Gravity and Levity: Five Things Schools Must Do To Avoid Extinction

These 5 ideas range from allowing use of iPods & cellphones to giving
teachers more power to get rid of other teachers. Interesting but in
need of some refinement.

http://gravityandlevity.blogspot.com/2009/03/five-things-schools-must-do-to-avoid.html

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A Legacy of Excellence

There are people we meet, people we come to know, that inspire us through their commitment to excellence. Some organizations are able to design their entire culture around that simple concept... excellence in all endeavors, from personal to professional. You can feel it when you're around people like that; feel an energy, enthusiasm, optimism. They are people and organizations that not only respond well to challenges but more importantly seek out challenges in order to better themselves and those they serve. A commitment to excellence requires an ability to take risks - to risk failure, ridicule, and judgement. A commitment to excellence requires the wisdom to make the right choices - to choose long-term gains over short-term rewards.

Questions:

What tangible steps need to be taken to move a group towards a legacy of excellence?

How do leaders support risk? creativity? 

Will efforts to make institutional decision making more transparent to the group, allow for more effective personal decision making?

Learning Something New

I have an independent study student this semester who is researching the relationship between physics, math, and music. He has been uncovering some interesting patterns as well as some intriguing historical perspectives. For a summary of that research, check out his blog.

One of the things that is enjoyable about this process is how much I've been learning about music, which is a huge deficit for me in terms of understanding. I have a general appreciation for music but really no intuition or talent for the production of music. My student has been patiently trying to catch me up on the foundations of music theory.

Most recently he showed me a video which demonstrates the use of a series of cords in 36 contemporary songs. I've included the video in this post.

This type of collaboration in our learning is very productive. We plan to showcase his research to our gifted teacher as well as some other key players to expose the potential for a shift in instructional methods.

4Chords... 36 Songs [WARNING: Contains Explicit Lyrics/Language]

Watch more BREAK.COM videos on AOL Video

Create, Collaborate, Communicate: Empowering Students With 21st Century Skills : January 2009 : THE Journal

Create, Collaborate, Communicate: Empowering Students With 21st Century Skills : January 2009 : THE Journal

Referring to a survey of 50 corporations, organizations, and small businesses, "the top three things employers are looking for in new recruits are:

Creative problem solving;
Critical and analytical thinking skills; and
Information gathering and evaluation."

After reading those top three things... seems like corporations, organizations and businesses want everyone to be physicists. =)

Toxic Grading Practices

Students Benefit From Depth, Rather Than Breadth, In High School Science Courses

Students Benefit From Depth, Rather Than Breadth, In High School Science Courses

For years I wondered about my approach to Physics... only getting through mechanics during our block-schedule semester. But this helps support my approach, as does recent feedback from some former students. My only hope would be that more students took a second year of Physics :)

Student Rights - Banning Rainbows?

Did you know that the rainbow Apple Computer logo is "sexually suggestive" and could prevent students from learning?




http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/youth/35265prs20080513.html

Reporting success?

I heard the PA Secretary of Ed speak on Tuesday and he promoted the effectiveness of academic standards. He had heard Daniel Pink speak earlier in the day and was commenting on how someone like Daniel Pink gets paid to cause commotion (because Daniel Pink advocates for many changes that run contrary to the standards movement).

We seek "best practices" or research-based methods of instruction that increase achievement of the expectations set by standards document. But what if what we are aiming for, is wrong? Then many of the methods have the potential to be ineffective. Again, what does success look like for students competing in today's global arena? How do we communicate success?

From the same paper mentioned in my previous post...

Improving assessment and grading practices can have positive effects throughout the school as well as for individual students. For example, assuming a reduction in failures from improved assessment and grading, Reeves (2008) states, “student behavior improves, faculty morale is better, resources allocated to remedial courses and course repetitions are reduced, and resources invested in electives and advanced courses increase” (p. 87). Assessments, when properly designed, will improve instruction by providing appropriate feedback to both the student and the teacher and will also allow for a greater range of students to be successful (Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006; O’Connor, 2002). Educators often complain about initiative overload and indeed several members of this cohort mentioned that concern throughout online discussions. The movement towards the 21st century classroom already creates stress for those making the transition and so it is useful to note the work of Fisher and Frey (2007) in framing formative assessment as a support for other education initiatives, rather than an additional initiative.

The 21st century skills that were analyzed as part of this course involve either higher level thinking skills or difficult to measure “soft” skills associated with interactions. These skills do not fit well with traditional classroom assessment systems nor do they often get measured on the standardized tests used to comply with No Child Left Behind. This should not imply that these skills cannot be assessed to both improve learning and measure the new vision of success. DiMartino and Castaneda (2007) assert that authentic assessments are essential to assessing applied skills and that a shift away from the Carnegie unit method of measuring seat-time is needed to achieve the vision of a 21st century classroom. The form that assessment takes is also brought into question by a number of researchers including Marzano (2000), McTighe and O’Connor (2005), and Sternberg (2008). The drive towards standardized, multiple-choice style assessments under NCLB can be interpreted to inhibit efforts to move towards a 21st century model of teaching.

Measuring success?

This was my intro paragraph for a paper I wrote last year... recent events have me thinking about this topic again. What does success look like for today's students? How do we measure this success?

"Teaching and learning for the 21st century represents a significant shift in the paradigms associated with what constitutes success in the educational system. Often, it is those individuals who were successful within the system that go on to work and lead within the system. This creates a massive inertial presence that maintains status quo, even amidst powerful forces driving for change. Any visionary who strives to move the mountains of accumulated organizational press will need to fundamentally alter the tools used in measuring success in our school systems. Changes to curriculum or instruction to prepare students for 21st century success will fail to sustain themselves if measured by the assessment tools of a previous century that valued information above wisdom. Further more, there are unique challenges to the assessment of 21st century skills (DiMartino & Castaneda, 2007; Sternberg, 2008). It is then paramount to any other initiative that teachers, administrators, and the community expose the limitations of the current assessment system, build capacity to begin improvement, use evidence as a foundation for all assessment decisions, and continually support quality assessment through professional development and policy."

Gender Bias Found In Student Ratings Of High School Science Teachers

http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/3OjNNPQzeoA/090202174953.htm

Perhaps science has an image problem. I know the opposite bias has been investigates for years... That science teachers treat male students differently. But this is the first time I've seen research on this aspect.

But then, all physics teachers are a little odd to begin with :)

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