Thoughts

I really need to post here more often...

I have a few thoughts on where schools are heading in the coming years...

The end to unions as we know them are on the horizon. Just as in any industry, unions lose power as they become corrupt and their counterparts run out of money. leaving no room for negotiations. Don't be surprised that once unions are eradicated, money suddenly trickles back to the schools.

Charter schools may finally be getting it right. Once investors figured out that they needed to put out a good product instead of hoping to make a quick buck, charter schools are suddenly showing insane improvements. New Orleans was the test-case, and if what The New York Times says is true, that city will be the model for the rest of us.

Netbooks and Web 2.0 tools will take the place of paper, textbooks, and even Windows/Vista-friendly PC's. There are two reasons for this shift in educational technology: price and access. When administrators figure out that a $200 netbook running on free software could be placed in the hands of every student for less than they are currently spending on 10:1 computer ratios running pricey Microsoft software packages, they won't take long to buy in, so to speak. With blogs, wikis, email, and social networks all available for free online, the classroom tools of the past will be obsolete.

A new structure for teacher advancement will have to happen. Schools don't receive financial support because they still pay a 30-year teacher twice as much money as they do a first-year teacher to do the same work. There is room for advancement in almost every other profession except for teaching. Schools are already experimenting with incentives, but a complete overhaul of the profession's structure is needed. I propose that schools hire college grads as aids and subs. It would raise the education level of school support staff and properly acclimate young teachers to the many demands of teaching. Once newbies prove themselves capable, they can be promoted to classroom teacher. Then, teachers can advance to grade-level team leader, subject chair, assistant principal, and so on. The days of teachers doing the same thing for thirty years and getting paid double or triple by the end will probably die out.

I've got more, but it will have to wait...

Um

I have not posted here in a while. Of course, I don't know that anyone even reads this blog. In an effort to keep up with all my blogs, I promise to post here at least once a week.

This post will start a string of posts having to do with the direction of public education. So, here goes nothing.

With the presidential election quickly approaching, I wonder what will happen to public schools. For the first time I can remember, both major party candidates are talking about funding for charter schools. I can't say that I blame them. Public schools are failing. The best innovation in schooling is happening in places like New Orleans where charter schools are filling a void.

I'm not thrilled about the deterioration of our public education system, but after being outside of schools for a year, I'm ready for things to change.

What do you think? Are charter schools now just an inevitability? Are public schools doomed?

David Warlick and Stupid, Stupid Twitter

So, I was so excited to see David Warlick this morning at the MO Bar Digital Citizenship Conference that I figured I'd Tweet the whole presentation. Well, for those of you who use Twitter, you know that sometimes the Tweets don't get through. In all, I have about an hour of Tweets that were never published. Nice.

I'm not sure I care much for the brand of ADD-style micro-blogging offered on Twitter. It's good for real-time blogging, or "live blogging" as the kids are calling it. There are often gaps in the conversations, little control over the feeds, and difficulties with Twitter's server being overwrought with traffic. I think there are some valuable professional applications for Twitter, and Youth Twitter seems like a safe alternative for the kids. The problem is that I don't know that Twitter is reliable enough right now. Maybe somewhere down the road...

But I digress.

Warlick was an entertaining and inspiring speaker for sure, but I felt like I had heard all of this before. What I mean is that I read his blog regularly (sans the last month of strange feed problems) and have heard most of his points before. This does not make his arguments any less valid or the presentation any less engaging. It just means that I've heard it before, agree wholeheartedly, and try to spread the word whenever I get a chance. David Warlick doesn't need buy-in from me.

What did I hear that I already knew about?

Warlick really wants educators to figure out that we are preparing students for their future, not ours. He demonstrated how every tool we currently use in the workplace will become obsolete, if it isn't already. There were many examples in the presentation that showed how kids are using technology to create new information not because they learned it in school or from their parents, rather they taught themselves. There are new literacies emerging that prove today's youth are simply on another track than the rest of us. Advancement of thought and technology is happening at a faster pace than ever before. It's not OK that we prepare them for today using yesterday's methods and materials. Teachers have to prepare students for a future we cannot foresee.

For those of you who just wondered aloud, "How do we do that?" The key is to think about process, not product. For example, Warlick showed a picture of a text message discussion between two teenagers. To the untrained eye, the lines of random letters and numbers were indecipherable. It was revealed that the code had a different meaning. Kids have created their own language with very little effort. He pointed out that the important difference between teaching students how to communicate as opposed to which form of communication is accepted.

