Parenting in the Digital World

Homeschool

My daughter asked if we could homeschool for French. Long story short – we are!

I’ll be dong the second half of French 2 with her at home. In school, there was tremendous focus n memorization, spelling, and tests. I didn’t teach French that way 20 years ago when I taught and I’m not going to do it now.

Ran across a great blog from a French teacher! http://www.frenchappsforkids.blogspot.ca/

Other ideas:
– have her create an RSA Animate video
– search out more ebooks in French
– seek out more French games

I’ll keep adding ideas and I’ll write about it as we go along.

Changemaker

I ran across an article that I didn’t even know I needed to read until I read it….. “On Being a Changemaker” by Karen Pryor.

It hit hard. So THIS is what I’ve been doing, and WHY it’s been so incredibly hard. I’m making things change (well, I’m trying…. not succeeding yet.) The phases of change she defines fit perfectly. The reactions from people around me are exactly as she describes. I know, however, that my reactions have not been as effective as they could be, so my goal is to take her ideas as my guide. This applies both to my work and to the advocacy I do (or try to do) with my children’s schools.

With full credit to Karen Pryor, here are her steps of what people do when faced with change:

  1. Ignore you
  2. Pretend to agree, but actually do nothing
  3. Resist, delay, obstruct
  4. Openly attack you (the dangerous phase, but also a sign that change is starting)
  5. Absorb
  6. Utilize
  7. Take credit
  8. Proselytize

Read the rest of the article for more details, but I am especially struck by her effective responses. I need to internalize them. The one I am very much looking forward to is the last:

They’re taking credit for your idea? By all means let them; your goal is the change. Credit is a low-cost reinforcer and people who want it don’t satiate. Give it away in buckets.

I can’t wait until that day. So far, I don’t see it, but I welcome it!The process of change is hard.

For my reference, here is Karen Pryor’s complete list of effective reactions:

  1. When they ignore you, find allies and persist.
  2. Don’t be misled by lip service. Find allies and persist.
  3. Meet resistance with persistence. Move around the resistance; try other avenues.
  4. The stage of open attack is a touchy time. People can get fired, for example. Keep your head down, but persist. Don’t take the attack personally, even if it is a personal attack. Attack is information; it tells you:
    a) You’re getting somewhere: change IS happening, causing extinction-induced aggression.
    b) Your attacker is frightened. Empathize.
    c) Your attacker still believes in the efficacy of aversives.
  5. Absorbing and utilizing: this stage can last a year or more. Maintain generous schedules of reinforcement.
  6. They’re taking credit for your idea? By all means let them; your goal is the change. Credit is a low-cost reinforcer and people who want it don’t satiate. Give it away in buckets.
  7. Are they pitching the change? Good. If you want to change something else, you now have new allies.

– With credit to the Minnesota Council for the Gifted & Talented, where I first saw the story, and to MinnPost, Nov. 13, 2012, for the reference to Karen Pryor’s blog.

Project Based Learning

Great post by Nicholas Provenzano (aka @thenerdyteacher), “I’ve got 99 Problems, but a Test Ain’t One”

Nick writes extensively about his experiments with project-based learning, and the huge successes he’s seen. He also writes about tech integration and the advantages, even though his school isn’t 1:1. He just has a classroom set of iPads. He’s a huge Evernote fan. (No, I’ve never met him, although I have seen him at ISTE.)

I appreciate his thoughtfulness about why he moved away from multiple choice tests: “Remembering the character’s hometown was nice, but demonstrating the importance the hometown played in the story is far more important.” He acknowledges that writing a good multiple choice test is difficult, and it was more about a reading check rather than a check for understanding.

I appreciate how his classes are set up for the benefit of the student, taking advantage of their natural inclinations,

Students are yearning to show their teachers their talent and knowledge. They are bursting at the seams to show the world what they can do. The traditional classroom of lecture and test does not allow them to do that though. The minute I started to let my students choose their projects and express their knowledge in different ways, engagement and the overall energy of the students went through the room.

