CodeCruncher Links 06/06/2009

• Virtual Lore » Blog Archive » Social learning doesn’t work.

  Oh no! Controversy reigns! I will either get a lot of ‘knee-jerk’ reactions to that blog title with people telling me how wrong/uninformed/stoopid and/or ignorant I am. Or people will reflect on what I am about to say and give sugesstions on how we can meet these challenges. If you bear with me to the end of this post you might see where I’m coming from.

  tags: social learning, motivation, time management, research skills, Virtual Lore

• Bloom’s Taxonomy Blooms Digitally, Andrew Churches

  The elements cover many of the activities and objectives but they do not address the new objectives presented by the emergence and integration of Information and Communication Technologies into the classroom and the lives of our students.

  tags: BloomsTaxonomy, blooms, digitally, bloomrevised, bloom, taxonomy, blooms_taxonomy, technology

• Everything I Need to Know About Twitter I Learned in J School

  news journalism works best when it’s simple and direct, at least in the story’s lead sentences. And simplicity (and other tenets of good journalism — like brevity, and clarity, and immediacy) are now cornerstones of how many businesses, brands and individuals communicate on Twitter. Here’s how some of the mantras from my undergrad days now inform the best tweets.

  tags: twitter, journalism, good tweets

• 25 ways to teach with Twitter by Sonja Cole

  25 ways to teach with Twitter

  tags: twitter, teaching

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

CodeCruncher Links 05/13/2009

• 100 Incredibly Inspiring Blog Posts for Educators – Learn-gasm

  Blogs offer an excellent way for communities to come together over a common interest despite physical location. Educators can take advantage of this shared pool of knowledge to find inspiration, enhance their teaching, and help students learn more. The following blog posts come from a variety of bloggers sharing their passion and insight.

  tags: blogging, teaching

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

journal comment

This is probably one of my favorite journal comments from this past week:

Another area that I can comment on is that based on your style of teaching (constructivist?), in this course I feel as though I am learning how to go back and “play, learn, and discover” with technology as opposed to “work and fix” technology as required in my job. I am not certain why I may not have done this in the past (have always been a “tech-geek” at heart); but I am finding some novelty in some of our projects when applied outside of the everyday context of my job and this class. Granted I did not feel too comfortable with the outcome of my podcast, but the experience in using the technology generated some ideas for me on to use this technology in other ways such as sending audio letters to friends and families (and of course in the office environment).

yes!

“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”

~ Lao Tzu

another day on the job

I love days like today. Two hundred and forty 5th graders came to the college to find out what it is all about. Despite all the crap going on at work on many other levels, when I get an opportunity to work with the kids, I almost start to levitate. There was only one small problem. I woke up this morning with almost NO voice! I got the idea to create a slide presentation and have someone narrate for me if needed. In a few minutes before taking the kids I was able to block out an outline and organize some thoughts. On the way to school I came up with a few more ideas and started right in when I got to my office. I only had until about 10, with also having to deal with an unpleasant phone conference from 8:45-9:45. Fortunately I was able to finish up the presentation while I was on the conference. I <3 Google Image search! I gave the slides a final look, made a backup copy on the flash drive, managed to catch two of the tour groups in the library and cram, um, I mean, invite them into my office for a quick chat, and then off to the east wing to set up. Shyanne was there to help cart stuff over and Jordan willingly volunteered when I caught him coming into the library.

After some technical problems (like NO media cart, then finding one, then not being able to login, then running to get the techs, then no internet, then getting connected, then FINALLY getting set up about 1 minute before the first group came in) the fun began. The first group got the abbreviated version of the presentation because they came in late. Michelle was great in getting their attention (she can be LOUD lol) and in introducing me. I welcomed each group, got a volunteer to run the slide presentation, and jumped right in. As always, these things become an almost out of body experience and I get into the flow of talking to kids about interesting things. The adults in the room melt into the background as I focus on the kids. They came up with lots of good answers. For example, in our discussion of how robots respond to their environment, I bump into a desk (OUCH!) and ask what senses should have told me to stop. One kid shouted out “COMMON SENSE” lol. Awesome answer! I managed to hit all the points while kids built interesting creations with the legos at their desks and we even had time to have a couple of kids run robots at the end. Lots and lots of fun, with much appreciation expressed by the accompaning teachers.

When it was all over, I was wiped out. My voice was thrashed. I had to close my eyes for a few minutes and doze off at my desk. But… I’d do it all over again… and I will… on Thursday when another 225 students (including Rachel’s class) show up to see what this college thing is all about. This is why I am a teacher. I spark imaginations. I light fires of interest. I show kids that learning CAN be fun!