We have to work with these emerging literacies as opposed to fighting them. Without our help, kids create their own films using video games, novels written on cell phones, and music videos on their sick days. The idea is to find ways in which we can work with these new literacies as opposed to fighting them in a futile effort to protect old literacies.

There were three things he focused us on to close his talk. The first was that we are dealing with "networked students," meaning that they have access to information and resources at speeds that have never been seen before. He discussed how we are dealing with a "new information landscape" that we must learn to manipulate and use for our own purposes in finding ways to facilitate learning that is meaningful and authentic. The third point is that we are preparing students for an "unpredictable future" for the first time in history. We have no idea what the world will look like 10, 15, 20 years down the road. What do we have to do to prepare our students adequately for that future of the unknown?

It was refreshing to hear, even it was scary at times.

Warlick had only online handouts, which you can access here.

As far as the rest, the conference seemed pretty well-organized around the theme of digital citizenship. My partner and I heard Warlick talk some more about all the digital tools out there to support students as they traverse this new age. Then we led our session on copyright and citing online resources. (It was some riveting stuff, really.) We finished our day with a session on intellectual property and copyright laws. This was fascinating, but the allotted time really didn't allow us to get too deep into the crux of the issue: corporations operating under the guise of artistic and intellectual property rights as individuals.

I'd return to the MO Bar Digital Citizenship Conference again. It was only a one-day event that packed a lot of information into that one day. The subjects covered fit well with the overriding theme. The connections between pedagogy and real-life were present throughout.

Warlick Flat Classroom

ISLLC Standards: An Interview

Here's a little something I wrote for a class. The name of my subject and her school have been changed for their protection from any unwanted Google searches.

The Interstate Schools Leaders Licensure Consortium (or ISLLC) has laid out a set of standards that can be used to insure that school administrators are successful in supporting student achievement. Although every school is different in the populations they serve, the resources available to them, and the specific needs of their communities, the standards can provide school leaders benchmarks for ensuring that students get the same high quality education anywhere. Much depends on how a principal interprets these standards when creating policies and in practice.

It is sometimes difficult to see how these standards are translated in the management of actual schools. I interviewed Jolene Smith, principal at Garth Elementary in Columbia to see just to see how she adapts these standards when managing her school. Garth Elementary is a rather diverse school near downtown Columbia with a comparatively small student population. What I found in Mrs. Smith was a principal who takes a holistic approach in addressing these standards, explicitly and implicitly.

The first ISLLC standard primarily deals with the inclusion and collaboration of all stakeholders in a shared vision for a particular school. Mrs. Smith developed a shared vision at Garth by revisiting the school’s old mission statement. The mission statement and staff vision is littered with ideas of both student and teacher efficacy, believing that all children can be successful at Garth Elementary. The faculty felt that the original vision was something in which they already believed. Where they wanted to change was in how they lived that mission statement in all that they do. The mission statement became a point of emphasis in every decision the staff makes. “It’s a living statement as far as I’m concerned,” explained Mrs. Smith. In keeping that statement at the forefront, she and her staff really delve into their testing data to look for the various perspectives from different types of assessments and subgroups based on race, gender, and class in order to focus their work on the school’s mission of every child being able to learn. Mrs. Smith pointed to examples of subgroups in the data that signaled a need for interventions and how those interventions improved test scores. Throughout our discussion concerning her collaboration with staff in the development of a shared vision and mission statement, Mrs. Smith always referred to “we” and “our faculty” as the primary enforcers of that mission.

Providing a professional environment that both nurtures and sustains a school culture that revolves around student success summarizes the second ISLLC standard. Mrs. Smith stressed this point as being extremely important and that it is an indicator of whether her school and staff are doing what they have set out to do, which is helping children succeed. The feedback she has received from visitors indicates that she has been successful in creating a positive learning climate at Garth. Mrs. Smith models her expectations to her staff and communicates a clear and consistent message to the entire school through morning announcements, weekly messages to staff, and in everything she says and does, always with a focus on learning. Additionally, Mrs. Smith works from a place of believing in teacher efficacy, in motivating them to keep the level of rigor in the classroom high. She supports these efficacies by ensuring teachers have all the necessary materials, resources, and collaboration time to make their facilitation of learning as effective as possible. After spending time with her staff focusing on “what a master teacher does”, Mrs. Smith has plans of moving on to having master teams of teachers in order to improve instruction for all students. To do this, she is constantly asking her teachers to focus on curriculum, teaching, and relationships with students. All of these pieces come together in creating that positive learning culture described in the standards.

