my class and items on my wish list. DEN also has the Star Educator program which is a network of teachers who conduct trainings at their school or district on using Streamline or other Discovery services. SCETV provides help and ideas to assist this special group of technology savvy teachers.

There are more services SCETV provides to educators and other groups as well such awareness of our natural resource but there is only so much time and space to list them all. If people would get past the ferrets and could see what SCETV does for the schools alone the taxpayers of South Carolina would see they are getting a bargain. Of course there is great programing on the channels too and it is not all about ferrets. Speaking of ferrets, I like ferrets and wished I had seen the program. My son had two ferrets and they provided our family many hours of entertainment as we watched them play around the house. Ferrets need love too and I am glad SCETV was there to provide it!

And the winner is?

There were four movies that stood out in my mind about education in 2010: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, The Social Network, True Grit, and The King's Speech. These movies had a common theme that did not jump out until I started thinking about them as a whole. In each of these movies the main characters were able to do extraordinary achievements without the traditional education, credentials, or certifications one would expect of such people. Is our media sending out a signal that education as we know it is no longer necessay? Let me explain.

True Grit: while Rooster Cogborn was a Federal Marshal, he did not have the benefit of law enforcement training. His skill came by experience and not all of it as a law abiding citizen. Marshal Cogburn could be forgiven since there was no such thing as law enforcement training just after the American Civil War. However, the character that impressed me was 15-year old Mattie Ross. This young lady, without a high school diploma much less a college degree, was able to skillfully negotiate business deals with more experienced adults and get what she wanted. Mattie probably would make Lawyer J. Noble Dagget squirm in a courtroom.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Harry, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley drop out of Hogwarts, believing the school could teach them nothing more about how to battle the evil Lord Voldermort. This would be like three 1940's teens dropping out of high school after their junior year to go fight Adolph Hitler and the Nazis on their own during World War II. Of course they had excellent role models in Fred and George Weasley who committed the greatest school prank in education history as they dropped out of Hogwarts to go into business in Diagon Alley.

The Social Network: most people now know Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard to work on making Facebook the most popular social network in the Internet. There were two other characters in the movie who did not have the benefit of a college degree and did rather well. One was Bill Gates, another Harvard dropout who went on to build Microsoft into a dominate software company. The other character was Sean Parker who did not even darken the doors of a college (unless to party) but changed the music industry forever by creating Napster.

Finally, The King's Speech: Lionel Logue was able to help King George VI's stuttering problem after other experts had failed. The problem was Logue was not an accredited speech therapist, a fact the King's advisors pointed out as they pressured the new king to drop Logue for "expert" speech therapists. Logue was an actor who got his start using acting techniques to help World War I veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (then known as Shell Shock) speak again. No formal training, just techniques that worked from experience. It was those techniques that helped King George VI give a speech that rallied the British Empire during the dark days of World War II.

Much has been said that there needs to be a fundamental shift in education, especially given the current economic conditions. I have heard the students who learn how to master the art of learning as they create new ideas will be the most successful in the future. It will be this type of student who will be able to work in the as yet unknown career fields traditional schools cannot foresee much less prepare for. There is so much knowledge available for free that, some say, colleges are not necessary. With movies like True Grit, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Social Network, and The King's Speech is it possible that our media is preparing people for a change or is it reflecting changes already occurring?

Superman Doesn't Help Bullies

photo © 2010 Wesley Fryer | more info (via: Wylio)
Recently our local theater screened Waiting for Superman and enticed local educators to see it with a discount. I got my ticket, tasteless overpriced popcorn, overpriced drink and settled in to see what the hype was about. Well, I had to get back up to go complain about the volume before I could relax and watch but not necessarily enjoy the movie.

I watched how the filmmakers followed five students along with their parents wanted to go to various charter schools because for one reason or another their local school was a "Failure Factory." The problem each family had was there was not enough room in the selected schools. To solve this problem the schools held a lottery to determine who entered the next school year and who did not. The film went on to highlight problems in education. Most of the problems I agreed with such as the failure of No Child Left Behind, too much bureaucracy taking away money from classrooms, and maybe teacher unions possibly stifling innovation. The idea of charter schools sounds like a good one when run properly.

What I did not care for was the constant bashing or indifference the filmmakers gave the teaching profession as a whole. Yes, they constantly said most teachers were doing a great job but that was before showing teachers doing acts of incompetence over and over again. Usually this was being done in league with unions who were portrayed as bastions of the status quo. What audiences did not see were students who want to be disruptive. Even better, these students have no stable home life to speak of or their parents excuse away their child's behavior instead of dealing with it. Audiences also did not see parents who try to bully teachers into giving their child a grade that was not earned instead of listening to why the child may have got the grade to begin with. Audiences did not see how bureaucratic procedures in the name of improving education actually take time away from helping children. Audiences may have seen bad teachers playing cards or reading a newspaper in a special room waiting on a disciplinary hearing but did not see teachers working at home into the night grading papers or preparing lesson plans with no overtime pay. Speaking of pay, I did not see one teacher in the movie use his or her own money to pay for classroom supplies because the school cannot provide them. Finally, in the movie each lottery showed hundreds, maybe around a thousand at the most hoping for a seat in a charter school lottery. It would have been more telling if there were thousands of families trying to get those few seats for the upcoming school year.

