By Shelly Blake-PlockWhile there has been a lot of discussion recently in the news about making the school day longer, a group of us here in Baltimore are working instead to create a new kind of after school experience for city kids.I'll be posting the specifics of what we're working on soon enough, but for today I'd just like to know about the kinds of after school activities your kids have benefitted the most from.From sports to internships to outreach to chess club to team debate to drama club: what after school program have you seen make a difference in the lives of young people?- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

by Shelly Blake-PlockMy car was totaled in a wreck a few months back and I'm just now getting into the car-buying state-of-mind you have to be in to go to a dealership to find a replacement. Looked up the handful of models I'm interested in online -- the VW Jetta, a couple of Mazdas, the Ford Fusion, a Toyota or two, a Civic -- and did the "build your own" to figure out what I could get in the price range I had set for myself. Been to a few places on Sundays (when they were closed) just to look around the lots and see the cars in person.Perhaps not surprisingly, the dealerships I've been considering are places that presented well online (the place just outside Baltimore that literally cut and pasted all of its inventory descriptions from a Canadian online magazine without so much as credit -- but whilst retaining phrases like "here in Canada..." -- well, they aren't getting my patronage).Today was my first attempt to actually go in to a dealership to talk about getting a new car. It was a VW dealership on the west side of town where we were greeted by a man in a three-piece suit named Hans. A thirty-year veteran of auto-sales (most recently selling Porsches and picking up $6K a pop in commission until the economic downturn tasked him with selling Suburus and VWs, Hans had me hooked as much by his demeanor and great stories of racing 150mph on the Autobahn and his side project as a clock repairman as he did by anything he could tell me about the cars.I knew all about the cars. I'd done my research online. I knew I liked VWs. I knew what a Jetta was going to cost me and I knew what that would run me per month. I knew all the available options and I knew what each trim offered. I knew how the car compared to others in its class and I knew what it's crash safety ratings were. Hans didn't have to tell me any of that. He just had to compel me to enjoy the car.Not that I'd exactly equate car salesmen and teachers, but I think there is something for us to learn here. When we went for the second of two tests drives, Hans told me to accelerate hard at a certain point and, as I did, he explained the mechanics of the feeling I was getting from the accelerator pedal. As I blew passed a pickup on Route 40, he explained how best to sense all of those things -- torque, horsepower -- from the point of view of the driver's seat. Not once did he tell me the price of the car or ask me if I wanted to buy it. He just allowed me to experience it and helped me tie my experience into the engineering of the vehicle itself.It was as much a master class in physics as it was a test drive.As teachers, we're usually pretty good when it comes to content. And we're also pretty good when it comes to designing lessons. From a purely pedagogical standpoint, the most crucial part is linking those two things with the motivation and experience of the student. Because like any car buyer, they already have access of one sort or another to the facts. But the facts alone don't sell cars. And the facts alone don't sell education. It takes a guy like Hans who can give a master class in physics from the backseat of a speeding Volkswagon to make the sale.Do you have a little Hans in you?As postscript I should say that I didn't buy that car today. And I think I may have annoyed Hans a bit. But I did learn a lot and now I'm going to take that experience to the other shops I visit. And it just might turn out that I return to Route 40 and that I buy a car from Hans. We'll see.From a teacher's perspective, however, I feel like I learned another lesson: sometimes it's not apparent that we've "made the sale". But we shouldn't assume. It's our part to impart knowledge and let that lead where it may. For all we know it will come back to us sooner or later. The challenge is to keep going out there for those test drives, riding in the backseat, and encouraging that kid with the hands on the wheel to really understand what they are doing.- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

by John T. SpencerI'm not saying we have to give 110%, but . . . I'm reading Trust Me right now and realizing, yet again, why John Updike was a brilliant author. I realize that he has grown less trendy in the last decade or so. Not postmodern enough. Too realistic. Too bold in crafting beautiful prose that is neither poetic nor particularly provocative. And yet every time I sit down  with his work, I am amazed by phrases like "the chemical scent of a pool always frightened him: blue-green dragon breath."I have a hunch that Updike will be criticized for the sheer volume of his work. People like a tidy list of seven or eight really good works and let's be honest, Updike produced a few works that will be forgotten (and rightfully so). However, the only reason that he continued to write well was the simple fact that he kept writing.  He understood that the only way to refine his craft was to continue to push himself to produce more. Instead of worrying about running out of ideas, he recognized that one only grows stagnant by slowing down.It seems counter-intuitive, but Updike's legacy suggests that burnout isn't caused by hard work as much as by a slowing down induced by fear and shame.  When I look at creative types who "burned out," I don't think it was laziness or lack of interest or the sense that they had nothing left in them. Instead, it was fear. I think Salinger, after writing Catcher in the Rye, realized that it was good, perhaps too good to be repeated and so he fled to mediocrity.That was me last year. I worked really hard, had some great results and then fled into a teacher-coach role this year out of fear that I wouldn't be able to do it again. I ran away respectfully. I refused to admit just how scared I was that I would not repeat the kind of year I had last year. I allowed shame and fear to determine my self-concept as a teacher. And the hard part, the scary part of it, was that I loved teaching. I simply couldn't allow my success to depend upon standardized test scores. In other years, I almost hit the burnout point because of the dissonance between what I believed about education and what the system was asking me to do.The issue was never hard work, but rather work that I was afraid I couldn't repeat combined with work that did not fit my identity. Hard work made me tired. Fear and shame led me to flee. I'm still teaching part-time, but I'mTeaching is exhausting. I get that. A teacher spends hours in a passionate, emotional, sensitive state and on some level, that simply isn't natural. However, I have never seen a teacher burn out from hard work. Instead, a teacher is more likely to burn out by checking out, slowing down and giving themselves the permission to be less passionate and to care less in the name of balance. And that's me right now. I have more free time than ever before. I am not working anywhere near as hard as I did last year. I slowed down and now, as I teach only part of the day, I am dying to be back into the classroom full-time. I would rather be tired than spend my time doing something that doesn't fit who I am. I may not be able to repeat the success of last year, but I would rather fail trying than continue to slow down.This isn't to suggest that balance is bad. Teachers need a personal life. There is nothing wrong with working fewer hours than in the past. However, when I watch teachers burn out, it is almost never because they were working too hard. In fact, the opposite is true. They often slow down as a result of burnout. Slowly, subtly, shame beats the passion out of them and they are left with a shell of a vocation. They don't burn out in explosion. They vaporize so slowly that you don't see it until it's too late.*     *     *John T. Spencer is a teacher in Phoenix, AZ who blogs at Education Rethink. He recently finished Pencil Me In, an allegory for educational technology and A Sustainable Start, a book for new teachers. He also wrote the reform-minded memoirs Teaching Unmasked: A Humble Alternative to Waiting For a Superhero and Sages and Lunatics. He has written two young adult novels Drawn Into Danger and A Wall for Zombies. You can connect with him on Twitter @johntspencer

