by Andrew CoyIt has been a while since my last post, but there are good reasons for that, one of which I would like to take a moment and share.Background and ContextView Larger MapI teach at Digital Harbor High School in inner-city Baltimore. The school was founded in 2002 with substantial support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the objective was to take a failing school in southern Baltimore and reinvigorate it with a vision of 21st century education and technology to service inner-city students in the Baltimore City Public School System (how well this has or hasn't worked and what my thoughts are on Urban Education Reform I will be sharing sooner or later on this blog, no doubt). While Baltimore City Public Schools has been in the news recently for some pretty significant and progressive changes (such as graduation rates and a new teacher contract), these improvements have only recently started to turn the tide of more than 40 years of problems and a failing system.The neighborhood in which I teach is one of the more affluent neighborhoods in downtown Baltimore, but Digital Harbor was one of Baltimore City's first City School of Choice (meaning that students from all over the city can elect to attend the school regardless of where they live). As with other schools in the Baltimore, middle class families send their children to private or charter schools. This combined with the geographic dispersement of students means that substantial parent/community involvement has been a challenge. Some members of community around our school have, however, effectively adopted our school and our students as their own and while relationships with the neighborhood and the students (especially in the early afternoon after the bells ring) has definite room for improvement, a few members of the neighborhood have taken it upon themselves to make a positive impact.Last year these community members organized a fundraising event and in one night raised more than $50,000 for scholarships to students going to college from Digital. I became more involved this year when they came to the school looking for someone to help out with a website and other technical issues. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind for me trying to juggle everything from teaching to web programming to finishing my Master's degree at Hopkins.Reasons for this PostI wanted to write this post for two main reasons.1) a follow up to the last post I wrote about teachers knowing HTML.While what I have done for the DHHS Alliance has gone beyond simple HTML knowledge, I feel strongly that the more teachers teach themselves about technology the more value they can add to their school and the more they can make a lasting difference in the lives of their students (both in high school and beyond). I know some individuals disagreed with my last post, arguing that Web 2.0 has effectively reduced the need for teachers or anyone to actually know HTML, but I still feel that for those willing to make the investment, there will be significant payoffs. Better to program than be programmed (in the words of Douglas Rushkoff), especially if one adopts the teacher-as-leader model of education.2) to invite you all to check out the website i've been working on and highlight some of the silent auction items that are available online.Scrubs from the TV Show Scrubs signed by DONALD FAISON and ZACH BRAFF -- (more info)Signed book "I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness to the Blind Side and Beyond!" The Raven’s own Michael Oher, #74, the football star made famous in the hit film,"The Blind Side" -- (more info)ONE night evening package at this premium downtown hotel, THE MARRIOTT INNER HARBOR-CAMDEN YARDS, located footsteps from Camden Yards - Oriole Stadium -- (more info)RACING package including Clubhouse passes for 10 to LAUREL PARK or PIMLICO RACE COURSE, reserved seating, live-racing programs, parking for 10 cars AND a race named in your honor -- (more info)Not available on-line but if interested, can contact me -- (abcoy@bcps.k12.md.us or @andrewcoy)Autographed swimming cap and picture from Gold-Medal Olmypian Michael PhelpsNose Cone from Indy 500 race last year, signed by Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Dan Wheldon and others!Tickets to the upcoming Grand Prix in BaltimoreThe actual event will be at the Baltimore Museum of Industry on Saturday, the 26th of March.Tickets are available on the website if you are in the area and want to come support some of inner-city Baltimore's best students! (who, incidentally, won the 2A Boy's Basketball State Championship this year!)

by Shelly Blake-PlockHere's the scenario: You have been put in charge of creating a brand new education system. Whatever you decide will be done. You are the monarch. You have unlimited resources and everyone is mandated to do your bidding (and they love you and think you are a genius).And they are waiting to hear your concept.One caveat: This being the 21st century, you have to explain your entire concept in 21 words or less.So, let's hear what you've got.