 

I sit on a district curriculum committee. The focus of everything is on test scores. It’s all about bringing up the scores. There’s no room even to ask about the value of the standardized tests – it’s just taken for granted. My daughter’s grades are heavily dependent on tests, the tests get far more weight than other work that may require more thought. I’ve had a chance to look at some tests (only a few because they don’t allow the tests out of the room!!) Most of the tests are basic factual recall. Even the teachers admit that they aren’t asking many higher level questions. Why aren’t the tests allowed out of the classroom? Because kids might cheat. And they can cheat because it’s all straight factual recall. There’s very little cheating possible in a project based classroom.

Says Nick:

Somewhere along the way, education lost its way and started to focus heavily on memorization of facts and not the actual act of learning. To me, MC tests, fill in the blank exams, etc. as the only means of assessment are a symptom of that larger problem.

 

Getting Admin Buy In for Tech

Many thanks to Indiana Jen for her recent post, “How to Gain Parent Buy-In for Classroom Technology Integration” for inspiring this post!

I’m in the opposite situation: I’m a parent that trying to get administrators to pursue tech integration! I’ve been talking to the admin at both of my kids’ schools for the last two years about these issues. One kid is at a large first-ring suburban high school, the other kid is at a very small “hippy” private school.

While they sometimes humor me when I ask questions about why the philosophy and pace (or lack thereof) of tech integration, it is rare that I am taken seriously or given more than a token nod. To their credit, both schools are taking tiny baby steps to better understand the benefits of tech integration. I’m just incredibly impatient!

To that end, I have adapted Indiana Jen’s post to help parents get Administration’s buy-in for tech integration! The bold headlines are from Jen’s post (or slightly edited for my purpose), the content under the headings is solely mine. Don’t blame her for any of it!

Start Early 

Do your research: start talking to the principal, superintendant, school board, tech directors and more. Ask questions about how they plan to successfully integrate tech, and don’t take no for an answer! If they say they’re not moving in this direction, ask for clear reasons why not. Find the teachers in the system who are the thought leaders — there will be some. Find out what they’re doing and how the administration is supporting them — or not.

Emphasize Skills – and Job/College Readiness

As an employer, I often emphasize the skills I look for when hiring staff. I don’t care about staff who can take a multiple choice test. I want staff who can easily learn new skills, who can communicate in many ways: written, visual, spoken. Written communication in the working world is rarely (e.g. NEVER) a 5 paragraph essay. It’s an email with short, succinct arguments. It might be a business case or a white paper that incorporates research, facts and statistics. It is often a visual presentation, using a presentation software or a video.

By next year, it’ll be something else! I want staff that can be flexible, figure things out, know how to find and evaluate information. I want staff who can identify and solve problems, who can be creative in thinking of new products and services.

These are the skills that tech integration can teach when used appropriately.

Keep Communicating

I’ve had the opportunity to talk to superintendents, principals, teachers, tech directors and more about how to work with districts that are slow on the uptake. Their advice has always been to keep talking. Keeping telling the decision makers how important it is to move towards integration. How important it is to empower teachers to explore and make new choices. How important it is to prepare our children for 21st century skills, not the factory model.

That said, it doesn’t go over well when you tell an administrator that you think their philosophy of education is like a factory. I have found other ways to phrase this…. but I do keep up the communication. I am respectful of the fact that their plates are very, very full and that there are emergencies and immediate issues that need to be handled. I make sure I’m at events, that I send interesting articles (not too often), and that I take opportunities to connect with administrators where we’re not discussing tech issues.

Enlist the Aid of Other Parents

There is power in a group. The more parents you have asking the same questions and asking for the same things, the better. It’s hard to be taken seriously on your own. Yes, you often do have to educate other parents. People like to think of education staying the same as when they were in school. Not every parent will agree with you, but it is amazing how many do.

Provide Time in Class

In one school, I’ve been able to provide examples of the advantages of tech integration. In another, I was able to see examples of teachers doing great things with tech integration. Using these examples has been helpful to give a good illustration of the whole point of tech integration. I do things like not letting my kids print assignments – they turn them in electronically. I model how homework can be done with digital media.