by John T. SpencerLast year, I allowed my story to slip into the Superman Narrative. My students were scoring well. The Clipboard Crew visited often. I wrote blog posts about what I was doing; beginning to believe I had more answers than questions. I tried to hide the imperfections. I yelled at kids a few times last year. I failed miserably at teaching science. I had to apologize at least once a day for something.I took a job as a teacher-coach, believing that I had a duty to share my expertise. It was arrogant, I know. However, it was more about fear than anything else. I wasn't sure that I could repeat what happened last year. I had slipped into the wrong story. Outward, I look "successful" in this current position. But inside, I'm dying to be teaching full-time. I left the classroom when I still loved being a teacher and now, as I teach during part of the day, I get a taste of what I missed everyday.So, as I think about my return to the classroom full-time next year, I want to go back to the story that I had believed before:Character: I want to be faithful, courageous and wise. But more than anything, I wanted to be someone who loves people well. If my students are engaged mentally and feel safe, I'm off to a great start.Antagonist: The real antagonist was the system of standardization and the lie of perfectionism. Failure isn't the enemy. It's a chance to grow. Low test scores won't kill me. Really. Plot: It doesn't have to look exciting. My actions might look impressive (a mural or a documentary) but often humble (a debate, a project, an in-depth discussion) and that’s okay. It's not about the credit, the glory or the sense of superiority I feel when I am noticed. Setting: The real setting has to be my classroom. It isn’t about what the world sees or how I am noticed within the entire school. It's not about the Twitterverse or the Blogosphere or any other catchy name we have for the echo chamber of what's working. In my classroom, I'm broken and vulnerable . . . and yet, amazing things happen. Conflict: The true conflict is mostly internal: Will I be faithful? Will I remain true to my convictions? Will I be bold enough to fight against the standardized system? Will I get suckered into the wrong story?Theme: It’s about providing authentic learning for all students. It's always been about thinking better about life. Period. If I can remember that theme, I'm better off for it.*     *     *John T. Spencer is a teacher in Phoenix, AZ who blogs at Education Rethink. He recently finished Pencil Me In, an allegory for educational technology and A Sustainable Start, a book for new teachers. He also wrote the reform-minded memoirs Teaching Unmasked: A Humble Alternative to Waiting For a Superhero and Sages and Lunatics. He has written two young adult novels Drawn Into Danger and A Wall for Zombies. You can connect with him on Twitter @johntspencer

by Shelly Blake-PlockSpending the morning at my high school alma mater today discussing pd and teaching styles. It's an interesting position to be in. Wondering what you all would say given the opportunity to talk with your alma mater about what effect they had on you (for better or worse) and where and how you would want to see them go into the new.

Baltimore (and nearby) Folks:WHAT: BALTIMORE EDTECH FORUM on THE FUTURE of SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE and LEARNING SPACES in the DIGITAL AGEWHERE: Digital Harbor High School, 1100 Covington St., Baltimore, MD 21230WHEN: March 14, 2012 // 6 to 8PMFEE: Free and open to the publicFeaturing a panel comprised of Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Andres Alonso, architect and principal of Cho Benn Holback and Associates -- David Benn, and artist and UMBC professor Callie Neylan, the evening will be dedicated to conversation and discussion about the Future of School Architecture and Learning Spaces in Baltimore's Digital Age.On July 1, 2007, Andres Alonso became CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools. During his tenure, Baltimore City students have reached their highest outcomes in state exams, across all categories of students. City Schools saw its enrollment climb, following four decades of steady enrollment decline. It posted its best-ever dropout and graduation rates, driven largely by attention to all students, a focus on adult performance, the promotion of choice and school autonomy for all schools, and intensive efforts to engage parents and community.The recipient of the Cornell University Eidlitz Traveling Fellowship Award, David Benn practiced architecture in London, Teheran and New York, and taught architectural design at Cornell University before joining Cho and Holback in Baltimore. He has won design awards from the Maryland Society and Baltimore Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the Maryland Trust, the Waterfront Center, and the Maryland Chapter of the American Planning Association.Callie Neylan is an interaction designer, researcher, and writer. She is an award-winning designer, with work recognized by Communication Arts, AIGA, and I.D. Magazine, and featured in the New York Times, Fast Company, and Gizmodo. Callie’s research interests include designing for the disabled, wearable computing, and the intersection of interaction design and the urban space. She is also exploring aesthetics in interaction design and is a contributing writer about design and technology for NPR.org.The Baltimore EdTech Forum is an event designed to provoke visionary thinking and conversation about the future of education and technology in Baltimore. The event will be moderated by Andrew Coy, co-founder of the EdTech Forum and teacher at Digital Harbor High School.

