Summertime

This is one of my favorite teachers (HS special ed) and her daughter spending some time away from school. It drives me crazy that people think teachers don't work in the summer. Boy, I did when I was a teacher and so did (and still do) my friends. It was nice to set my own schedule in the summer, but I thought I deserved that after 9 months of being driven by the needs of middle schoolers. Anyway, what do you do in the summer? What would you LIKE to do in the summer? Let us know!

PBS Science Resources Plus

PBS provides cool resources for teachers and their students – interesting, great video, links to national standards, a useful instructional sequence including materials you need to round up and good questions. Here’s an example of a lesson plan I found at this website: http://www.pbs.org/teachers/

1. Alien Invasion: Estimating a Snake Population
Source: Scientific American Frontiers
Explore biologists' use of capture/recapture statistics and analysis of sampling techniques by estimating the population size of a tagged species. Use a mathematical model to uncover the total population of brown tree snakes in a sector.
Grade Level: 3-5, 6-8
Subjects: Math, Science & Tech
Topics: Data Analysis/Probability. Animals: Reptiles & Amphibians. Ecology.
Resource Type: Lesson Plan

It’s a real-life activity that incorporates multiple disciplines and is interesting, as are many of the lessons described. Hope you find it useful.

Do you ever have time to find good lessons on the net or are you overwhelmed by the day-to-day work of school?

Have a great weekend.

Susie

Seems like in my life as an educator teachers have been in one of two categories: either we supported skills like decision making, problem solving, communications, etc. OR we were advocates for the basic skills. Well, FINALLY we’ve figured out that our responsibilities to kids lies in both arenas if they’re going to be successful. And that challenges us to think beyond what WE know and moves us into what our STUDENTS must know. Hard, but I think we can figure it out.

The 21st Century Partnership folks have a nice graphic that makes the case. The inner green half circle represents the basic skills – kids have to be able to read, write, do math, understand government, etc.… the things we’ve traditionally taught in school. The purple arc on the right brings in the information, media, and technology arena, which is changing at an extraordinary rate. The yellow arc at the top of the diagram represents learning and innovation skills and the red arc on the left acknowledges the importance of life and career skills. More about all the areas can be found at this website:
http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254&Itemid=120
What do you think? Can we do it all? How? What kind of training and support will educators need to do this work? Thanks for your ideas... Susie

Education and Paul Potts - You Tube!!

This video from YouTube was fun. Nice background music and good graphics – contrasts education in the past and the future. Hope you enjoy it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnh9q_cQcUE

And my VERY favorite YouTube video – Paul Potts, a worker in a video warehouse in Britain performs on Pop Idol (I think), which is the British version of American Idol. He looks very ordinary until he opens his mouth and sings.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLF9iEXnBRo

Hope you enjoy these. Susie

Collaboration in School and in the Work Place

Since coming to work at IASB I’ve had such a different experience than I did when I worked in schools. When I was a young teacher, at least 200 years ago, we worked independently and in fact hoarded our ideas and materials. Wanted to keep them fresh for our OWN students, not allow others to pilfer them! I guess. Actually, I really can’t remember why everything was so private. But by the time I left seven years ago, we were just learning to collaborate around instruction, plan lessons together, look at data together. The work environment here at IASB is very collaborative… people are on work teams and not much goes out the door without multiple contributions, multiple eyes having seen it, multiple perspectives, etc. While sometimes it frustrating, that environment makes for much better work products. Makes me wonder how that’s going in schools now? Are your collaborative teams focused on improving instruction? Better lessons? More challenging curriculum? Fill me in!

Google expects their employees to be a part of collaborative environment.
Wesley Fryer blogs at this site, “Moving at the Speed of Creativity,” about Google. He noted this question and answer posed to and answered by the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, in Wired magazine in May 2007.

“Google’s revenue and employee head count have tripled in the last two years. How do you keep from becoming too bureaucratic or too chaotic?”

Schmidt’s Response:
“It’s a constant problem. We analyze this every day, and our conclusion is that the best model remains small teams running as fast as they can and tolerating a certain lack of cohesion. The attempt to provide order drives out the creativity. And so it’s a balance.”

Fryer comments about schools in relation to this:
“Note his language: “..the best model remains small teams running as fast as they can and tolerating a certain lack of cohesion.” This connects directly to what we need to see MORE in the classroom, but many classroom teachers (as well as building administrators) don’t feel comfortable with: The noise/hum of collaborative learning and discussion. Teachers are often not comfortable “letting go” of the sense of control they have when lecturing to a largely silent classroom of listeners. The lesson here is that the business world does not merely want to hire listeners and fact regurgitators, but rather thinkers who can collaborate, “run fast” and create innovative ideas which reflect both higher level thinking as well as creativity.”

Fryer’s blog: http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2007/04/29/collaboration-in-schools-more-reasons-we-need-it/

Do you agree with Fryer’s comments? Why or why not? How can we connect better with the world our students are going to?

Anxious to COLLABORATE... Susie

Collaboration: in school and in the world outside of school

Since coming to work at IASB I’ve had such a different experience than I did when I worked in school. When I was a young teacher, at least 200 years ago, we worked independently and in fact hoarded our ideas and materials. Wanted to keep them fresh for our students only! I guess. Actually, I really can’t remember why everything was so private. But by the time I left 7 years ago, we were just learning to collaborate around instruction, plan lessons together, look at data together. The work environment here at IASB is very collaborative… people are on work teams and not much goes out the door without multiple contributions, multiple eyes having seen it, etc. While sometimes it frustrating, that environment makes for much better work products. Makes me wonder how that’s going in schools now? Are your collaborative teams focused on improving instruction? Better lessons? More challenging curriculum? Fill me in!

In addition to this, read about the environment Google expects their employees to be a part of and what one writer thinks is the disconnect between the environments in schools and the environments kids will need to adapt to when they go to work.
Wesley Fryer, writer and editor for the website, “Moving at the Speed of Creativity,” noted this question and answer posed to and answered by the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, in Wired magazine in May 2007.
“Google’s revenue and employee head count have tripled in the last two years. How do you keep from becoming too bureaucratic or too chaotic?”
Schmidt’s Response:
“It’s a constant problem. We analyze this every day, and our conclusion is that the best model remains small teams running as fast as they can and tolerating a certain lack of cohesion. The attempt to provide order drives out the creativity. And so it’s a balance.”

Fryer comments
“Note his language: “..the best model remains small teams running as fast as they can and tolerating a certain lack of cohesion.” This connects directly to what we need to see MORE in the classroom, but many classroom teachers (as well as building administrators) don’t feel comfortable with: The noise/hum of collaborative learning and discussion. Teachers are often not comfortable “letting go” of the sense of control they have when lecturing to a largely silent classroom of listeners. The lesson here is that the business world does not merely want to hire listeners and fact regurgitators, but rather thinkers who can collaborate, “run fast” and create innovative ideas which reflect both higher level thinking as well as creativity.”
Fryer’s blog: http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2007/04/29/collaboration-in-schools-more-reasons-we-need-it/ :
Do you agree with Fryer’s comments? Why or why not? How can we connect better with the world our students are going to?

Would you like the world of google? Let us know... Susie

Don't Worry

Hi Everyone…

Hope you are staying warm and dry. Can’t believe it’s already April and we haven’t had much nice spring weather.

Many of you may have gotten a notice when you entered Skills Tutor called "A Friendly Reminder" saying that your account is soon to expire. This appears on all screens, those who have grants that pay the fee like we do in Iowa and those who pay the company directly. DON'T WORRY!! We are funded for next year. And this isn’t something you need to tend to or worry about.

Thanks for your hard work.

Susie