Although she is an experienced, master teacher, Mrs. Smith has had to work hard at the third ISLLC standard dealing with the everyday operations of her school to support her efforts in improving instruction and safety. For twenty-eight years, she honed her craft as an instructor, but managing a school was something she had to work to improve. Realizing that to manage her school building successfully, Mrs. Smith needed resources, time, and manpower. To get these things, she follows her motto: To get anything done, it takes friendly persistence. To make things happen in her building, she often uses a strategy of involving others in her system of management while being sure to add a “double-check” to ensure the system works. The upkeep and management of Garth is not reliant on just one person in Mrs. Smith's system, and she uses this collaborative effort to do everything from locking doors to budgeting to directing dismissal. Another strategy she uses in maintaining her school Mrs. Smith has learned when to take her “turn” and when to push for improvements, basing this approach on two things: safety and learning. If either of safety or learning is affected, she needs to act. Even when the maintenance and the systems of a school are in order, a principal must consider human factors. Part of the management of the building is to take into account behaviors and attitudes that affect student and staff safety. Mrs. Smith found that bullying was a major cause for a lot of safety issues. Implementing programs to combat this issue helped as much with the safety issues at Garth as her use of friendly persistence and systems with “double-checks.”

The fourth ISLLC standard of promoting cultural diversity and utilizing community resources is particularly valuable at a school as diverse as Garth Elementary. Communication came up again as a major piece in the successful implementation of the standard. Since Garth Elementary is a very diverse school, Mrs. Smith makes it clear to the community and anyone considering enrolling their student in her school that diversity is an integral part to the school. Besides her clear communications of a pro-diversity school, she also looks to involve a variety of parents in the school decision making process so as to allow more perspectives, sort of like focus groups. Additionally, Mrs. Smith works with local churches, social agencies, universities, and other community stakeholders in creating partnerships that benefit the students and the community. For example, she cited that over forty businesses have a part in the new building being constructed on Garth’s grounds at the moment. By promoting Garth’s diversity and involving the surrounding community, Mrs. Smith is able to satisfy this standard.

Ethics and legality come into play on the fifth standard. Mrs. Smith feels that trustworthiness begins with her and it spreads from there. When she first came to Garth as a principal, Mrs. Smith opened and cleaned the windows to her office as a symbol of her openness. This spirit of responsiveness said to students, parents, and staff that issues would be resolved in an open and honest way, involving all parties. The idea of “going by the book” permeates how Mrs. Smith and her staff conduct their business. She involves staff in decision-making and is forthright with her own process. Mrs. Smith will ask the staff to help her make a decision regarding procedures or policy. The staff sometimes asks her to make the call. When she does make a decision on her own, Mrs. Smith is certain to explain her thinking, promoting open dialogue. Additionally, Mrs. Smith separates her code of ethics from a religious moral code by focusing on their effects on children as opposed to personal or cultural beliefs. When in doubt, she often defers to someone within the district who can clearly explain where someone’s rights begin and end. Trustworthiness, democratic processes, and following protocol help to meet this standard of ethics and legality.

As an advocate in community and political contexts, the sixth ISLLC standard suggests that principals can have an effect on student achievement through social activism. Mrs. Smith sees her advocacy in two places: her relation to the district’s central office and the school’s image within the community. She looks at her advocacy as beginning with her relation to district offices. Mrs. Smith knows that if she does not make central office aware of problems in her school, they cannot fix those problems. This advocacy has to be balanced with selectivity so as not to pester those who may provide the services she needs. The partnerships that she has with the community, the news media, local businesses, and universities are key in selling her school as a good place for children and learning. She has strong efficacy when considering the service her school and others provide. An example of this advocacy and transparency is when Mrs. Smith allowed a reporter to be embedded in her school. She felt that the media would not be able to report anything positive about her school if they were not there to witness it. Plus, she had nothing to hide. Mrs. Smith promotes the value of her school in all of these partnerships. As she said, “I am the face of Garth School,” and as the face of her school, she has to advocate for its well-being to her district and community alike.

My interview with Jolene Smith helped demonstrate how the ISLLC standards are put to use in supporting student achievement in a variety of ways. Running throughout her policies, practices, and ethics was the notion that student safety and learning were at the forefront. This idea alone aligns with ISLLC standards in that the words “supports the success of every student” are a part of each standard, making the primary focus on student achievement. Mrs. Smith has to consider all the ways in which student success can be achieved and how that success can be defined. This interview helped me see how Jolene Smith is a model principal for Garth Elementary when put into context with the ISLLC standards.