Below is the slide presentation I showed the kids and a few of my favorite pictures.

http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=ddc44t3s_109f4×727g7

For more pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/debbyk/sets/72157617748022508/

a difficult conversation

As the teacher representative on the Ridgecrest Charter School Board, I was recently asked to facilitate a meeting with the teachers regarding an increase in medical insurance costs. The administrative staff felt that they had reached an impasse and asked me to intervene. They indicated that some of the staff had become hostile and resistant to compromise and they were uncertain on how to proceed at this point. This was definitely outside of my comfort zone. I am NOT good with numbers. I have a hard time keeping lots of details in mind at a given time. I didn’t really have much information about the available plans, costs, and other variables in play. What I am good at, however, is delegating to the right people and giving them the support they need to do their job. I am good at bringing together people under the umbrella of collaboration and community building. I have the ability to refocus a conversation back on the topic when it inevitably wanders off while helping people feel their opinions matter. That skill probably comes from many years of experience facilitating student discussions in a variety of venues, both synchronous and asynchronous.

This is a difficult discussion under the best of circumstances, and even more so given the current climate of declining state funding, local educator layoffs, and the overall economic climate. As a board, we could easily set the constraints and tell the teachers that their benefit costs would be rising, like it or not. However, I prefer to facilitate a conversation with those most effected by the issue. I made a pledge to the teachers to create an open and honest conversation, giving them all the data I had access to, and letting them know that their voice would be heard.

I put some thought into how I wanted to invite the teachers to the table, and then set about gathering information from a variety of sources. I asked the school accounting firm to provide me with solid data. I asked the school secretary to call other comparable charter schools to see how they were handling their benefit budgets. I discussed money saving options with the business manager to see where it was possible to scale back and what effect that would have on the bottom line. I thought about how I wanted to start the meeting and what goals I wanted to achieve. Because of a rescheduled doctor’s appointment in Lancaster, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to make it to the meeting before 4pm, which was a little late, but there was nothing I could do about that. When I had that all mostly in place, I sent out the following email to the staff:

I apologize for the time. I will do my best to be there by 3:30, although it might be closer to 4. I had a doctor appointment in Lancaster get rescheduled and they didn’t give me much wiggle room. I should be able to leave there by 2:15 at the latest and I will come straight to the school. If you need to get kids and bring them to the meeting that is ok. I’ll bring along some munchies and do my best to keep the meeting to an hour.

This is an important meeting. Believe me when I say that I have enough meetings in my life and wouldn’t want to add another one if I didn’t think it was worth the time. My goal is to facilitate a positive conversation that will generate some unique ideas for how to deal with the budget situation that is impacting all of us. The result of this conversation will have a direct influence on what we as a board have to decide. We have seen first-hand what happens when an administration does not take into account the collective wisdom of the group in coming up with creative solutions… many of our colleagues locally and across the state have their jobs threatened because of that. A number of SSUSD teachers have told me that no one even asked them about their ideas on how to deal with the budget. Are you kidding? You have one of the most highly educated work-forces in the state and no one thought to bring them to the table and see if they had any ideas? In my mind, that was just dumb. I want Ridgecrest Charter School to be different. This meeting is about asking YOU what YOU think and seeing if we can brainstorm some ideas for moving forward. I want to let our board know that you do care about this school and that you do have a stake in how things turn out… but unless you come, your voice won’t be heard. I always tell my students around election time “If you don’t vote, you can’t complain”. What you have to say IS important.

In preparation for this meeting, I’d like to ask you to think about a couple of things:

• What are the most important issues to you concerning benefits, salary and working conditions? What issues are you willing to compromise on?
• Are there non-monetary benefits that are important to you? (faculty development, flex Friday afternoons, classroom management workshops, field trips, mentoring, etc). Can you think of some that would be useful that aren’t already a part of what we do here?
• In what areas outside of your classroom can you make a contribution to the school?
• What are some places that you see “wiggle” room when it comes to staffing, work load, student services, and other areas involving the school?
• What is your vision for this school? Think beyond your classroom… what would you like to see this school become?
• What have you seen at other schools as far as innovative and interesting solutions to tough problems?

We need to be very careful when looking at other schools that we compare apples to apples. We are a small, rural, single school district, charter school. When looking at benefits, salary, classroom size, and lots of other variables, it’s not really useful to compare to what the bigger districts and schools are doing. My family moved here from a single school (3 classroom) district of 56 kids grades K-6. Mr. Dave, the bus driver, was also the janitor, fix-it guy, hot lunch picker-upper/distributor, and the guy that kids had to talk to when they got out of hand. Here at Cerro Coso, I have a department of 3 people to do all of the same reports and accreditation stuff that Bakersfield College has to do with their department of 15-20 people. Why do people stay under those conditions? Because they love what they do. They enjoy having a voice in the decision making process (without having to go through 10 levels of administrative foolishness). They believe in the mission and vision of the school. Most important… they know they are making a real difference in the lives of real students and not just warehousing them through to their next destination.

My commitment to all of you is to do my best to bring out all of the available information so that we can have a complete set of data upon which to discuss and make decisions. I can’t promise that we will come up with a perfect solution that everyone will be perfectly happy with, but my hope is that if everyone understands the details, contributes good ideas to the conversation, and has a stake in the outcome, that we can come up with something that is workable and even agreeable. The alternative is that others get to decide for you, and that’s not an option I am particularly ok with. I hope you will attend on Tuesday!