by John SpencerDear John,So about school. I know you feel like a failure, but you're doing better than you think. You sometimes feel guilty about hating school while liking your teachers. Sometimes you even do the assignment just because you feel bad for teachers who internalize your apathy and think it's their fault. Don't beat yourself up over this. You think that FOIL is irrelevant to your life? You're right. You feel that the Periodic Table of Elements won't change how you live? Again, you're onto something. On most days you get frustrated and ask the question, "How will this help me live better?" Don't let school beat that question out of you.Don't think that you suck at math simply because you don't memorize algorithms. Math is more than memorizing. Don't assume that science isn't your thing, just because you don't like to rip apart an animal in class. Some day when you have your own children you'll rekindle your love of science and realize it was never really all that dormant in the first place. Your penchant for staring at the sunsets or walking barefoot in the moonlight will never cease.One of the greatest insights you have into life is that it's a vapor. I think you've always had it, but Lynn's suicide certainly drove that point home. I know you're squirming right now in the fact that I mention it. You want to brush it off with, "well she wasn't a close friend and really I'm okay." But I've seen you crying at night and I want you to know that there really was nothing you could do to save her.You yearn for something real. The bad news is that you'll only get it in bits and pieces along the way, but when you do, you'll be amazed. You'll have some of the most life-changing teachers who speak truth into your soul in ways that others can't. You're deeply existential and sensitive and I know that feels like a curse right now, but it's a beautiful thing.Beauty. You still cringe at that word. You still keep your poetry secret. That's fine, I guess. That solitude is how you will refine your craft. But there's nothing wrong with loving language. Being poetic isn't unmanly. Un-macho, perhaps, but not unmanly. Real men are warriors and poets who dream and act and listen. Embrace your desire to write. I know, I know, it feels like you're wasting your time reading books and writing stories, but these will serve you well in ways that you cannot predict. With regards to being geeky, I can't help you. I know it seems like the girls aren't that into you and it's true. They prefer assholes at this age. For what it's worth, you've ignored some amazing geeky girls as well. Quit trying to learn how to throw a ball through the hoop. You and I both know they were lying to you when they said, "You can be anything you want to be." You're never going to be a star basketball player. But you know that sheer sense of joy you feel when you are almost floating on air in mile 7 of a long run? Someday you'll feel that on mile 19 as well.The good news is that someday character will matter more than brawn and your acne will clear up and you'll find someone who is beautiful and intelligent and intriguing. You'll wake up next to her every morning and feel like the luckiest man in the world. And, yes, I know your junior high brain; you'll have plenty of sex and yes, it's all that it's made out to be. You won't call it sex, though. You'll call it making love and none of that will make since until you find that woman who will change your world. In terms of your emotions, they never go away. You have moments when you lose your temper and you get frustrated with how easily you are hurt. You can't escape that. It is a part of who you are. Except, here's the neat part: they are redeemed somehow. I'd say God is a part of the process, but I remember what you were like in the eighth grade. That agnostic part of you laughs at the idea of God and for now that will do just fine. But someday that will be shaken. It's what happens when you ask too many questions. Your anger will transform into this strong sense of social justice and you'll fight for what you believe in. Your sensitivity will move from something self-centered to others-centered and you'll find that your ability to listen and to empathize will make you a great dad and husband and teacher (permission to laugh at this - I know you can't believe you'll ever want to go back to school when it's over). I know that life feels pretty awful. The cliques seem cruel. The kids seem fake. The subjects seem irrelevant. Trust me, even at thirty-one, I cannot look back on fourteen nostalgically. But I understand your hope that things will get better and I want you to know that your hope isn't wrong. Things get better. Way better. By the time you're my age, you'll spend most days feeling like the luckiest guy on the planet. I won't end with a trite phrase like "be true to yourself" or whatever. I just want you to know that you'll be okay, John. You'll be okay. It really does get better.Love,JohnJohn T. Spencer is a teacher in Phoenix, AZ who blogs at Education Rethink. He recently finished Pencil Me In, an allegory for educational technology and A Sustainable Start, a book for new teachers. He also wrote the reform-minded memoirs Teaching Unmasked: A Humble Alternative to Waiting For a Superhero and Sages and Lunatics. He has written two young adult novels Drawn Into Danger and A Wall for Zombies. You can connect with him on Twitter @johntspencer

