Although this was one of the shortest chapters in this book, I believe that it is one of the most relevant for education reform. The most thought-provoking statement that I read was “professional development provided the teachers at Union City [New Jersey] was a process, not an event…” I feel like most of my professional development has been just that, an event, because I never used any of the materials I got, and there was no follow-up to see if individuals who attended the PD trainings made improvements in their teaching. I attended a training on Access, but I don’t use it; I use Excel instead.

Yet, there have been events that I have attended which have been meaningful and changed my teaching approach and helped me grow into a better teacher. One is the Math Leadership Support Network sponsored by PIMSER and the University of Kentucky. The purpose of this program is to provide materials and leadership training for teachers and administrators to take back to their district and distribute the information and improve schools from within. Since I began attending the meetings in August (they occur about once a month), I have a huge binder full of activities, informational reading, and have acquired eight books, including Vandewalle. The 5-8 activities work well with my high school kids. Their focus for learning is to teach students conceptually. Because they model the activities with us, I finally have a good understanding of how to design and teach good conceptual lessons. I will be adding them to my wiki from last semester sometime during this week (I am officially on spring break). They will be under the heading of Activities That Work. The address for my wiki is:

http://pamcallahan.wikispaces.com

A second PD that was successful and was more a process than an event is one that I have already blogged about (the successful high schools at work). I recently received a mailing from them of a technical math test with some really good questions. If anyone would like a pdf copy of this test, just reply to this post, and I will get them to you via email, and I will post it to the wiki, too.

I had the pleasure of going to Atlanta from Wednesday to Friday of this week for a conference sponsored by the Southern Regional Education Board and the National Career Pathways Network (formerly National Tech Prep) on Making Successful High Schools work. We spent one and a half days coming up with projects based on a very detailed and thoughtful guidelines for lesson planning activity and collaboration. I was a part of the Agriculture Construction team with a fellow teacher and several teachers from Louisville, KY and McCreary Central. Our project was to design an environmentally friendly house. We called it the “Green” house project. The Louisville school had already gotten some of the funding for their project from State Farm, so I am going to check and see if we can do the same for Powell County. They are supposed to take our lessons and post them to their web site, and when they do, I will post a link here on the blog. The basis behind this program is to use Carl Perkins money and grant money to integrate more mathematics into the vocational classroom. By coming up with comprehensive unit plans, teachers work as teams to focus on the mathematics that needs to be taught in order to ensure kids learn the math and the vocation at the same time. The hope is to raise the math skills of students so they are more marketable to employers, and employers were surveyed to see what was lacking in new employees, and it is the math skills. The school in Louisville is also getting help from local businesses, including one of the local banks who has bought property for the building site. The finished product will be sold to a first time home buyer at a discounted rate.

We did make it out of Atlanta before the tornado hit, we were held on the runway when the severe storm warning was issued earlier in the evening, and then they flew us out at such a high rate of speed to get us out quickly.  We weren’t allowed to use our cell phones, and no refreshments were served.  We were supposed to fly out at 8:03 p.m., left at 9:23, and the tornado hit at 9:45. We had been in that area being tourists around 6 that evening. We just missed our connecting flight from Charlotte to Lexington, and ended up spending the night in Charlotte with no luggage. The airport was kind enough to give us an overnight supply bag with toothbrush and toiletries, but we did have to pay for the hotel, and it took two hours for the shuttle to get everyone there because it was 30 minutes round trip and they could only take 10 at a time. After getting three hours of sleep, we got up and ventured to the airport for our 7:40 flight, which was delayed by fog until after 9:00 a.m. We finally made it home to Bluegrass Airport at 10:15, but our luggage was not at the baggage claim. We finally located it at the baggage office with the tags of our original flight, not the new flight.  So even though we were all very tired, it was the best trip I have ever taken and we all really bonded over the experience.

If any of you travel to Atlanta in the near future, the MARTA train system is an inexpensive and wonderful way to see the sites of the city.  The people are very friendly, and there is lots to do in Atlanta.  I hope to travel there again sometime soon.