Time. It takes a lot of time to convince people that something that we once thought was so evil (NO Cell phones in class!) can actually be a good thing.

Don’t Grade the Tech

I do think kids should get grades on tech skills. It’s something they’ll need throughout their life. There are kids who will just take off when allowed to explore with tech, and may find incredible new opportunities to shine. I do agree with Jen, however, that that shouldn’t be the focus especially at the beginning of tech integration.

As for getting buy-in with administration, this applies in don’t focus on the tech. It’s really not about whether you’re using an iPad, Chromebook, iPhone, Nexus tablet, whatever. It’s about how you think about information access, assessment and assignments. This is a paradigm shift, and it’s hard. Putting tech tools in kids’ hands but still focusing on the drill and kill testing, rote memorization and teacher-as-expert atmosphere will guarantee failure.

Conclusion

There are no guarantees that this will work. I have seen small, tiny, baby steps, and hopefully things keep moving. I can only keep asking the questions and give support when I can.

Thank you

Many thanks to Jennifer Carey for inspiring this train of thought for me. I hope I haven’t taken her original post out of context or offended.

What my Kids Deserve, Part 2

After attending the recent TIES conference, I have updated my list of things my kids – and all kids – deserve. I’ve kept almost everything from my earlier post. I’m just adding more!

My kids – and all kids today – deserve to experience a 21st century classroom.  As I’ve thought about this, I have created a list of things I think kids deserve.

  • My kids deserve to go to a school that prepares them for their future – not for the future as we saw it 50 years ago.
  • My kids deserve to go to a school that uses current tools and techniques. As one teacher said, you wouldn’t take your kid to a pediatrician that used 1970s tools. Remember, the pencil was once considered a radical idea.
  • My kids deserve to work with teachers and schools who are willing to step aside as the expert and become a guide.
  • My kids deserve teachers that become co-learners.
  • My kids deserve teachers who are willing to learn new things and new ways of doing things. That’s the way the world works. Just because it worked 20, 10 or even 5 years ago doesn’t mean it’s the best way now.
  • My kids deserve to learn in a place that understands that students don’t all learn the same way – that kids have different learning styles. Just because the teacher learns best by reading doesn’t mean my child does.  All kids benefit from learning by using different modalities.
  • My kids deserve to use tools that they use in the rest of their life. At home, my kids use the internet to find facts and resources. They use cameras and phones to communicate their ideas in many different ways. They deserve to be able to do that in school – and not in a lab. (See this excellent post, “Snapshot of a Modern Learner” by Mike Fisher.)
  • My kids deserve to be taught how to access and analyze information the way the world is moving, not the way the world used to be.
  • My kids deserve to be taught to be collaborative, like they are in the rest of their life, and like most of us do our work. My kids are social, they expect to be able to communicate with their friends and work together. Empower them to do this. Don’t call it cheating.
  • My kids deserve access to their learning 24/7, wherever they are. Make their class materials available. Make their assignments available online – not just when they’re in class.
  • My kids deserve to be able to express their learning in ways that fit them. Why can’t they do a documentary? Create a digital story?  Design an infographic? There’s no reason that the traditional ways of expressing knowledge are the only ways.
  • My kids deserve to have their learning assessed in ways that are applicable to the world outside of education. The world does not function with multiple choice tests. The world relies on oral and written communication, on visual expression, on analysis, problem identification and problem solving. It does not ever require a multiple choice test.
  • My kids deserve to learn higher level thinking skills, not rote fact memorization. The amount of information available is more than a human brain can contain. We have Google, smartphones, computers. To quote a teacher, “If you can find the answer to a test question on Google, it’s not a good test question.” Students need to be taught to find and analyze information –  NOT memorize it.
  • My kids deserve to learn skills that are in no way related to taking a standardized test. They deserve learning that isn’t just focused on that test. I have never taken a standardized test in my working life.
  • Above all, my kids deserve to find their passion. They deserve to be in a school that introduces them to a variety of subjects, of learning and of skills. They deserve to be allowed to explore, be curious, try new things without the fear of a test or a score limiting them.