by John T. SpencerI'll take up Shelly's challenge and sum it up in one word:loveLet that be the foundation and you'll see humility.   Start with humility and you'll see authenticity.  Let those be your guide and you'll have paradox.  Real paradox.  Start with paradox and you just might have something that's sustainable. *     *     *I search through my blog reader one summer afternoon and glance at the deafening sound of the echo chambers. "Here are twenty-five badass apps that will revolutionize your classroom!" "Let the kids make decisions for Christ sakes.  We need to unschool.  Liberate the factories." "We need PLC's.  Let us make wise, data-informed, research-based decisions.  Only then will we have schools that truly improve." "Charter schools are the only answer.  The innercity is filled with mediocrity.  We need to reform these places with the flexibility that charter schools offer."Lots of bold answers but not too many questions. I walk outside and feel the grass beneath my bare feet.  I meander toward the the garden.  The tomatoes are turning a bright, bold red.  Tonight they'll transform into a marinara sauce.   Grace. It's humbling.I didn't earn it.  I didn't create it.  But it grew.  Naturally. The boys beckon me to a mudhole in the yard.  They grow and explore and make sense of their world and it's messy, really messy.  We clean up and read books and it's tidy. Then it's back outside where they climb a tree.  Should I tell them they're going too high?  I have no idea.I vascillate between too much freedom and too much safety; too much direction and not enough support; allowing them to live in the imagination and helping them to see their physical world. I don't know what I'm doing as a dad.  It's shrouded in mystery.  It's full of paradox.  But I have a hunch that if there is a "right way" it's the path of love.  Not insipid love.  Not Hallmark love.  Gritty love.  Messy love. Muddy love.A month later, I'm in the classroom.  I don't know what I'm doing.  I have plans.  I have knowledge.  I have six years of teaching experience.  I have a resume that looks impressive.  But the present reality is mired in paradox.  It's messy.  It's confusing.  I meander between too strict and too lenient, too much freedom and too much safety.  I'm not a pundit.  I'm not an expert.  But I have a hunch that if there is a "right way" for my students, it's the path of love.  Real love. Messy love.*     *      *A twenty-first century education needs to be innovative while listening to the vintage voices of the past.  It needs to include creativity while still providing a framework for some common skills.  It needs to respect the balance of freedom and safety.  It needs to understand the complicated and complex human condition.  It needs to be a place that respects the local community while still engaging the larger world. Those are huge challenges with complex ideas.  I don't pretend to speak for anyone beyond myself and my own classroom.  However, if I can approach my classroom with humility, motivated by love for my students, I think I'll be on the right path.

Today's question: How many sheets of paper do you actually use for instructional purposes over the course of the average school day?Comment away... interested to see some numbers.

By David Andrade, http://tinyurl.com/edtechguy Parental and family involvement in school is a major factor in student success. Parents need to be involved in their children's education. They should be up-to-date on news at the school, what their child is doing in school, and how their child is doing in school. They should be talking about school with their children, helping them with their school and homework, encouraging their children to do their best in school, showing their children how important school is to their future, and creating a nurturing, supportive environment at home. Schools need to reach out to parents and get them involved in the school. Schools should also help parents with helping their children succeed. Parents and families can help increase student learning by creating a rich environment for learning at home. Schools can help parents and families do this.  Parents should give students a quite place and time to study, encourage the students to read (just for fun too), monitor their TV and internet use, talk to them about the world and their experiences, and take them to places to gain new experiences.In order for children to succeed in school, and life, they need to be in school, have a supportive home environment and not have to worry about other major issues in their lives. In order for children to have this kind of environment, the community and schools must help parents create a positive learning environment at home, become involved with their children's education, and help parents when there are other issues that are affecting the home, such as childcare and finances. Parents have many responsibilities and obstacles to getting involved in school. Many work multiple jobs or work evenings or nights, preventing them from being able to attend meetings, conferences, and spend time with their children. Many have day care issues that make it hard for them to get away from home. Many also have language barriers or feel like they can’t help their children with school. Some contact teachers at off times via email, take time off from work, bring their younger children with them to meetings, and some use their children as interpreters. Some don’t over come these barriers and are not involved in their child’s education. Schools need to come up with ideas and ways to help parents overcome these obstacles. Schools can work to provide day care to help parents come to evening events. Provide parent classes on how to help their child with school. Provide resources, social events, and make parents feel welcome in the school. Provide workshops for parents. Help them help their children.Technology can help with parental involvement. Email groups, voice messages, web sites, blogs and more can all be used to communicate with parents. Student information systems that parents can access to see their child's attendance, grades, missing assignments. A Parent Personal Learning Network can share resources with parents and connect them to other parents who can help them. School websites can have information, resources, and links for parents. We need to work together with parents, and the community, to increase student achievement and help all students succeed. Everyone, schools, parents, community, are responsible for educating our children. 

Following a link posted by @andyjb, I found myself looking at http://quietube.com/ today and it got me thinking...Is this a great idea that will help allay the fears of admins and parents and help bring YouTube content into filtered classrooms, or does Quietube actually turn YouTube into a virtual DVD player -- thus negating all of the social media content that makes YouTube so rich (even if at times risky) to begin with?What's more important in the YouTube debate: bringing video into our classrooms or teaching students how to engage with dynamic and live social media spaces?

