Today's Readings

This link focuses on something I've wanted to do for a long time with my classes, create eportfolios.  Now, this link focuses on how eportfolios are used in a first grade class.  But if first graders can create them, what can my senior College Comp II students do with them?  Can't wait to find that out.

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One of my favorite thinkers and Tweeters is Vivek Wadhwa.  Here is an excellent - and hopeful - article in Forbes.  His title says it all:  "Why I Believe That This Will Be The Most Innovative Decade In History."  Well, given the state of things in our world, it pretty much has to be.

In the article he takes aim at one of his arch enemies, Peter Thiel (who, I think, does have some great points: technology advancement has been hindered because the internal combustion engine is still the dominant form of transportation, the death rates due to cancer have not decreased in over 30 years, and humans cannot travel faster than the jet engine allows).

Why is Wadhwa so hopeful then?  Because of the breakthroughs that have already occurred thanks to technology.

Here is an example -

Most people in the world have been affected by the advances in computing and mobile technologies. In a short 15 years, the Internet has changed the way we work, shop, communicate, and think. Knowledge, which used to be available only to the elite classes through books such as the Encyclopedia Britannica, is today abundant and free. All of this happened because computing power is growing exponentially. The technology industry knows this growth as Moore’s Law.

Personally, I hold out hope.  Why?  Because I am surrounded by children and young people.  I see their potential.  I see what a former student of mine, Tobias, is able to do with his blog and his passion for photography, and I can easily compare that to what the best students when I started here at LHS were able to accomplish, and it isn't even close.  Tobias' passion has them licked.  Again, I don't think it's even close.

Now, that's not to say that my past students  haven't been capable of greatness - or even accomplished excellent things while at LHS - but the point is that Tobias has so many different tools at his disposal for creativity and engagement that the others lacked.  Many had to wait until they got to college to create and engage.  That isn't true anymore.

It is still my belief that when these millennials get out into the workforce, they will blow away the competition.  That is one reason I show up to work every day hopeful.

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A topic or subject, I guess, that has become increasingly more important to me over the years is professional development.  Nothing scares me more than becoming complacent in my teaching.  Nothing scares me more than seeing summer as simply vacation, rather than a time to reflect upon my craft and tweak and tinker and find new thinks to incorporate into my classes.

This article suggests that now PD is in the hands of the teachers.  Well, I guess it always has been.  I've sat through enough PD 'hired guns' who come in and make a couple grand for speaking for an hour about generic issues that I cannot use in my classes.

Thanks to social media, though, that has all changed.

Here are three ways PD is now, more than ever, in the hands of the teachers themselves.

1. Watch and learn . . . everyday.

Yes, seeing 'hired guns' and attending PD sessions is in the very fabric of the school year, but it doesn't have to be the be all and end all of improvement.  Youtube is a great source for PD.

YouTube is a great place to start. With an average of 72 hours of video added each minute of the day, there is a great deal of educational content updated daily. My collection of videos grows with every group I work with, and everything is posted to my YouTube channel. Here you will find content videos created by teachers, funny assessment videos, and screencasts on various web 2.0 tools.

I happen to find tons of PD via Twitter and podcasts on iTunes.  In fact, whenever I pop my headphones in to mow the lawn, buy groceries, or run an errand, I am experience PD and learning.

2.  Take it to the back channel.

This is a way to carry on a discussion - via Twitter I believe - about an event.  One thing I was fascinated by last weekend was all the Tweets from educators about #ISTE12, which is a major education convention.  It felt like I was vicariously there by seeing all the feedback regarding the presenters (everyone loved Sir Ken Robinson) and the frustrations (many hated the commercials or ads in the presentations and many voiced out against a 'panel' discussion on education reform when the 'panel' didn't have single teacher on it).

Here is what the author of the article has to say about the back channel -

I look at the back channel as group-structured note taking and an ongoing conversation that is more polite than whispering to your neighbor during a session. As the presenter, this information is like gold. Following the hashtag I created for the session, when I look at it later I can really see what resonated with the audience and, most importantly, what points did not make it to the back channel. It helps me in pacing and reorganizing my topics for future presentations. The back channel is so much richer than the standard evaluation, which ends up being more about the temperature of the room or the lack of refreshments.

3.  Share something new.

And this is what is so important about teachers blogging and using Twitter.  Those platforms allow you to not only share your frustrations and student work, but they also allow you share your best practices.  If you don't have anything to share, then what are you doing teaching?  Find something else to do.

I love this idea -

One final idea: Start each day by sharing something new that you learned through your various networks and encourage your students to do the same. Model how the information came to you and what you did to learn more about the tool or web site. Archive these daily discoveries on your blog, web site, wiki, social bookmarking site, or on Twitter.

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Teacher evaluation.  More specifically, using high stakes test scores to evaluate teachers.

Here's one view that looks at both sides..  Here is another view from one of my favorite teacher bloggers.

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This is awesome!



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Another great read - and one that hammers home the third point of teachers generating their own professional development.  What would education, or a school for that matter, look like if every teacher in the school kept a blog and addressed this topic.  And then fellow teachers shared their blogs with each other and left feedback.  What kind of growth and development would that incite?

Being a 21st Century Teacher

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Another great video to share and learn from



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Here is a great blog post on The 10 Things I Know About Innovation In Education

I especially like this section (because it's true)


Which brings me to today’s revelation: you shouldn’t need to be told to be creative or innovative.


Schools are molding the minds of the future generations. These minds need to be given the most options, the most technology, and the most advanced forms of education models on the planet. Let the students decide and figure out what works for them. There are so many teachers out there ready to bring amazing technology into their classroom (just look at all the people at ISTE every year) but there’s usually something standing in the way.