 

AP Revisited

I’ve had the chance to look closer at AP history offerings lately and do additional research into the detractors. From my admittedly limited observations of my daughter’s AP World History course, here’s what I see:

  • huge scope of content
  • no depth
  • no primary sources
  • assessment is by far memorization through multiple choice exams
  • no creativity in assessment
  • no formative assessment
  • teaching to a specific test
  • no relation to current events
  • little evidence of teaching historical skills – it’s just memorization of content

I’m sure some AP courses involve primary source, creativity, and in-depth anaysis of historical evidence, but not this one.

But hopefully, there will be changes. A recent article in Education Week, College Board Improves AP Exams & Supports For Deeper Learning & College Readiness, by Tom Vander Ark, discusses proposed changes for AP exams:

“The redesigned AP exams are increasing their focus on essays and open-ended problems, and reducing the number of multiple-choice questions; the remaining multiple-choice questions are shifting to measure not just content knowledge, but content knowledge and the skill to use that knowledge in meaningful ways essential to college and career success in that discipline,” said Trevor Packer, Head of AP at College Board. “There’s not a single exam question now that measures memorization only. They each evaluate skills and the application of knowledge.”

I’m encouraged by this quote:

“I think skills are vastly more crucial to success than content knowledge,” said a faculty member from a AP U.S. History study.

Sounds like the College Board is considering a capstone project, a year-long project of service learning, creativity and depth. Excellent!!  Sorry it’ll be too late for my daughter.

Taking Standardized Tests for a Living

No one I know takes standardized tests for a living. So, why are we using standardized tests to see if you’re going to be good when we don’t have standardized tests after you take them?

…It’s infected the entire ecosystem of education.

If we can get parents and kids and teachers and administration to talk about it…then change will start to happen.

-Seth Godin

This is a powerful quote for me to see today, as I’m heading off to a district curriculum meeting (a parent “advisory” committee, where, honestly, parent input is sought because they legally have to. I don’t think it makes one whit of difference, but if I don’t participate, I don’t get a voice.)

Tonight, we’re reviewing proposed Advanced Placement courses. I will likely be skewered when I say that I disagree with this approach. I don’t like AP classes because – and this is fully acknowledged – they are teaching to a test. AP classes give a set curriculum to schools that cannot be changed. AP classes are a mile wide and a centimeter deep. As a professional historian, I have worked against courses like this my entire professional life because students take these broad history survey courses and don’t like them. Thus, they think they don’t like history.

OK, that’s a blog for another post. This one is about standardized testing.

I’m an excellent test taker. Give me a standardized test about anything – nuclear physics, calculus, English literature, whatever. I could take it and probably do pretty welll. Do I know anything about the subject? Nope. But I can take tests.

I love this quote from Seth Godin. Check out the entire video posted in a blog by Josh Gans, “Learning Should Fit the Child.” (As Gans acknowledges, the video is by Ericsson and is a little bit marketing, but hey, it still has excellent content.) The video is worth your 20 minutes.

The blog post is worth your time, too. Memorizing isn’t useful. Learning how to find the information is useful.

Power

 

Parent Teacher Partnership

Quick post about a great article about Parent- Teacher partnerships (thanks to @Joe_Mazza for the suggestion in tonights #ptchat).

Fascinating article. makes me wonder in a school admin or a parent wrote this!

One theme throughout the post is that parent-school relationships are built on a lopsided power base: schools have more power in the situation, and that it is far easier for admin/teachers to reach out than for parents to reach in.

I definitely see this in my situation. When entering my district’s office,s I feel uncomfortable and out of place. I am a middle-class, over educated, white mother who feels uncomfortable entering the administration building. Think how others may feel?

I appreciate the thought of equal, shared power in this relationship. I question whether it can even happen, but one can hope.