All throughout the movie other audience members were reacting at times the filmmakers wanted an emotional response. Usually it was when teachers were made to look bad or the poor children who only want to learn were denied that opportunity because of some incompetence or indifference. I wanted to scream "They are not telling the whole story!"  Author P.J. O'Rourke observed in his book "Parliament of Whores" that the drug problem in this country could end tomorrow but there is a lack of will in our society to take the steps necessary. I believe the same observation is true in education. Until our society gets serious about education reform things will continue as they have been. A professor in my teacher training told us that education is like a big, fat dinosaur. You can push in certain areas and only the fat will move a little but the whole dinosaur will not move an inch. Only when everyone is pushing together will things change. That means everyone needs to understand the problem as a whole. When that happens we won't need Superman.

photo © 2007 Gareth Simpson | more info (via: Wylio)

Where it all began

Worried about being late, I screeched to a halt in an illegal parking spot at Spartanburg High School. I hurriedly grabbed my stuff I wanted to take and met my friends at the front of the school. Sounds like my old high school days? We won't talk about the distant past but this was today. Members of the Spartanburg High School Class of 1980 gathered to take a tour of our old school and see how things have changed over the years. Our tour guides, members of the student council who graciously gave up some of their weekend time to be with us greeted us at the front. One asked if Mr. John Woodring was in the crowd. Wow! Maybe my famous blogging preceded me and I am getting special VIP treatment?The young man took me to a room and told me the principal instructed him to take me here. When the young man rushed out I realized I was in the In School Suspension room. A note on the board said this is for that little classroom disturbance you caused in chemistry during your senior year, have fun! It was signed by the principal. I guess some things never change!

As we went through the school we marveled at the changes, reminisced about the past, and told old war stories (some of which the tour guides should not have heard). One thing I eventually heard was about how something that might have done in school that seemed insignificant back then turned out to define our lives. One woman who became a nurse talked about the chemistry teacher who helped her when she struggled in the course. Another man who was a true math and science geek now writes embedded software for satellites. It was at Spartanburg High School where I took a course to escape math, computer programing. This was where I first touched the technology that helps bring food on the table in Casa Woodring. 

The teacher was Josephine Earls and the computer was an IBM 5100. The first thing she told the class was computers were stupid and humans had to tell the machine how to do everything. This is something I tell students today. We learned how to program in Basic to make the computer do all kinds of tasks. Some of my classmates and I would hang out in Ms. Earls office, where she kept the computer, to program then play all kinds of games. We had lots of fun during those countless hours. There are more computers at Spartanburg High School  with far more power than that little IBM machine. Then again, looking at how some of the young users in 1980 turned out, maybe we are underestimating that little computer's power.

I am sure Spartanburg High is struggling through all of the problems schools across the United States are facing. It was surprising to find that not all of the classrooms have interactive whiteboards. There are not enough computers to satisfy everyone. Test scores, district initiatives, and other things that take up teachers' time are also discussed in faculty lounges and workrooms. Hopefully, those teachers should take a moment and realize that what they do does make a difference. 

Here's to the Spartanburg High School Class of 1980! Proud members of the best class of the best high school in the world! Go Vikings!

Note to the Spartanburg High School Principal: If you noticed the pep rally area has been repainted blue and gold with a Viking head and Class of 1980 Rules! We have no knowledge of how it happened. We were all together at the Marriott talking over old times. That's our story and we are sticking to it.

Social Chaos

The first five days of class have come and gone and I am already behind the schedule I created for myself. Thankfully, I was able to give the students their network accounts so I would not have to log 30 computers in everyday. The next task was to setup the students with their Edmodo accounts. Once this was accomplished chaos ensued. All kinds of personal messages started flying all over the site. One student complained he could not send his friend a message after being told students could not send messages to other individual students. When one student did the 21st Century version of dipping a girl's pigtails into an inkwell by calling her names on the site I knew something had to be done.

I quickly imposed a no personal message rule. Edmodo is to only be used for class business only. The reason I gave was I wanted students to learn to think about what they were about to post and whether it would get them into trouble. Some students thought I was joking and kept posting. This started the rounds of parent phone calls that went out after school for a couple of days. The way students acted online got me to thinking about how those who are allowed to have a Facebook or other social network account have been behaving online until now. For some students this was their introduction to social networking. I have concluded teachers need to engage students in a social network such as Edmodo to help teach students to look at whether to post what is on the screen. 

While this idea of students and teachers networking might frighten some and run counter to what I have said in the past. However, students need to learn how to act in a closed environment that sites like Edmodo or Schoology can provide. The good news is almost all of my students love using Edmodo. What are your thoughts? Have I gone overboard about the messages or should I continue to keep the messages out of our site? Should it be up to schools to train students how to act on social networks? I would be interested to hear what you have to say.

Expectations for Students

Here is a video I shot to give a brief overview of what to expect during this semester in the Computer Tech course.