ASCD Launches First-Ever Pinterest Contest: Expand Your Professional Library for Free

For those who are avid readers wanting to expand their professional library for free, here's an opportunity of interest.

ASCD has launched their first ever Pin to Win Contest with Pinterest. Winners can win 10 ASCD books by creating a wishlist of books called "My Dream ASCD Library" pinboard in Pinterest. The contest runs now throw October 10. This is an excellent opportunity for educators to get copies of books from their favorite ASCD authors for free.   For more information check out the graphic below.

SONIC'S Limeades for Learning Project: Get Your Teaching Project Funded!

SONIC Drive-In has announced once again their project, Limeades for Learning, which is a philanthropic initiative in partnership with DonorsChoose.org that funds teacher projects to pay for necessary supplies and tools that might otherwise be paid for out of their own pockets.

With this year’s funding, SONIC will have contributed more than $3 million to this initiative. SONIC customers can make a difference in their local communities by voting online Sept. 23, 2013 through Oct. 27, 2013, atLimeadesforLearning.com, for their favorite projects submitted by teachers in need. In 2013, more than a half million dollars in SONIC donations will go toward public school classroom projects around the country this year!

There are three ways people can vote for their schools:

1.   Create an account on LimeadesforLearning.com with a valid email address and receive one vote per day.

2. Visit a SONIC Drive-In and receive two extra vote codes on a bag sticker.

3. Vote online 10 times and get two extra vote codes via email.

For more information on how to get involved or get your project listed, check out Sonic's Limeades for Learning site here: http://www.limeadesforlearning.com

Empower: Should We Use That Word as School Leaders?

'Empower" is another slippery word, used with good intentions, but when we really break it down, it can have a very negative connotation." Mark Adams,Courageous Conflict: Leading with Integrity and Authenticity

I never really thought about the negative connotations that the word "empower" has until I read Mark Adams book Courageous Conflict: Leading with Integrity and Authenticity.  He makes sense when he points out that empowering someone means you are "temporarily giving them the power to do something, but that they really do not own it or possess it." It ultimately does mean that the one who is in a position of authority is granting those under his charge the authority to make decisions or take actions. Leaders like to throw around the word "empower" like it is some dispensation from on high, yet it does have the slight taint of "You can only do this because I have granted you the power to do it." Adams cautions leaders about throwing around such terminology. It can serve to actually undermine trust and morale. The word "empower" itself, suggests that the one on which power is granted is not on equal footing with the one granting that power. That's certainly fine if your intention is maintain a more authoritarian stance in regards to those you lead, but do not pretend that you are acting from a "servant leadership position" or that you are fostering a "team-like collaborative approach" to management. I suggest that we perhaps use terminology less loaded with this authoritarian bent. Words like entrust or simply calling it like it is: the person was granted the authority to take action.

I think leaders, especially in educational leadership, do a great disservice when they try to mask or otherwise make practices seem something they are not. They often try to use business terminology that does not quite capture the action, or they use terminology that sounds innocuous at first glance, but that language has meanings not intended. Authenticity and courage in leadership means being honest and authentic in our language too. We don't engage in using words like "empowerment" unless of course we know the full meanings and connotations of words. Don't call yourself a "servant leader" unless you actually do take on qualities of being a servant to those you follow. Our authenticity as leaders begins with the language and buzzwords we use. I, for one, do not like the word empowerment.

Becoming an Authentic Teacher Instead of a Machine That Produces Test Scores

How can we avoid becoming robots in the classroom and in our school offices when all the talk is data, data, and more data? When all the educational buzzwords are the same words and language used to describe mechanistic processes, it is easy to lose sight of education as a process involving real people with real inner lives. To avoid becoming these automatons of a lifeless education system, we do need to take time to work on the inside too. No matter what your religious persuasion or lack of, teaching is ultimately an act of integrity and courage that pours as much from our hearts as our heads. How many times a day do I find myself caught up in messiness of administrating, only to lose touch with what's inside?

Yesterday, I shared much of  the following with my staff in my weekly email update. Parker Palmer, author of the inspirational book on teaching entitled, The Courage to Teach, talks at length about the importance of teachers, and I would add administrators, to being in touch with the teacher within. Teaching is an authentic, powerful experience that requires a level of authenticity. To be authentic, we must listen to the teacher inside us.

