Hours and Hours of Time

Today, our MCA results will arrive in schools. More than likely, we will find little "gaps" in our curriculum that are leading to inadequate scores in many of our subgroups. There will be successes and failures, many times right within your district, if not, a few miles down the road. These "gaps" will lead to a narrowed curriculum as the pressure on academic time in core subjects is ever-increasing. Given this narrowed time, school curricula is inching further and further away from the very things that may increase their students' interest. This narrowing of the curriculum prevents students from gaining those skills that are not only interesting to them, but also beneficial to them in a digital age that they are so accustomed to, particularly when they are NOT IN SCHOOL.

Marc Prensky opens his 2001 article, Digitial Natives, Digital Immigrants stating that "today’s average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV)." Not to mention, 20,000 hours of TV?

There are so many things we have to do with our time in schools that we didn't have in the past. Where do we find the time?

Jamie Vollmer is a former business-man who now works to help strengthen community pride in schools. He is a powerful ally to create schools that give all students the opportunity to unfold their full potential. The first part of his presentation explains two phenomena--the media attack on schools and schools' inability to promote their success.

He also has made a list of all the things schools are burdened with now that they weren't then. He also discusses the term, "nostesia" (the incorrect belief that things were better then than they are now). Simply, as you get older, the better you think your education was.

The sum of my point is this--to increase our student time in academic areas that they need, we need to capture a greater market share of that 30,000 hours that will be spent on TV, video games, or on computers surfing or researching. To do so, our teachers are going to need the skills (which is exceedingly difficult for Digital Immigrants) to speak the language of their Digital Native students. With the time demand also on teachers, we need to explore our mechanisms for training teachers, and not while school is in session.

Sir Ken Robinson has an entertaining video that you can access below. The message of the video (a very funny one, by the way) points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize -- much less cultivate -- the talents of many brilliant people. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says.

Sir Ken Robinson's Creativity Video

I'd have to agree with him! We are simply not professionally equipped with the skills needed to communicate with the Digital Native population. We need to quickly embrace new systems of professional development for our teachers!

Summer Drift

The purpose of this blog is to advance technology in the KW school district. Many teachers in last week's inservice were exposed to the 'bloggin technology. We're not sure of the value at this time of these musings online, but anything that generates attention to education has to be good for our students and district. I'd recommend, like I would for our staff, that if you think you have something important to say, you entertain the idea of blogging. I think it has reasonable applications for our teachers and students, for sure.

My link of the week has to do with a description of the Internet generation, our current students. I remember logging in during the first days of the Internet only 13 years ago. Thanks to a visionary Superintendent, I was able to advance myself as a teacher. With a bit of prompting, I became enlightened to a technology that would transform myself as an educator, and hopefully my students through this transformation. The students of today do not look at digital technologies as an event that has happened, rather as a circumstance of their entire life. I'm not sure we have a full handle of this, but would offer the link below as a way in which you can understand aspects of their life in a different fashion. Check it out!

http://connectwithkids.com/products/internetgeneration.shtml

This past week, we suffered the deaths of one student, as well as a former student. Each of these former students has a rich memoir etched in the history of KW.

I’ve come to dread what summer brings, despite the opportunity to “change gears”. More than ever, students drifting into a summer mode—outdoors, indoors, no reading, high activity, low activity, low relationships—suffer from this time period. I truly believe that in my career we will see yearlong schools for this reason. For the most part, students simply do not have the “things to do” as they did yesteryear. Fewer chores, less work to do, less people to share with and more money available are all contributing reasons to a pandemic for students of today. For multiple reasons, summer vacation simply does not provide students of today a similar experience to what we did.

1st Annual Technology Institute

For my first post of this new weblog, I'd like to begin with a topic I feel was influential to our staff and myself. On 7/16 and 7/17, our staff at KW were involved with their 1st Annual Technology Institute. For them, the Institute created an opportunity to improve their skills in a wanton area. For me, I enjoyed the opportunity to prepare something that put me in a teaching mode.

To me, this is the purpose of technology in education--to utilize those resources that are reaffirming to the teacher and supportive for the learning of the student.

The video I've posted is titled, "Did You Know 2.0". It was the product of Karl Fisch, Colorado, and Scott McLeod, Minnesota. It has amazing traction in nearly any setting. It highlights the immensity of change we are experiencing in schools, and as a society.

It was amazing to witness the engagement our staff had in this summer workshop, simply titled the First Annual KW Technology Institute. It was different from the frenetic workshops we put together during the school year. Everyone was more relaxed and open to listen to new ideas. They weren't thinking of all the deadlines they would have to meet, even by the end of the day.

Given that we had over 60% of our district staff for this workshop was a testament to getting there. As we evaluate the effectiveness of our Institute, I'm hoping we can continue this momentum through the second day of technology and the two days of curriculum training. Teachers will need significant training throughout the summer months simply to avoid technological obsolescence.

Last year, I was consistently reminded of how little time our teachers have to be the great teachers society expects. We have to be masters at psychology, assessment, brain biology, interpersonal communication, technology, planning, public speaking, etc. However, we have little available time outside of the school calendar to get this done. The energy at today's workshop reinforces the idea that professionalism in schools is only a month away--20 extra, thoughtful days to ensure that our staff members re-load for the immense challenge of keeping up with the breakneck pace of a society of exponential growth and innovation.