TechLearning has some great articles about current technology practices for teachers, tech coordinators, and administrators.

I have really enjoyed reading this book, and I agree with several of the points that have been brought up in the first chapter. First, education is extremely slow in adopting any change, even though the ideas of revolutionary significance have been there since the turn of the century. Dewey definitely had the right idea that we need to focus more on our students participating in the learning instead of having them listen and learn. Maybe with the growth and expansion of technology, Dewey’s time has finally come. I liked the comparison to Da Vinci, who had the right idea for flight, just not the right materials. We now have the right materials.

Information has also become more widespread since the date of this book (1993), so the four year old who wanted to know how giraffes sleep could look it up on Google or have an adult do so. I didn’t know the answer to this question, so I googled it and found out that they sleep less than two hours a day and always by standing up.  I had always thought they slept like horses did.  When I was growing up, if I wanted to know something, I would ask an adult, and if they didn’t know, I went to the library and looked it up in the encyclopedia.  I don’t remember having something that I could not find the answer for.  We, as teachers, need to teach our students how to be researchers, too.  Kids are good at looking up what they are interested in, like cars and prom dresses, but I don’t feel like kids are good at looking up topics that would help them academically.  Not many students use the Internet for assist in homework, whereas if I were a kid, I would be finding all I could find.  I know that teachers were once good students, but I wonder where the spark for learning has gone.  I don’t see it in many of my students, probably only 10% or so.  Maybe if teachers could follow Dewey’s idea for more student-centered learning, and start with students as soon as they enter the educational system, we could gain back this spark, making it more satisfying for teachers in secondary and post-secondary education.  I see some of this change happening in our own district, but it will be several years before these kids reach high school.  Time will tell, and I hope for the best.

This week’s readings focused on two issues that are important to digital equity: (1) using technology to better educate young children and (2) bring more women into computer science programs. The reading in the Solomon text brought up many obstacles that are faced when administrators and educators are researching the effectiveness of ICT versus non-ICT environments. Much of the problem is accountability. It is really difficult to monitor the progress of each student in the classroom without having a good reporting system in place. The data recording depends primarily on the teacher’s reporting and somewhat on standardized test results. I know that from a high school perspective, I teach six classes a day and have over 125 students. The time it takes just to grade papers is a lot, but to add in other duties such as individualizing reports for each student seems a monumental task. Plus, having teachers who have been trained in using a particular technology is difficult to achieve, too. Really dedicated teachers struggle because of how much they do all the time for their schools and their students; ill-prepared teachers don’t have the expertise to balance this kind of recordkeeping. I propose placing paraeducators into classrooms where this kind of recordkeeping is needed and where teachers are trying to teach students to use a new technology. Having an extra set of hands in the classroom can make a world of difference.

Regarding the gap in computer science programs, I believe that the root of the problem is a perception problem.  When I was taking computer programming classes, there were a few women in the program, and the attitude of most of the professors and many of the men in the class was one of arrogance.  Women don’t like being a part of a program where their efforts are not appreciated or rewarded.  So are the men driving the women from the field?

The silicon ceiling article points out that females need to become interested in computer science fields in junior high or high school in order to increase the number of women who become computer scientists in the future.  I believe that it needs to happen in the elementary grades.  Females should be taught that computer science is not just about programming video games, that it is about creating productivity tools to make it a better workplace.  With this attitude, more women are likely to join the computer science bandwagon.

The spread of the Internet and communication means is closing the digital divide just as it is united our world into a global society.  As years go by, the have-nots are becoming more and more the haves while the haves are just moving on to different and more sophisticated toys.  One upon a time, not many people had telephones, now over 93% of the country does.  Ten years ago, cell phones were a luxury item, today most people have some sort of cell phone.