Interview

I am currently studying to get my educational specialist degree in school administration. Part of my coursework was to create a list of twenty interview questions. Here's my list. Use them for your own interviews or try to answer a few in the comments. I would also welcome any ideas you may have on interviewing staff.

Additional Note: I've changed some names of people and schools to maintain some sort of anonymity.

20 Interview Questions

In creating my interview questions, I used a couple of reference points from which to work. First, I used the advice shared by Dr. **** to keep the questions open-ended and focused on the task of facilitating student learning. Second, I used the evaluation standards as set by the ******** Public Schools guidelines for teacher evaluation. I have added additional reasoning for each question in italics. Of course, I might not ask these questions in this particular order. That might be something I’d leave up to an interview committee of teachers, parents, and other school stakeholders.

Assessment

1. Describe the methods in which you evaluate student learning in both the short- and long-term.
   Since assessing student learning is an ongoing process that helps shape instruction and not just a test we give in the spring, I want to know how teachers implement such assessments from day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month, etc.
2. What are some ways you make assessments assist in student growth as opposed to just evaluating their performance?
   This question will hopefully demonstrate how a teacher’s methods of assessment can aid in the ultimate goal of student achievement.
3. Describe how you determine a student is making adequate progress, needs additional support, or would benefit from enrichment activities.
   An applicant’s response to this inquiry can reveal his/her ability to analyze data and properly respond.
4. How do you insure that your lessons help students achieve higher orders of thinking?
   I hear a lot of teachers talk about achieving higher order thinking, but I want to know how they intend to accomplish this.
5. In what ways do you involve students in the assessment process?
   This question implies a collaborative effort in helping make objectives transparent and helping students reflect and grow from assessments.

Instruction Strategies (Facilitation)

6. When planning a lesson, what are the components you are sure to include?
I want to know what a teacher includes when planning a lesson to insure that there are no holes in the process.

7. How have you collaborated with your peers in improving instruction and curriculum?
This is one of those questions that I want concrete examples of a teacher’s ability to work with others in improving student learning.

8. What strategies do you use to insure student engagement?
Student engagement is one of the most important indicators of successful facilitation. I want to know that my teachers think about this and plan ways to insure it is high.

9. What are some ways in which you have differentiated instruction for your students?
Again, this is one of those topics that are best illustrated through specific examples. Differentiation is one of the more difficult tasks every teacher must encounter.

10. Explain how assessments figure into your lesson planning.
I want to know that assessments are seen as a tool for instruction that is utilized throughout a lesson or unit. A red flag would go up if the assessment is only viewed as a tool for evaluation and not for reflection.

Learning Environment

11. If I were to walk into your room on a typical day, what could I expect to see and hear?
I have heard this question in many interviews. It gives the applicant an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the kind of teacher he/she is.

12. Describe the system you employ to manage your classroom and students including preventative measures, a continuum of strategies, and a system for changing undesirable behavior.
This is a comprehensive question that lays out a teacher’s classroom management plan.

13. Describe a time when you were successful in building a relationship with a student who presented many behavioral challenges and how that relationship helped that student to be successful in your classroom.
This situation provides an example of a teacher’s ability to build relationships with students.

14. Describe the ideal teacher-student relationship and how you would forge that relationship.
Knowing how a teacher perceives the teacher-student dynamic can provide a clear vision of the applicant’s professionalism and relationship building.

15. What is the most important key to managing a classroom and its students and why?
A good classroom manager would point to things like clear expectations, consistency, transparency, fairness, etc. in defining his/her management style.

Collaboration

16. Describe a time when you have successfully collaborated with school, district, and/or community stakeholders in an effort to reach the group’s goals.
This answer will help prove whether an applicant can work successfully with others. It is also open-ended enough to allow for examples that aren’t necessarily school-related. The answer could identify a teacher who values the community and not just the school.

17. What can you offer our school community that is unique and beneficial to student achievement?
An applicant can use this question to point out unique skills and talents that might not show up in a resume.

18. What would you hope to gain professionally and personally from a position in our school?
This question helps to paint a teacher’s career aspirations as well as a commitment to teaching.

19. What are your plans for continued professional development and how do you see yourself using that training in your teaching?
With certification requirements and the high turnover rate of teachers, this question helps demonstrate an applicant’s commitment to the profession and their own learning.

20. Our school and district have many policies and procedures that must be followed. How will you make sure that you are compliant with district policies?
This question would demonstrate a teacher’s willingness and ability to gain an understanding of and adhere to district policy.

It was difficult to cover all the things I would want to cover in an interview in just twenty questions. I would like to add questions concerning strengths versus weaknesses as well as some that would address technology use. Additionally, providing applicants scenarios to “solve” could give some great insight into a teacher’s abilities. Hopefully, these questions are open-ended enough to elicit such responses that address these concerns.