by Andrew Coy "Reverse mentoring is a concept borne of the information age... Reverse mentoring asks the younger, technologically savvier youngsters to tutor or support the older generation in learning how to leverage social media, blogs, email, cloud-based services, and other tools that we now have at our disposal." -- Meredith ElyMy students have working for a few months with teachers at Liberty Elementary as reverse mentors. This last week, we thought we would ask the teachers what they thought about it. I've included some of the responses below.The QuestionsWhat do you think about reverse mentoring?How has your view of technology changed?How do you plan on using what you do with us in the future?What have you learned?How have you applied what we have worked with you about? The Responses"I have absolutely loved the reverse mentoring program we've instituted here at Liberty Elementary.  I have learned so much from the Digital Harbor High School students- especially my personal instructor, Ykitta.  She's been patient and informative and has shown me ways to effectively use technology in a non-intrusive way. For example, I she helped me create a classroom web page that I can use to update parents and has also shown me how to seamlessly use multiple pieces of technology at once to enhance my instruction.  I look forward to our weekly sessions."- Mrs. Adams"I thought I was a technology expert - until I participated in reverse mentoring. Students now have such a greater breadth, and depth, of technological knowledge than I ever had growing up - even though they aren't much younger than me! I have learned so much more from the Digital Harbor High School students than I have ever learned from an adult through professional development. I am confident that, if we can instruct with the technological savvy our mentors have, our students will be equipped with the skills necessary to compete in a global economy. I look forward to the day when our student mentors become educators and have the opportunity to apply their technological awareness as a powerful instructional tool."- Ms. Irmer"It is making an impact on my instruction with my students and technology is making my lessons more interesting, fun and is student centered. The benefits of being mentored is the collaboration effort and we share ideas and how to incorporate technology in our class. I have learned a lot of good stuff especially on the different apps that my students use for center time or when they are finished with workshop and needs more activity to do, they get to use the iPad. Also, it has been helping me when I do guided reading or read aloud when we are working with a vocabulary word, we Google search the word and the picture/image appears." - Mr. PanaliganCurious what your response to these same questions would be. Please leave us a comment and tell us if, how, and where you have seen reverse mentoring in your school. And if you haven't, why not? What are the obstacles to setting up a reverse mentoring program? And what role can and should reverse mentoring play in professional development for teachers?(See LearnBoost's blog for the whole article by Meredith Ely and see City Biz List for a second article written by Newt Fowler.)

by John SpencerIn working with collaborative groups, I've noticed that tools are often chosen based upon comfort level, trendiness or simplicity rather than the function or the format in relationship to identity of the group and the purpose of the task. I've grown frustrated with brainstorms on visual topics where we used text-based tools or in trying to co-create something using a medium designed for communication. For that reason, I've created the collaboration grid. I realize that it's pretty arbitrary. I don't pretend to base this off of research or science. However, I thought I would share it with anyone interested.THE FUNCTIONWhen I think about collaboration, I tend to think in two domains. I typically have times when I am co-creating and other times when I am communicating. On some level, the two will always co-exist in collaboration. However, sharing ideas over a cup of coffee is very different than painting a mural together.In terms of online collaboration tools, I find myself using Twitter or Google Chat for sharing ideas and using Google Docs or Prezi for co-creating. For that reason, I have placed various web tools on a continuum between the creative and the communicative domains. Some tools fit evenly between these, like simple blogging, where the user is just as likely to engage and share as he or she is to create and post. Others fit on more extreme sides of each domain.A few questions to consider:Are we helping to ensure that we are creating rather than simply consuming information?Is there a balance between sharing in the communication along with sharing in the creation of a product?What is the nature of a tool with regards to creating and communicating?THE FORMATIn terms of format, there tends to be a continuum between text-based and multimedia. Some tools, like blogging and micro-blogging are toward the middle. However, Skyping with someone is a very multimedia experience while shared writing documents tend to be very text-based.It's important that teachers and students think about the format as they collaborate. Too much reliant on text or visuals can skew the nature of the collaboration. A visual brainstorm on Pinterest will look far different than a text-based brainstorm on a Google Document.A few questions to consider:Does this allow for audio, visual or text-based information? If it allows for multiple representations, which one is it most geared toward?How do these tools mirror in-person interactions? How do they vary from face-to-face interactions?What is lost in this medium? (For example, tone of voice, facial expression, etc.)John T. Spencer is a teacher in Phoenix, AZ who blogs at Education Rethink. He recently finished Pencil Me In, an allegory for educational technology and A Sustainable Start, a book for new teachers. He also wrote the reform-minded memoirs Teaching Unmasked: A Humble Alternative to Waiting For a Superhero and Sages and Lunatics. He has written two young adult novels Drawn Into Danger and A Wall for Zombies. You can connect with him on Twitter @johntspencer

Digital Harbor High School is going to be electric with discussion and debate tomorrow eve as Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Andres Alonso and architect David Benn talk school architecture in the digital age.So, if you find yourself in Charm City tomorrow night, you need to make your way down to Federal Hill to attend and take part in the Third Baltimore EdTech Forum! Topic: THE FUTURE of SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE and LEARNING SPACES in the DIGITAL AGE WHERE: Digital Harbor High School, 1100 Covington St., Baltimore, MD 21230 WHEN: March 14, 2011 // 6 to 8PM FEE: Free and open to the public The Baltimore EdTech Forum is an event designed to provoke visionary thinking and conversation about the future of education and technology in Baltimore. The event will feature presentations and discussion with Andres Alonso and David Benn and a large-format audience-driven group conversation about the future of learning spaces, digital age renovation, and building design in Baltimore schools. http://www.edtechbaltimore.org/2012/baltimore-edtech-forum-march/

"Schools are full of obsolete things: cassette players, Soviet-era political maps, curricula that treat technology as auxiliary to content, the idea that technology will save education (as opposed to the idea that relevance will)." -- Shelly Blake-Plockfrom an article published today in EdTech K-12; check it out online and share!