Today's required reading:Does using Twitter make teachers smarter? by Dean Groom.

by John T. SpencerMy students gather in a circle for article reviews. Each pair offers a short summary of the current event followed by a few discussion questions. On this particular day, we meander between talks of democracy, education, death and human suffering. The points students bring up are thought-provoking. However, I'm most impressed by the questions they ask one another. They clarify and ask follow-up questions. They make inferences. They ask connecting questions and critical thinking questions. It's a messy process, but it's beautiful messy. It's art. However, the deeper questions didn't happen in a vacuum. Students have spent hours learning the art of questioning. Here are ten things I've done in class to encourage students to ask better questions:Question Everything: It's become a mantra in our class and it extends all the way to me. As long as a question is respectful, I want students to question their world. This applies to analyzing mathematical processes, thinking through social issues, making sense out of a text or analyzing the natural world for cause and effect. Pretty much every lesson we do includes students asking questions to me, to one another or to themselves - and the boldest of students will ask questions of the world.Reading: I require students to ask questions before, during and after reading. At first, the questions are basic. "What's this story going to be about?" or "Why is that character acting like that?" Over time, however, students think deeper about the text and start asking some profound questions. For example, yesterday a student asked a question about Flowers for Algernon: The main character seems to be happy but ignorant that people make fun of him. Is it better to be ignorant and happy or to know the truth, even when it will crush you?Inquiry Days: Three times a week, we do inquiry days, where students begin with their own question in either social studies or science and they research it, summarize it and then ask further questions. While my initial goal involved teaching bias, loaded language and summarization, I soon realized that students were growing the most in their ability to ask critical thinking questions.Feedback on questions: I highlight their questions in Google Docs and leave comments on their blogs with very specific feedback. It might sound harsh, but I will tell a student, "This question is shallow. You're a deeper thinker. Try asking a question that forces someone to question what they already believe" or "This question is deep, but it's worded in a way that elicits a short answer response. Can you change it so that you draw a longer response?"Model It: In the first week of school, I model the types of questions that require deeper thinking. This happens during read alouds, but also during class discussions. Sometimes I'll ask a really lame question and then say, "Someone tell my why that question sucked?" or I'll ask a deeper question and say, "Why was that a hard question to answer?" The goal is to get them to see deeper questions and to also think about why a question is deep or shallow.Practice It: We do mock interviews, fake press conferences and rotating discussion zones in the first week of school. Instead of spending time on ice breakers or excessive time on procedures, we spend time on learning to ask better questions.Scaffolding: Some students have a really hard time with questioning strategies. So, initially I give sentence stems. At first this was really hard for me. I thought that students would naturally ask questions and grow through accessing prior knowledge. I quickly realized that language acquisition had often been a barrier in asking better questions. So, sentence stems and sample questions became a way that ELL students could modify questions and access the language.Types of Questions: I teach students about inquiry, clarifying, critical thinking and inference questioning. Often the process is messy and there are moments of overlap, but it helps students when they can think, "What needs to be clarified?" or "How does this relate to life?" and from there they can develop better questions.Multiple Grouping Formats: Students sometimes ask me questions. Other times they ask partners or small group questions. Still other times they ask the questions to the whole class. Thus when they do an article summary, they start with individual questions but eventually move into leading a whole-class discussion.Technology: E-mail, Google Docs, instant message, Twitter and blog comments have all become asynchronous formats for asking and answering questions. Technology allows students to take their time in crafting a question while having access to the questions of their peers.John T. Spencer is a teacher in Phoenix, AZ who blogs at johntspencer.com.  He recently finished two books, Pencil Me In, an allegory for educational technology and Drawn Into Danger, a fictional memoir of a superhero. You can connect with him on Twitter @johntspencer