In an essay, entitled "Heart of a Teacher" Palmer asks the question:

"How does one attend to the voice of the teacher within?"

With this question he encourages teachers to make sure they tend to what's inside too. He says we can only touch students' lives when we ourselves are on "speaking terms" with this teacher within. To do that, we need to take occasions to listen inwardly. 

How can we learn to listen inwardly to the teacher within? This weekend, here's a few things to try:

• Find some time for solitude and silence. We all need time to sit quietly and in silence so we can learn to hear the voice of the teacher within.
• Meditative reading. We need to take the time to read things that inspire us, and that give volume to the voice of the teacher inside all of us.
• Walking in the woods. This weekend take a hike, well, don't take that the wrong way. Take a walk in the woods. Give yourself time for inner reflection after spending the entire week of interacting outwardly.
• Journal. Take some time this weekend to write. Give that teacher within a voice.
• Finally, find a friend who will listen. There's nothing like a compassionate friend to help you reconnect to the teacher you are inside.

Palmer talks a great deal about the importance of teaching coming from our identity and integrity. We must be authentic with ourselves before we can ever be authentic with our students. This weekend take some time to get on speaking terms with your teacher within.

5 Obsolete Practices and Ways of Doing School We Need to Abandon

“The nation has become obsessed with ‘seat time,’ assuming that this ‘hunkering down’ at desks and tables will result in higher test scores.” Ron Nash, From Seatwork to Feetwork

What are some outmoded educational practices and ways of schooling that we need to change the most? Like the concept of "seat time" mentioned above, many of our ways of doing school and educational practices are obsolete. These obsolete practices are still embedded in many of our schools and need to be changed because they perpetuate the same kinds of teaching and learning from the old industrial model of schooling that fails to adequately prepare our students to engage life in the 21st century. Here's a list of those "Obsolete Practices."

1. The idea that more seat time = higher achievement. This assumption manifests itself in many ways. Advocating for a longer school day, longer class periods, longer school calendars, and any other scheme to try to “increase the amount of time students spend in the school building” are schemes to increase seat time. It's high time we gave up this assumption because it is simply not true. What matters the most is the quality of the learning activity the student is engaged in and the quality of the instruction. The reason studies on seat-time schemes like block scheduling and extended afterschool have not shown definitively that they work to increase achievement is because in each of these what really matters the most is the kinds of learning activities students engage in. If increased seat time only involves exposing kids to more passive learning activities instead of getting them learning actively, then there will be little return on the increased time invested.

2. Give up the idea of what Ron Nash calls, “Seeing Learning as a spectator sport.” Too often too many people see the students as passive recipients of the learning instead of active participants. As Nash points out, “When teachers talk, students often go to a better place in their minds.” They’re checking out in these passive learning classrooms and then both teachers and administrators wonder why students’ attention spans are so short. It’s time to view learning as something students engage in and not something students are subjected to.

3. The idea that teachers should be center-stage and in control of every aspect of the classroom. Yes, teachers need to focus on providing a safe and environment conducive to learning, but the most effective 21st century learning places are not places of strict control. They’re places where learning often looks messy and chaotic and failure is acceptable. As Nash points out, these “command-and-control” classrooms are not conducive to creativity, exploration, and inquiry. They are more about conformity and keeping the status quo in place.

4. The idea as Nash points out that “when the bell rings, we move from math to English.” Whose life is organized by subject areas and departments these days? Yet, we still shuffle kids through a system of bells throughout the day in a type of learning that is artificially compartmentalized. Instead, we need a system where we don’t run around like condition rats through mazes when bells ring. We need personalized schedules of learning where students also have time to explore and engage in inquiry-based activities that are real and authentic and not confined to the artificially compartmentalized, industrial-age system we have now.

5. The idea that teaching to the middle is an effective instructional strategy. This idea has long served its purpose. Nash points out that when teachers use this approach, they end up leaving those who need to move at a more rapid pace, bored, and those who need a slower pace end up being lost. Instead, when need personalized learning for all students that pushes them to learn as they can.