One of these days...

One of these days, this will be a bonafide blog worth reading. However, for now it is just what it is: another neglected blog.

I actually started two great posts on various educational concerns, but I have yet to complete them. I'm not sure I ever will.

I really want to explore the idea of edupunk. The idea of a DIY aesthetic has always existed in the classroom. However, I'm not sure the political acidity of the true punk ethos has ever stepped into a teacher's shoes.

This is what I want to explore.

Open vs. Closed Source

With the state of school funding in the condition that it currently finds itself and state funding of edtech initiatives feeling the same crunch as every other government office, schools are looking very closely at open source software as opposed to the traditionally more expensive corporate versions. Software corporations require that schools purchase packages of software and site licenses in order to stay up-to-date with the latest operating systems, web browsers, media players, and various productivity tools. It has gotten so out of control that school administrators are shying away from software and hardware updates, leaving their teachers and students behind the technological trends in our society and economy.

The easy solution would be to ditch the brand name software and replace it with open source versions that come with the inviting price of nothing, sans some download time. This would be easy if administrators and IT folks weren't so resistant to open source. They worry about the problems associated with free software, but they forget that even corporate-packaged software has its problems as well. It's time these decision-makers get over this hang-up. Open source software has served many an individual, business, and even school district well.

Although cost is still the greatest benefit of choosing open source over commercial brands, there are other characteristics that make the software valuable. Not only is open source free to schools, but students can download the software as well, making it more possible than ever to insure that students have the same access to universal formats as the schools. Open source is always improving. The developers are not limited by gift-giving seasons or marketing campaigns. They can make improvements as they go, often times before their commercial counterparts have even thought of the improvements.

Let's take Firefox for example. This is maybe one of the most widely used open source programs out there. In fact, I'm using it right now over the corporate brand already equipped on my machine. It was a quick and easy download that required no payment or package. In fact, I periodically download add-ons as they become available or meet my needs, instead of regular updates that interfere with the work I'm already doing. Many of the features I most appreciate on Firefox, like a zoom in function, tabs, spell-check, etc., were available well before my other browser went through an overhaul.

I have designs on becoming an administrator myself and plan to utilize open source whenever possible. Ultimately, I'd like to purchase basic machines with no software. We would then set up Linux as the operating system and go from there. Firefox would be our primary browser (assuming something else doesn't come along) and Open Office or some other tool would fill our productivity requirements. With some adjustments to school filters, we could utilize all the many great tools offered by Google, like Gmail, Google Reader, Blogger, and Google Calendars.

The need for expensive software packages with even pricier licensing agreements is over. Schools should move on to open source software in order to keep up with the ever-changing technological landscape. Or pay the costs later.

Mystery

Anonymity and privacy does not really exist on the Internet these days. Some of us still act like it does, but there are no mysteries on the World Wide Web anymore. And there is no better lesson we can teach students than to be mindful of this online transparency. Of course, teachers and educational professionals need to be aware of this in their own online activities as well.

It was recently reported that a local television station in Kansas City looked up the names of area teachers, mostly in their 20's, on popular social networking sites MySpace and Facebook. What they found were pictures of drunken debauchery and sexual content unbecoming of people who work with children. The teacher's naively thought that no one would discover their secret online personae. Boy, were they mistaken.

I am not immune from making poor choices on what to post on my various blogs. There will be no details shared for those voyeurs out there. Just understand that I made a mistake by posting information that I thought was harmless and undetectable when a simple Google search could have really compromised people I work with and for. Luckily, no major harm was done and I have a chance to learn from my mistakes and make things right.

The point is that educators need to be as careful online as we wish our students to be. I know of other teachers who blog or maintain social networking profiles that should keep these things in mind. The best way to teach young people is to be an example for them to follow.

I know that I'll be more careful in my own blogging. This blog once had a different focus (and URL) that was negative and not very constructive. Sure, I posted some good things on there, but there was a lot of negativity that wasn't helpful in any way.

So, as I make my first post on this new/old blog, I am considering how to make it as useful as possible. My goal is to post on an educational issue I encounter once a week. This could have to do with methodology, pedagogy, edtech, or administration, all areas in which I have great interest.

Whatever I post, I will strive to mindful of my audience and/or potential audience. I understand that as easy as it is for me to set up this blog, it is just as easy for anyone to read it and react. I want those reactions to be positive. I have to be aware that the mystery of the Internet and blogosphere are no more.