To be equitable is to be fair. In education, it is to give students the same opportunity to learn. In Chapter 9 of Solomon’s text, they are talking about how inequitable the gender equality is for fields such as math, science, and engineering. The chapter describes a great number of programs and incentives to close this gap, and all of the measures involve appealing to the social side of females. I think that to see the gap as a detriment is the wrong way to view things. Females are more social by nature, so I believe they pick careers which fulfill this need. If you look at the number of male to female nurses, for example, approximately 5.4% of RN’s are male, according to the web site http://www.allnursingschools.com. This is a far greater gap than the gender gap in technological fields. I believe that equity is giving individuals equal opportunity to learn a given profession, but you have to take into consideration that fact that males and females are just different. We should not expect them to be equal in all things.

But is equity possible? I think it is near impossible to be fair in education because of the vast differences that exist in schools. Students should not be judged on whether they all learned the same things, which is what NCLB seems to do. The premise behind NCLB is good, there does need to be a minimum competency exhibited by our students, our future citizens, however, there are many obstacles to overcome, and just throwing money at the problem will not fix it. There has to be a change in attitude before reform can begin. The idea of punishing districts that don’t perform up to the national standards does not make much sense to me. It is like punishing a student who has a learning disability instead of helping them. It is desirable for school systems to be more equitable, but again, great barriers exist to making this happen.

This is a very difficult question to answer because of the current barriers that exist in our educational system. I see equity as equal opportunity, not equal ability, as we know that individuals range greatly in the abilities they possess. In order to create an educational system that is geared towards educational equity, the following conditions would need to be addressed:

• Teacher quality: I was reading an article a friend had forwarded to me on how to make great teachers. The article pointed out that teacher quality varies greatly, and there are a lot of factors that contribute to teacher quality, such as a strong support network and years of experience. Not only is it important to train good teachers, but also to retain good teachers.
  • “Other essential skills require on-the-job practice. It takes at least two years to master the basics of classroom management and six to seven years to become a fully proficient teacher. Unfortunately, a large percentage of public-school teachers give up before they get there. Between a quarter and a third of new teachers quit within their first three years on the job, and as many as 50% leave poor, urban schools within five years. Hiring new teachers is “like filling a bucket with a huge hole in the bottom,” says Thomas Carroll, president of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, a Washington-based nonprofit.”
• A strong curriculum: An education earned in Kentucky should be the same as an education earned in California, but we all know that this is not the case. It is not even the case from one school district to the next. There are many factors that contribute to this difference (cultural, social, economic, financial), and if we could address those differences, it could lead to a more equitable education. It would have to be monitored with end-of-year assessments and minimum competency requirements, with adjustments being made for individuals with disabilities.
• Motivation of individuals: A big difference I see between high performing schools and low performing schools is the motivation of the students. There is a certain amount of pride exhibited by individuals at schools that excel. I remember when a gentleman named Andy Dotson visited our school and offered to help improve our school culture. He talked about what he had done at Phelps High School in Pike County, Kentucky. The school was fifth from the bottom on CATS assessment, and in five years, they were fifth from the top. He did a complete restructure of the school, placing his best teachers with his lowest grade level, and building the students’ abilities up through the different grade levels. There were celebrations incorporated once a month to keep up student motivation, and the students became so invested in the school, each grade level would try to out perform the students who took the test the previous year. It takes an exceptional person to pull this off, I wish there could be an Andy Dotson in every school.
• Access to educational resources: There are certain things that make learning a better experience. When teachers receive professional development training, their quality of teaching should improve, therefore increasing the quality of education for the students. Having certain science lab equipment or virtual labs enhances the learning experience, having the opportunity for guest speakers can enrich a classroom, taking trips to significant locations can enrich the learning experience. Resources that help teachers engage students in learning are so valuable.

In the blog entry “The Mob Rules: The Laws of Five, ” the author gives examples of how people, communicating through a global network, are changing the way that tasks have been done traditionally. The five rules for the Mob are:

1. The mob is everywhere.
2. The mob is faster, stronger, and smarter than you are.
3. Advertising is a form of censorship.
4. The mob does not need a business model.
5. Make networks happen.