by David Andrade http://willardeastelementary.edublogs.org/2010/04/22/paperless-earth-day/I haven't posted on here in quite a while, but in keeping with the title of the blog, here are some great resources and tips for going paperless.I'm a big proponent of going paperless. When I worked as an engineer over 10 years ago, a few of the companies I worked for where going paperless back then. Many schools are going paperless, or as much as possible, now. I've written about tips and resources for going paperless before and here are some more tips.Paper, we don't need no paper! Tools and tips for going paperlessTools to go Paperless (in school and at home)Tips:- use flat screen monitors on walls as electronic bulletin boards.- install solar panels on roof to offset increased electricity use.- 2 monitors for each PC - can have reference on one screen and working document on other instead of printing reference out (or use tablet)- Use email, chat, and meeting software and other collaborative software- all markups done electronically- auto backup of network every day- all files on network with offsite, fireproof backup (Dropbox, Sugarsync, own network)- autosave files every 5 min- battery and generator backups- limit print outs to absolutely necessary items- all files saved in two formats - original (such as Word or PPT) and PDF. PDF is readable by every device and operating system using free apps.- Read-only terminals in certain areas for visitors and reference look up- network accessible from home/road for personnel - no data on laptops- all paperwork from outside is scanned into system - original is filed- all partners, organizations and vendors are encouraged to use electronic communications - email, website forms, etc.- Student Information are all searchable and connected and linked with all relevant files- scan legacy files using OCR into PDF files or scan into Evernote to make searchable- don't print emails!- all files distributed as PDF's when possible - readable on any system- Train your employees on going paperlessWhat tips do you have for going paperless?Related:Evernote for EducatorsCloud File Storage, backup and syncAndroid Smartphone and Apps I use as an EducatorInteresting Comment Regarding Going PaperlessUnfettered by Stuff - or "Why I don't lug stuff home every night"Google for Educators resourcesWhy I use Google's resources as an EducatorAlternatives to Google's web services and appsTips for saving money and finding free resources for school

by Shelly Blake-PlockMore and more I find myself thinking about the future of teacher preparation and higher ed more generally. I'll be posting at length about this in the coming weeks, but for right now I just want to throw a question out there and get some ideas.And the question is whether a social network can or will ever be able to grant accreditation, certification, validation, and the like. Maybe I'm just stumbling over my thoughts, but I'm thinking along these lines: we talk a lot about Twitter and PLNs encouraging and making possible great pd, so why not take it to the next level: could professional social networks replace much of what goes on in higher ed professional schools and become in and of themselves accrediting, certifying, "institutional networks"? And would we want that?

John T. Spencer (@johntspencer)What should an administrator look for when hiring a 21st Century teacher?Humility.If a teacher can't use an iPod or an iPad or a Chromebook or a laptop, that's okay. A humble teacher can ask for help from fellow teachers, from students and from folks online.If a teacher doesn't quite get project-based learning, that's okay. A humble teacher will watch and listen and be open to the major paradigm changes required to pull of a PBL framework.If a teacher hasn't heard of connected learning and has never developed a personal learning network, that's okay. A humble teacher will learn to use Twitter and blogs and Facebook and whatever tools are necessary to learn. In an echo chamber of "I have an idea," that teacher just might say, "I have a question."I'm not suggesting that administrators should deliberately search for unqualified candidates. Often, the most humble teachers have already done amazing things. Still, humility is the gateway to innovation and growth and sustainability. Humility works paradoxically to bring about greatness. Humility enables empathy and communication and collaboration that goes beyond the structures implemented by a school.I'm not sure how you find humble teachers. I'm not sure there is a test for it. I'm not sure you can find it in an interview. It certainly isn't a feature on a resume. However, if I was an administrator, I would try my hardest to recruit and retain humble teachers.John T. Spencer is a teacher in Phoenix, AZ who blogs at Education Rethink. He recently finished Pencil Me In, an allegory for educational technology and A Sustainable Start, a book for new teachers. He also wrote the reform-minded memoirs Teaching Unmasked: A Humble Alternative to Waiting For a Superhero and Sages and Lunatics. He has written two young adult novels Drawn Into Danger and A Wall for Zombies. You can connect with him on Twitter @johntspencer

by John T. Spencer (johntspencer)I just read an article by Beth Still ("Ten Surfire Ways to Destroy Your Twitter Cred") in Learning and Leading with Technology. While I agree with most of her advice regarding Twitter etiquette, I found myself thinking, "I kind-of suck at Twitter." As I read the top ten list, I found myself thinking, "Oh, that's me."#3: Tweeting about all of your interests from one Twitter accountI tweet about my world. Often this is education, but I have no idea tweeting jokes about language, thoughts about sports, commentary on local events or satire about suburbia. Sometimes I let my interests combine (which was the case with the tweets I wrote about #jesusasateacher). I see the rationale for keeping these worlds separate. But I need to be a little more holistic. I respect people who can manage multiple accounts and really focus on a special interest. However, that's not me.#6: Using slang and text lingoGuilty. I agree with Beth on this one, but still I use IMHO and I bust out the emoticons way too often ;)  Twitter belongs in the common vernacular. Sometimes it's fun to play with formal, poetic language. Other times, it's fun to be very casual. I like the surprise and flexibility of Twitter.#9: SnarkinessSome of my favorite tweets from others have a snarky edge to them. When I look back at it, #pencilchat was slightly snarky. I'm pretty sure my #vintageISTE tweets also a bit snarky (writing about how the Oregon Trail would save education).I don't have much Klout and I admit that I don't have anywhere near as many followers as many educational bloggers. I'm pretty sure that some of my tweets have stretched the boundaries of professionally.And yet . . .A little bit of snark, a somewhat casual approach and a sense of variety have allowed me to be myself online. I've made friends by being myself. I've engaged in some meaningful dialogue when breaking the rules (the PLC conversations come to mind here).