Always feel free to email, instant message, social network, call (384-8771), or ask me to meet with you at the school to talk about concerns and ideas. Thank you

Teachers are always an interesting group to work with. They are quite independent. However, especially at the K12 level, they are not always given due consideration as the highly-educated, creative professionals that they are. I began the session letting them know that I appreciated their participation and that I valued their experience and opinions. I wanted to get them focused on the positive aspects of their situation so had them break into small groups and brainstorm about their vision for this school, what they liked, where they wanted to see things go. We discussed the topics that were brought up, including the ability to have a voice in the process, their academic freedom, and an appreciation for the current leadership of the school. I then tied that into the topic at hand by letting them know that they DID have a say in how health benefits would be determined, that I DID trust in their ability to come up with good solutions, and that I appreciated their time and efforts in coming to the table with their ideas and opinions.

In the conversation that followed, I was able to determine their priorities (reasonable monthly premiums, flexibility in applying the benefit, equitable distribution, and making the agreement part of the teaching contract). In turn, I shared with them the information I had received from the school’s accounting firm about the state of the budget, projected funding, comparisons to how other charter schools operate, and recommended actions. It was important to me that we compare apples to apples (small, single-district charter schools). I had the school secretary share the information she had prepared about what other similar schools were doing for health care, what options we had available, and what some of the plans entailed as far as coverage. We discussed possible areas to save money that could then be redirected to the benefit package fund. The business director was able to comment on the financial impact of those different choices.

The conversation was lively at times, there were certainly strong opinions to be heard, and I frequently had to respectfully refocus back to the topic, but everyone had a chance to discuss their needs and concerns, and everyone felt that they were working with all of the information available. One of the teachers told me that she had never, in her career, been asked what she thought about issues like this before. Others expressed appreciation for what we were trying to do. In the end, we came up with a reasonable solution that I think will be accepted by the board at large. I felt confident that we had achieved the goals of my email to the staff quoted above – a workable agreement was achieved in a way that everyone involved felt included and informed. Hopefully, our efforts will make a difference. Today, I got the following message from the school accountant:

Staff at RCS has shared with me the terrific job you are doing outlining to your employees the financial situation of the school and in particular as it relates to employee total compensation. I do appreciate the extra time you are taking to do this. Many staff have no idea about the fragile fiscal margin on which RCS operates. Providing them opportunities to hear this info in multiple settings is helpful for all. What is particularly difficult in this situation is that, as of now, there is no light that in the near future the US health system, including care and costs, will be ‘fixed.’

Thanks for all you are doing in helping secure health plan options that best meet the needs of staff and school.

Stuff like that means a lot

CodeCruncher Links 04/27/2009

• City Brights: Howard Rheingold : Attention literacy

  I was trying to draw their attention to how little control any of us seem to have over where we let the screens on our laps and in our pockets lead our thoughts.

  tags: attention, howard_rheingold, attention literacy

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

keep on learning

I like this comment from a student journal I read today:

“I’m still learning my way through class. Just keep teaching, and I’ll keep learning.”

status update thoughts

Status message commentary from one of my students (VM).

VM at 12:50pm April 26
Twitter and Facebook updates are like disembodied accountability…

DK at 12:53pm April 26
hmmm… interesting… explain…

VM at 2:56pm April 26
normally people around you keep you accountable for your actions but there are with you. Present.

But with twitter and facebook updates you post what your doing at the moment and people comment on it. there are not present disembodied so to speak.

you can always not post something that your are doing but when you get in the habit of posting all the time it turns into a form of accountability. People become transparent on the internet. So hence where all this came from.

Just thinking about the connection between people and technology and what the internet has done to the human condition. That’s all.

Both sides have there pluses and negatives. But nothing should replace nor nothing can replace face to face communication. I’m still thinking on the subject though…

not sure the full implications of either and how they effect each other.

CT at 3:40pm April 26

But at the same time, people may not actually put on their statuses what they are feeling. They may post something else in order to keep what they are feeling/slash going through a secret. Therefore, what people are holding them accountable for may be irrelevant.

If people truly want to hide themselves, they will, whether in person or online. It is true that some people are transparent online or in person, but not all. What you are saying, Vinnie, may be true for a vast majority of people, but not all. Definitely not all.

DK at 3:49pm April 26
There’s actually a phrase coined for this… ambient presence. The sense that you are in contact with people because of continual micro-updates even if you aren’t physically there. A text message here, a twitter update there, a changed FB status now and again… all serve to build a fuller picture of a person than you might get otherwise. It’s like adding pieces to a puzzle to get the big picture. Is it an accurate picture? Perhaps, perhaps not. But it is definitely interesting to think about

CodeCruncher Links 04/25/2009

• The Art of Writing Great Twitter Headlines — Copyblogger

  what you share on Twitter is not just about the actual value of the content. It’s also about whether the content gets viewed and appreciated in the first place.

  tags: Twitter, headlines, writing

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.