I’m positive there are many more instructional practices from the industrial-age model of schooling that can be piled on this slag-heap. But, we continue to insist on measures based on these outmoded ways of thinking about education. If we’re ever going to truly impact learning in the classroom, we’re going to have to change these fundamental ideas about schooling.

As Marc Prensky once pointed out, “I often liken this to Federal Express: you can have the best delivery system in the world, but if no one is home to receive the package, it doesn't much matter.” In education, we have all these schemes of command-and-control and to efficiently move students through the system, but in the end, if they’re not engaged, what’s the use?

Being a Courageous Educator and School Leader in an Era of Foolish Education Policy

“It takes courage to stand up to absurdity when all around you people remain comfortably seated. But if we need one more reason to do the right thing, consider this: The kids are watching us, deciding how to live their lives in part by how we've chosen to live ours." Alfie Kohn, "Encouraging Educator Courage," Education Week Online

In a post to Education Week entitled, "Encouraging Educator Courage" Alfie Kohn calls on educators to be courageous in the face of outrageous mandates and policies that are being foisted on their schools and districts in the name of education reform. While I would not encourage anyone to go as far as to put their jobs on the line, I do think we need to work to change mandates and policies with which we disagree, and that does not mean to quietly implement them without letting those who push them that we disagree.

Kohn points out one thing that courageous educators can do in the face of these mandates and policies; they can "dig deeper" which means asking the tough questions and not settling on just any answer that comes to us. We need to be critical of the reasons and evidence given to us just like would with any proposed idea or educational practice. It also means not accepting the arguments made from authority and power. If mandates and policy passed down to us are good for kids, then the burden of proof that that is so is on those proposing.

I also think Kohn is right when he says "too many educators have lost their capacity to be outraged by outrageous things. Handed foolish and destructive mandates, they respond by requesting guidance on how to implement them." Educators, like no time in the past, need to band together in the face of these destructive policies and make sure those who keep pushing these know our disagreement. We can't excuse ourselves from responsibility by simply saying, "We're just doing what we're told." As educators, we are committed to the children we serve, not those above.That's being a courageous educator and a 21st century education leader.  To read more of Alfie Kohn's post, check it our here: "Encouraging Educator Courage," Education Week Online

Who Am I Projects? Getting Students Started with Project-Based Learning

Giving students starter projects at the beginning of the school year is vital to make sure they learn the mechanics of project-based learning, collaboration, and engagement. It is the project scaffold that makes future project-based learning instruction more fruitful. This morning, during class visits, one of our world history classes was engaged in creating "Who Am I?" projects, which are designed to frontload these PBL skills.

The "Who Am I?" project involves students engaging in finding answers to four essential questions:

• Who am I?
• Where am I going?
• How will I get there? 
• What do I believe?

These questions are ideal in many respects. For example, they tap into ninth graders interest in themselves, and to place these questions in the context of a project makes this first venture into PBL especially relevant. In addition to exploring these questions, students were also asked to create a presentation as their product for the "Who Am I?" project. To further scaffold the assignment, they were provided an outline to follow regarding how they should structure their presentations. Students were also asked to use PowerPoint to create these presentations to allow a deliberate focus, not on learning software, but on working through the PBL process. Some students who asked to use other presentation tools were not prohibited from doing so.

Students were also provided with a rubric as well. They were to be evaluated in these five areas:

• Product Content
• Product Organization and Clarity
• Presentation/Speaking
• Presentation/Eye Contact and Physical Presence
• Product and Presentation Preparedness

The "Who Am I?" project is an excellent starter project for freshmen high school students for several reasons.

1. In my experience, freshmen love engaging in assignments that allow them to talk about themselves. It is developmentally appropriate to tap into this natural fascination with themselves and their own lives.

2. This project gives students a scaffold on which to learn the skills of putting together a project and giving effective presentations. Students aren't confronted with all the complexities of PBL all at one time.

3. Students use familiar technological tools, instead of attempting to engage in project creation and learning new technologies with their first project.

4. Students are provided with a non-threatening, less content-connected project for their first one so that they can learn the mechanics of PBL first, before engaging content as well.

Structuring students' first PBL experiences to minimize threats and insecurity is important. Deliberately teaching PBL processes up front is a must if future projects are going to be successful. It is equally important for each teacher to teach students what project-based learning means in their individual classrooms as well.