by Shelly Blake-Plock This year has been one of transition for me as I shifted from working full time in the secondary classroom to working online virtually with kids and on the ground throughout the country with educators and technologists.This last November I had a long conversation with Andrew Coy, a public school teacher here in Baltimore. We talked a lot about the variety of ways that the traditional school format was having trouble keeping up with the changes going on culturally and socio-economically with regards to digital literacy and tech access.We came to a fundamental conclusion that one of the hurdles urban youth face is having the opportunity and support to actually see themselves as engaged content creators and tech-space makers and doers. It has to do with identity, access, and having a network that will support you. It's a cruel irony that so many of our kids are natural innovators and entrepreneurs but so little of our curricula encourage new thinking and new ways of doing things.And so, we decided that we would do something about this.This evening, Andrew and I are holding a fundraiser for a program that will connect students, teachers, and technologists in ways that encourage collaboration, the spread of digital literacy, innovative and creative thinking, and the development of new open source technologies driven by real digital age classroom experience.Andrew and I have accepted positions as co executive directors of the Digital Harbor Foundation, a recently formed nonprofit based in Baltimore. In our role, we are designing and rolling out a new program called EdTech Link.Converting an under-used city rec center into a nonprofit community tech center, we will develop digital capacity in students and teachers while offering outreach in innovation, tech advancement, and entrepreneurship designed to empower communities long under-served.Students will be enrolled in an afterschool program defined by their passions in life. Our curriculum is designed to teach digital literacy and tech workforce skills while kids learn and develop new understandings about the things that motivate them. Students then have the opportunity to "get paid to think" in the evening as they take on the role of reverse-mentors teaching digital literacy and tech workforce development skills to their parents and adults in the community -- all this with the support and guidance of teachers and volunteer technologists.A select group of city public school teachers, meanwhile, will be chosen as EdTech Link Fellows. They will receive a stipend and tech support as they take part in intensive edtech professional development and run afterschool tech and innovation programs in their schools across the city. Additionally, in the summer time, teacher-fellows will work directly in collaboration with technologists in our local tech incubators to develop new open source education technologies based directly on their experiences and needs in the classroom. For generations, teachers have had few "ladders" available in their career: one either stayed in the classroom or became an administrator. Now, with the rise of professional online technologies, networks, and communities of practice, we have more ladders available to us; our task then is to help teachers develop into teacherpreneurs whose sense of practical innovation and open social entrepreneurship changes the face of both education and technology.Just two weekends ago we had two brilliant teachers in from Cleveland. And in the course of 72 hours we built a new model open source technology for collecting and coding qualitative data. That's the skill of the social entrepreneur in education.And so I'm entering into uncharted waters. I'll be spending my time working directly with students and teachers on the ground while also working with technologists to bring the work we are doing in Baltimore to the online space where learners everywhere can be part of our community.New thinking means new thinking. And I've found myself in the position of actually being able to put to the test all of the ideas that have percolated in my mind and on this blog for years. And I'm going to make the most of this.I want to take just a moment to thank the educators, technologists, and organizers who have accepted positions on our Advisory Board -- Alec Couros, Chris Lehmann, Mary Beth Hertz, Steven W. Anderson, Rodney Foxworth, Dean Groom, Christine Johnson, Tom Murdock, Susan Malone, and Christopher Sessums. They are the folks who will keep us focused like a laser on making something relevant to the lives of kids and their teachers. I also would like to thank the folks whose sense of innovation, technology, and education make up the sustainable heart of our Board of Trustees -- Sean Lane, Chris Hoyt, Craig Cummings, Rachel Charlesworth, Guy Filippelli, and David Stone.Andrew and I are pretty darned excited about where things are headed, and we want to thank all of you for making up the network that makes this all possible.From Baltimore,Shellyps -- Here's some more info about EdTech Link...An article on Mind/Shift describing the program. Info on MarketWatch about EdTech Link.And, of course, a link to our website and our @DHFBaltimore twitter feed.

By Steve Katzhttp://www.stevenkatz.com/I have been giving a lot of password advice at work lately, & over the years I’ve read several different ways to invent passwords. I think I have a pretty good system for creating them. Here it is:1. Come up with a password that has absolutely no significance. I call this the "root password." Use at least six characters. More is better. So is a variety of letters, numbers, & symbols. example: k5$3b42. Memorize it. (You can write it down somewhere without worrying about it. Read on.)3. For whatever site you need a password for, take two characters from that site’s name and then add them to the root password. Use the same system for all sites.For example, you can use the first two letters of a site’s name. Facebook = fa, YouTube = yo Add them to the beginning of your root password and your password for Facebook becomes fak5$3b4, YouTube is yok5$3b4.There are an infinite number of variations for this. You could use the first and last letters of a site’s name, second & third, capitalize them, add them to the end or in the middle of your password, or split them with a punctuation mark.This system has worked for me. My passwords are different for all sites & they are easy for me to remember.Two more bits of advice: If you use a mobile device make sure the characters you choose for your root password are easy to access. On my laptop the percent symbol, %, is just a shift key away, but on my iPad it takes three taps. It is still a good idea to change your password regularly. When you change your passwords simply vary your system or root password.If you would like to check you password strength, passwordmeter.com can do this and also gives some ideas for creating a stronger (root) password.Cross-posted on my blog.

by Shelly Blake-PlockThis one came up yesterday during #EdInnoMeetup -- a new quarterly gathering of edu thinkers in Baltimore: "Is your school's mission statement relevant to your students' online communities of practice and social influence?"In my experience, school mission statements do a good job of telling us what influence the school will have over the student, but not vice-versa. Thoughts?