by Shelly Blake-PlockWandering around the cafe today during a lunch duty, I took mental notes on the tech usage by high school students.Counted a half-dozen kids on Skype; one of them was sharing photos from a school event. A handful of kids were listening to stuff on iPods; at least two students were downloading songs from sites I'm not familiar with -- one looked to be some sort of message board (isn't that so 90's?).One student was sitting at a table of gamers making a proxy to hack passed the school's firewall. About a half-dozen students were playing MMOGs. One student was playing a beta version of a first-person game called MineWars, or something of that sort.One student was using Google Translate to read a Chinese newspaper. One student was watching a YouTube video of a ballet recital, another was showing her friends videos of cheerleading practice. One student was busy on his iPhone and a few others were texting.Two students were on Facebook (despite the fact it's, um, "blocked"). And three students were on Twitter -- which is not blocked.No one seemed to be doing any software-based stuff; everything was online. Oh, and from what I could tell, about 90% of the kids were using Google Chrome.Talked to kids about IM'ing and everyone said they used Skype the most (as in, it was always on). Facebook came in second. No one -- as in not a single kid -- said they use Google Chat or Google Talk. They said passwords were a pain in the butt. And they don't like email.By and large, according to the students, Twitter was something you might use for class. Very "business-like". Though one student loves it to follow ESPN writers. In fact, ESPN was mentioned several times.One student was obsessed with Google News -- it's where he gets his news. Another uses four different gaming interfaces "daily". Just about every student said Facebook was the place to be outside of school (as though it were a "place" -- like the mall) -- and several mentioned that the thing they liked about FB was the "privacy". Huh.I think it's a good idea now and then to pay attention to what the kids are doing -- to see what's trending and to see what's not. More than anything, I'm interested in seeing what develops as the "normal", the "standard", and the "go-to". Because the tools we use tell volumes about our needs and desires.

by John T. SpencerI recently wrote a post about the ridiculous nature of standardized testing. Somebody e-mailed me about why an authentic approach might work in some subjects, but not in a subject like math.  So, here are a few ideas of paperless math assessments. Math Blog: This serves two purposes.  First, it's a personal journal where students write reflections on mathematical processes, ask critical thinking questions or describe methods used to solve problems.  However, it also becomes the student portfolio, where they choose items that represent their best work, most challenging works, goals for improvement and areas of growth.  Finally, blogs become a place where students share their processes and have a chance to compare and contrast with one another.  It becomes a peer-led method of formative assessment. Concept Maps: I want to see how students connect concepts from various math standards, a concept map becomes a valuable tool.  I've watched students create their own color-coded and shape-based strategies to add layers of meaning to their mental process.  Debate / Discussion: I think it's sad that teachers tend to restrict debates and discussions to social studies or language arts.  I want to see students engaged in critical thinking discourse regarding the best ways to solve problems or present data.  Sometimes this looks like a half-circle discussion of graphing methods.  Other times I have  students move to places in the room that represent various strategies (where they then discuss the strategy).  The goal here is to assess student thinking process in a way that is verbal and interactive.Projects: Here students have a chance to go in-depth into the math using multimedia methods.  In the case of the budget process, it involved using spreadsheets, shared documents and adding a video or podcast component.  In the case of the eco-friendly houses, it involved hands-on construction models after using Google Sketch-up and doing online research.  A project can be formative, in terms of helping students find applications to what they are learning; but they are also summative, in terms of developing a final product that proves mastery of math skills.  Mental Math: When people hear "paperless," they often assume it means technology.  However, we do mental math each day as a chance to assess each students' mathematical process. Students share their processes with one another on simple scenarios like finding the tip at a restaurant or judging how long a road trip will take. Multimedia Instructions / Tutorials: Here I start with a sample problem that contains multiple mistakes, though sometimes I start with a class brainstorm of potential mistakes.  From there, students create videos, podcasts or functional text descriptions on how to avoid the mistake and solve a problem correctly.  Scenario Response: Similar to Dan Meyer's "What can you do with it?" questions, the students have a multimedia clip and then develop their own problem based upon it.  The idea here is to assess inquiry and process.  So much of math revolves around, "Can I figure out what you don't know?" Here, I get to ask, "Can I figure out how much you actually know?" Students can use any tools they use to solve the problem, including manipulatives.Forms: Sometimes I want a quick assessment of student answers.  I want to know how many solved a specific problem correctly and how each student explained the process.  For that reason, I will use a Google Form and then share the overall class data with students, so we can identify potential mistakes or misunderstandings. Self-Assessment of Skills: I start with a shared document with each skill, written as a student-friendly objective.  A Student will then modify his or her shared document as they learn new skills or concepts.  I have a space for teacher and student feedback, so it becomes a chance to combine objective scoring with customized feedback. Create a Problem: Here the students find a scenario and develop an authentic problem based upon it.  For example, one group used linear inequalities to demonstrate which local taxi services are ideal for specific tasks (going to the airport, going across town, going to the supermarket).  It was relevant to our urban environment and it began with a concept that intrigued them.  Other times, I will ask students to salvage a really bad example of pseudocontext and create an alternative that uses the same skills. Either way, this becomes a chance to assess if they understand the application of a math concept in an authentic context.