Question of the Day?

“What does it mean to be well educated in the 21st century?” -David Jakes

NYSCATE Quick Hitters

This year's NYSCATE Conference was a great experience. There was a great blend of 'tool' sessions and Educon-like conversation sessions. My bucket is completely full, so here's a list of some important notes, quotes, opinions (if they are worth anything), and tidbits from the 3 day barrage. Expect more elaboration after I wrap my head around the following ideas.

• Chris Lehmann, David Jakes, and Sir Ken Robinson (among many others) are equal parts depressing and inspiring. They paint a clear picture of where 'we' (you decide who we refers to) are in education in America. They also make it clear that there is hope and plenty of opportunity for change. 'We' just need to make that happen.

• Jim Klein gets it. He does some really interesting things. How would you feel about letting kids Tweet out during a test when they come to a question that they need help on? Don't we do that in the real world? If you're not sure how to do something you ask, right? Not in schools though. I know this seems to be a far out idea but he suggested, and I paraphrase, "Start simple and gradually expand your reach." Words to live by.

• Here's a quote from Sylvia Martinez to think about: "If you can Google it, it shouldn't be on a test." Thoughts?

• Everyone needs to have the 21st century skills discussion with their colleagues. Kind of feels like the birds and the bees conversations I had with my dad.

• Old texts and ideas are relevant: Abe Lincoln was quoted by Sir Ken Robinson (still looking for the exact quote), Seymour Papert's work from the 70's still rings true, and Gandhi's "Be the change you want to see," quote just may be my new motto. Not everything has to be 21st century.

• Wait until you see GE's Augmented Reality. Think: What are the possibilities?

• In terms of tools, Fairport is in GREAT shape compared to other schools. We have access to the stuff, now it's getting the teachers on board in using it. Making it happen is the next hurdle. (Much more to come on this topic.) See Gandhi's quote above.

• This last one is not exclusively a NYSCATE idea, but as I drove out of the parking garage I was thinking its time I do what I ask of my students, be a leader and take a risk. (Much more to come on this topic also.)

What did you take from NYSCATE?

Letter to My School

I thought I'd share this. It is a copy of an e-mail that I sent to my school regarding Earth Hour and the grassroots work my students have done.

Northside School-

This Saturday is the official Earth Hour. Since Earth Hour is on a Saturday, my students came up with the idea of having all of Northside turn off their classroom lights from 9-9:30 on Friday in honor of Earth Hour. We hope you join us and participate in Northside Schools Earth Hour. It would be so cool to walk through school school and only see necessary lights on!

Don't forget to turn off your lights on Saturday too, from 8:30-9:30. Don't forget to spread the word among other family and friends also.

Feel free to take a picture or a short video of what you choose to do either Friday OR Saturday and send it to me. I am planning on putting a movie together showing how NS celebrated this awesome day! Read on below if you'd like more info about Earth Hour.

Thanks for participating!

Travis

Earth Hour started out in 2007 as an initiative in Sydney, Australia. The people at the World Wildlife Federation came up with a plan to encourage as many people in Sydney to turn off their lights for 1 hour to save energy and fight global warming. They estimated that 2.2 million people participated and landmarks such as the Sydney Opera House even turned off the lights. In '08 Earth Hour grew tremendously. The WWF estimated 55 million people around the globe participated.

Fast forward to 2009: The goal is to get 1 billion people in 1,000 cities to participate. Earth Hour has been relying on social media (twitter, facebook, blogs, etc. )(yes I am a geek) and word of mouth to convince people to turn off their lights from 8:30-9:30. I came across it while searching for something cool to do for a conserving electricity lesson. I shared Earth Hour with my class decided to spread the word. They wanted to convince Fairport to participate, but aimed to start with Northside. We may not have reached our end goal, but we have reached as far as England via our class blog.

I could not more proud of a group of students. Nine and ten year old students stepped up and worked to make a change and a difference in the world. They ran the show, deciding on goals and how to achieve them. They split into groups depending on their strengths. The artists made posters. The computer 'geek squad' made digital ads via PowerPoint and GoogleDocs Presentations to share on our class blog. The writers wrote to school leaders, local newspapers and even wrote scripts for school announcements and video ads (see below). The Woodsters never cease to amaze me with their care and drive once they believe in something.

I'm looking forward to voting for the Earth Saturday and to spreading the word for next year's Earth Hour when the current Woodsters and next year's group can team up to see the difference they can make.

Check back for a video of what everyone did during their Earth Hour celebration!

Earth Hour 2009 Video

This is a video created by my fourth graders about Earth Hour.

Earth Hour 2009

We are participating, are you? More information to follow!

Hello? Anyone Listening?

First let me say that Educon 2.1 was amazing. The conversation was deep from the time I left Rochester on Friday to the time I dropped Brian Smith in his driveway. My philosophy and values of education were pushed and challenged. Big time.

One interesting conversation took place in Bud Hunt's session about writing. On top of his statement that "Hyperlinks are adjectives (and the subsequent blog post) and some individual time to reflect on writing came a debate about audience. It seems that I am not the only one who is wrestling with who I'm blogging for. There were some in the crowd that were writing for themselves, some who were vaguely aware of who they are writing for, and some who knew exactly who they were writing for.

It may be a generalization, but it seemed that it might have been the newer bloggers that were most unsure of who they were writing for (or simply writing for themselves). I feel that I am in this group. First off, it seems that next to no one is reading my posts, so in that sense I am writing for myself. So you may say, "Why not just get out your journal ?" My response: good question. Maybe it's that I hope someone stumbles onto my blog and connects with something I am saying. Maybe it's just that the blog is an easy place for me to write. I am not quite sure. It's not that I want to keep my writing private as much as it's a lack of readers I suppose.

I think knowing your audience matters. The problem is when I sit down to post, the cage match usually begins (thus leading to many unfinished drafts). If you could take a look into my head you'd see many of the people in my reader in the red corner and in the blue corner you'd see the teachers in my building and district. Herein lies the problem: Who do I want to write for? Am I looking to share with the big picture crew (like many of the exceptional people I met at Educon) or the teachers I work with who could care less about big picture ideas, but would like to know what to do on a wiki?

Is it selfish of me to simply write for myself, sometimes taking on heady issues and sometimes sharing more concrete ideas and say "take from it what you can," to my reader? Or is it more important that I 'pick' my audience and consistently write with them in mind? I'm thinking that it may be more of the former than the latter.