By Sean Wheeler and Ken Kozar@teachinghumansTeachinghumans@gmail.comteachinghumans.blogspot.comLearning comes more from asking questions than it does from answering them.  Of course, the education paradigm that we find ourselves in is based upon an opposite notion.  This notion holds that by measuring students’ responses to questions that we put in front of them we can somehow surmise how effectively students learn, how effectively we teach, and how well the educational model that we’ve developed over a couple hundred years serves to prepare our students for engaged and meaningful lives.  Perhaps it’s time that we begin to explore a different path.A month or so ago, the team of teachers we work with came up with an interesting idea based on a post that Shelly Blake-Plock had written entitled, "If School Is Not Relevant".  "Imagine if schools were judged not by how well students achieved while they were in school, but in how well they achieved once they left. If schools saw their worth not in how many kids got accepted to college, but in how many kids went on to live meaningful and engaged lives and who would point back to their school years as the point of relevancy that was the foundation of it all."  In an age of massively networked communication and virtually unlimited access to information, it seems like our educational model should be exploring the tremendous potential our students have in regards to asking big questions of -- and to -- their world.  Authentic audiences can be easily accessed, broadcasting is incredibly simple, and our mission as educators should include teaching our students to work in a world in which everyone is connected.  We can now ask huge questions of the world, and learn from listening to the conversations that develop.But we didn’t want to only imagine an education assessment model like that, we wanted to create one.  What would we find out if we actually asked people to reflect on the relevance of education in their adult lives?  What questions could we begin to ask of a data pool like that?  Who could use that information and for what purposes?  What would it mean if we could begin to analyze this qualitative feedback and learn from it in the aggregate?    So we approached Shelly Blake-Plock and Andrew Coy with a suggestion that we team up and use social media to gather this feedback.  What we came up with is the "How Did School Do?" Project, and we’re hoping to learn from the feedback we get..Our students will watch the videos, study them, and begin to propose research topics based on patterns that will begin to emerge from your feedback.  Students will then set out to explore their topic, engage in conversations about their topic, and ultimately report what they’ve learned online.  We’d like to invite other classes to join us as well, and will do our best to support a network of students studying these reflections on school relevance.  We also invite anyone else who’d like to join us in learning from what your videos tell us.  We hope it sparks many great conversations about what works in our schools.  So please submit a video, share this with your friends and family, and help us to get a really big answer to a really big question... How did school do?

by Shelly Blake-PlockEdutopia published a guest post of mine today about the 'How Did School Do' project. Here's a snippet...It wasn’t long ago that language arts teacher Wheeler and his Lakewood City School District biology-teaching colleague Ken Kozar -- along with a class of eager 10th graders -- realized that certain questions weren’t being asked online. And one question above all resonated with teacher and student alike: How did school do?Read the whole article at Edutopia.

by Mike Kaechele Disclaimer: I teach in a PBL school where every core class follows the PBL process. I am a firm believer in PBL as an excellent application of student-centered, constructivist learning. I believe that PBL is ONE effective way to teach and provides a clear structure for teachers to transition from a teacher-centered to student-centered classroom. I do NOT believe that it is the only way to effectively teach.In reading comments to John Spencer's post about The Problem with PBL I felt like people have a bit of a narrow view of PBL. It felt like many define it as students engaged in a project, usually inquiry based. PBL at its heart and soul is a process that can include any teaching style in it including simulations, research, individual and group work, and yes even lecturing. So here is how lectures fit into the PBL model.On a recent project on WWII students were considering the driving question "When is War Just?" They were required to present their findings to the class using the methods of their choice. I team teach with an ELA instructor and part of her requirements was that students submit a bibliography according to the MLA format. Students had done a very poor job of this on a previous project so we asked what we could do to make it better. She had already done whole class and small group, voluntary workshops (PBL lingo for lectures; I know the lingo is overkill, but don't shoot the messenger). Most students had not followed the instructions.For this project we waited until the day before the project was due and required each group to send one member to the workshop on MLA format. This was very effective because students had their bibliographies "completed" but were able to see in the workshop any mistakes and fix them. This is how lectures are used in PBL-"just in time."Instead of forcing a lecture on students who are uninterested, PBL encourages students to struggle and get stuck first. Then they can request a workshop on a topic that they need help on. Now they are ready to listen and get the help that they need. Frustration and struggle with a topic creates a need for the teacher lecture. Oftentimes attendance to a workshop is voluntary. Other times a teacher may require certain students to attend based on a formative assessment that shows weakness in a certain area. This allows the lecture to be focused on those students who need it when they need it.So for those readers who say that PBL is part of a holistic education and not the whole. I am curious what other techniques do you use in the classroom that you do not feel fall under the umbrella of the PBL process?