What does it mean to have a mob? There are several definitions for the word mob, most of which have a negative connotation. I believe that the author is representing the word mob as “the common people; the masses; populace or multitude.” He does not portray the mob as violent, lawless, or criminal. The mob is a collection of people, with access to devices which enable them to communicate with each other, who then exchange knowledge. Knowledge/information is the product, and communication is how you “sell” it. So is Marc Pesce the mob leader? Yes and no. A leader is one who leads, who sets the stage for others to follow, yet a leader is also part of a group. The last rule is to make networks happen. The goal is to keep connecting people (right now there are over 3 billion with access to the connection network). It is like moving toward a Utopian society, where people have equal social standing, forgoing the normal hierarchical view that has existed for thousands of years. But is it realistic? Maybe….

So how does this idea relate to education? to learning? to equity? Well, I don’t think that the current educational system has followed the enormous growth in communication that the business world has experienced. Educators are very resistant to change, and this is evident by the number of teachers who have not embraced technology. But daring to dream, if this mob’s enthusiasm were to take over the business of education, this is what I would hope to see…students having a choice as to the teachers who teach their lesson…through podcasting, places like TeacherTube, visiting web sites, blogs, virtual classrooms; students enthusiastic about what they have learned, and eager to share it with their friends via email or IM (Yeah, I just found this great calculus discussion site, you have to check it out); educators constantly collaborating, coming up with relevant projects that truly do have a positive impact on student learning; universities being able to graduate students that employers feel are adequately prepared for the workplace; and employers being happy with the quality of college graduates. Students would be on a more equitable footing because there is less discrimination in the virtual world, people are not judged by their appearance, but rather on their communication skills and ideas presented, gender is not such a limiting factor. Learning could be endless, people decide how much learning they wish to achieve, yet there would be minimum competency tests that are used uniformly on a national and international scale. Students who struggled would be given extra attention by others in the virtual community. We still need teachers, to write and record the lessons, to engage the students in the classroom, but the information would come from the network.  Learning would not be limited to the four walls of the classroom.

Whenever I run into a site that offers good resources, I like to post it for others to see.  I found this link through a posting on OLDaily, and found a couple to try (the PhotoAlbum creator and HTML Quiz Generator).  The entries are listed alphabetically, but there is a column with a short description of each tool, and the site identifies shareware versions vs. freeware versions.

Marc Pesce’s Unevenly Distributed: Production Models for the 21st Century post provides very good examples of how much of an information society we have become. Much like people would recommend books to friends, we now share links to information and videos by forwarding them to friends who we feel will enjoy what we have seen. This ability keeps the knowledge going. Friends will, in turn, send you back things that they think you will enjoy. Knowledge is constantly distributed among the millions of people connected to the Internet. When teachers use resources from the Internet in their classes, information is being distributed to learners.

I have only been a teacher for four years, and I really appreciate the information that is out there that I can use in my classroom and not have to “reinvent the wheel” by designing my own activities for lessons. I know that when I was going to school, the computers we used ran from 5 1/4″ disks, no hard drives, and a simple programming language called BASIC. Teachers taught using the information they had learned through classes, textbooks, and personal experience. We used magazines and newspapers for current events, so the information was only as current as the date it was printed. These days, I can log into as many web sites as I have time to access and read news that is fresh.

Once given the ability to access information so readily, people hunger for more.  We are excited to see what is on YouTube, what the latest wiki is offering to us in information, what others are saying about a particular item we are interested in purchasing, what is going on in our local communities, download an e-book, and so much more.  My favorite part about having this much information distributed is that I don’t have to pay a lot (if anything) to get the information.  No cost of newspaper, magazine, book, no more buying a CD for one song, when I can go online and purchase it in mp3 format.  I can carry around up to 80 gigabytes of songs and videos on my Microsoft Zune instead of having a bunch of CD’s which take up space.  I can read my e-book on my Palm instead of carrying a hard or soft cover book around.  Being in an information society with such a wide distribution of information has made our lives simpler because of access and storage.  It is convenient, cost effective, and provides us with more information than ever dreamed possible.  As information distribution becomes more widespread, learners will keep on absorbing information at a high rate.