by John T. SpencerEducators clamor for open access to social media in schools. We (including me) write about the need to teach digital citizenship to the digital natives. And yet . . . how do we even define social media? I witnessed many metaphors yesterday and each one of them seemed to suggest that we are attempting to find things in our physical world in order to make sense out of the digital.I'm not sure it does make sense. At least not to me.LocationShould we view social media as a public location? If so, does it matter where one tweets from if he or she is "on Twitter?" Is it about the network? the equipment? If it is a space, is it truly public? Does it make a difference that someone must willfully follow a person on Twitter or "friend" a person on Facebook? My speech is, in this sense, less public than it would be at a supermarket or a baseball game. Defining social media through the lens of location becomes tricky, though. Twitter is, on some level, a spaceless space. It is real-time, but not bound by time. My words do not evaporate the way they do in conversation. Instead, I leave a ticker-tape of thoughts behind me for anyone to pick up asynchronously. In addition, social media allow users to be in many places at the same time in a way that is simply not possible without a horcrux (Harry Potter reference). If I can speak openly about my faith at Starbucks with a group of friends then what changes if it in a tweet instead? The size of the group, perhaps? What size is large enough to be "broadcast?" If this is the case, it would seem that the larger issue is less about the Establishment Clause than the right to assemble publicly.ContentShould we view social media as the tools we use for the content that we produce? Is it similar to writing a book, publishing a magazine, posting a blog? What makes a tweet different from a bumper sticker in a staff parking lot, where a student might see political, personal or religious speech? How are my Instagram pictures any different from putting photography in a museum? The difficulty here is that the content is more accesible than in other forms of media. It is public, open to the entire world anywhere at any time. And unlike other media outlets, it is one in which the creators of the content do not have any voice in who owns the method. If so, then are the issues of free exercise and the establishment clause really relevant to social media? At this point, it seems that it would be more an issue of the freedom of the press. It is hard to deny the power of the pocket journalists in the Arab Spring who used social media to report on the issues in the world. CommunicationShould we view social media as a method of communicating? Is it simply another form of conversation, not unlike body language, voice, text, etc.? When I'm tweeting am I simply having a conversation with whoever cares to listen? The problem here is that social media doesn't work like traditional forms of communication. The permanence, the broadcast nature of each medium, the difficulty in determining who is "listening" make it challenging. Moreover, it becomes even more challenging when it social media, by nature, are multimedia. Twitter involves videos, pictures, symbols, text, all moving digitally. IdentityShould we view social media as an expression of one's identity? We use terms like digital citizenship, online identity and branding, which all suggest that social media moves beyond simply communicating and into "being." The problem here is that it is easier online to choose anonymity and to craft identity in ways that are much more difficult in person. In addition, social media force the individual to create separate accounts  if he or she wants to compartmentalize. I am always a teacher at school. It is my identity. My speech changes when I am off the clock, outside of school. I see a real danger in the notion that employers (especially if it is the government) essentially "owns" a person at all times when he or she uses social media. When the speech is permanent (as it is) and the profile is static (as it is), I don't have the chance to switch roles and responsibilities. What does it mean, then, to protect the personal side of a teacher (or any worker) online? At what point does a teacher still represent a school even when he or she is "away" from that context? 

a lesson I couldn't learn on Twitterby John T. SpencerAs the kids filled out their silent, kill-and-drill test, I found myself wanting to interact on Twitter. I wanted to share my questions and frustrations with the people I've gotten to know. It had me wondering what school would be like if we modeled it after Twitter.At first, this ideas sounded intriguing. We would get together in random chats, organizing our thoughts and sharing resources according to shared categories that grow organically. I'd have the permission to speak and to listen, engaging strangers at times and somehow making close friendships in the process. When things got too loud, I could move into a one-on-one mode, sharing small direct, personal messages back and forth.  There would be space for deep, conflict-ridden discussions and light-hearted humor.Then I thought about the times when I've learned the most and they had certain elements that simply don't work that well on Twitter. They involved direct action and reflection, painful conversations, longer narratives, novels and paintings and solving equations that I had to wrestle with on my own. It was never entirely self-directed, often shaped, in positive and negative ways, by the will of the group.I really enjoy Twitter, but I grow professionally from a pint or a cup of coffee or a long hike or a game of catch or a favorite novel or a perplexing historical monograph.I love Twitter. I really do. I love blogging, too. But I'm struck by the notion that social media should not be the basis for how we design schools. Instead, we need to design social systems that reflect the profound, the superficial, the nuanced, paradox-filled, muddled, messy nature of humanity.

by Shelly Blake-PlockThe problem with TED Ed is the problem of what we define in traditional education as a "lesson".In life, we learn lessons by trial-and-error. We burn our hand on the stove as children and therefore learn that the stove gets hot. Over time we realize it gets hot because its purpose is to cook food. Some of us learn how the stove works and become mechanics or industrial engineers; others of us become chefs. Most of us just realize to keep our hands out of hot stuff.But we all learn by doing and by making mistakes.And I emphasize "doing".TED -- in the form it is presented online to the masses -- is not about doing. It is about watching. Listening. Consuming. Maybe leaving a comment or sharing a link to improve your TEDCred score. Yes, there is a wealth of interesting information and lots to think about. Personally, I find many of the lectures to be inspired. But we shouldn't confuse an inspiring lecture and provocative ideas with "learning".And much of what we have called "lessons" over the decades really aren't lessons at all -- they are consumables. They are short narratives consumed by students who are then asked to fill in bubbles that demonstrate that the student either was paying a modicum of attention or that the student has good natural deductive skills in parsing the quiz-maker's craft.And so we added the essay, the brief constructed response, the formal answer. And we said it was good because now we had brought qualitative and subjective response and the skill of argument to the assessment of learning. And we judged it objectively. And we kicked the poets out of town.None of this led to "learning" for the overwhelming majority of students. If it had, we would not be at the crisis stage in education and culture.And so, I was interested though skeptical of TED Ed when it was announced. And now, in seeing where it is going I am depressed.Let's consider the things that TED Ed asks the learner to do: watch a video, take a multiple-choice quiz, write brief constructed responses, and read through a bibliography. If I took the name TED out of this scenario, I would suggest that many educators would say that this format is exactly the type of traditional assessment that project-based, inquiry-driven, personalized learning is at odds with.It is perfectly fine to watch a video. It is perfectly fine to view a lecture. It is perfectly fine to quiz yourself on what you remember from the video or the lecture. It is perfectly fine to write a brief response about a big question. But let's not call that a lesson. That's just a starting point.Lessons come from doing.Our mother told us the stove was hot. She told us not to touch. If we were asked what mother said, we would say: "She said not to touch the stove. The stove is hot."But we didn't learn a lesson until we touched the stove and got burned.Lessons worth sharing are lessons that come from out of doing. And if we are going to bring education to the online space what we need right now is a platform that exists to help us do a lot more than flip the classroom. We desperately need a platform that exists to help us learn lessons by doing.Will TED Ed evolve into that? Will MITx? Will any of the current rage of MOOCs?Therein may lie a lesson.