Interesting Article

Charter schools are being pushed as a salvation for regular public schools, yet they do not perform well. Please read the attached article from Newsweek. http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/13/understanding-charter-schools.html

Teachers will always be needed...but schools? maybe not!

I recently shared some unusual developments with the entire faculty that down the road could impact education in unusual ways.

My premise was that "teachers will always be needed, but a place called 'school' may not be."

I showed the staff this 5 minute video describing the NMC College Campus in the software platform known as "Second Life." It is surreal enough to leave you wondering what it's all about.

Will Richardson said recently that our current educational system was built on the notion that learning content was scarce. Learning content is now abundant and every day it grows more accessible to the public. Motivated students will no longer need traditional schools because teachers will be everywhere and the best ones will be available without being "present."

Shortly after that, I was introduced to MIT's free course ware. Many of MIT's classes are being offered free to the public. That includes lectures, notes, videos, assignments, and virtually everything except a grade and a credit.

Motivated students will have access to absolutely world class educational materials and teachers. Most will still need the personal touch, but in the text message world they live in, who's to say the personal touch isn't digital instead of analog!

Technology is the devil...and other thoughts from Will R. and friends

Here is an interesting blog post from Will Richardson who has left the classroom to speak to educators and share the content from his new book. Will was a pioneer in the use of technology and web tools in the classroom. The blog comments are also very thoughtful.

Will Richardson was in Fort Wayne last week and I got a chance to sit and visit with him some. He is finishing a 3 week tour of the U.S. and he seems genuinely discouraged at the response he is getting across the nation.

Why? He is frustrated at the pace of change and how educators seem reluctant to embrace technological innovations, especially the use of internet and web 2.0 applications in the classroom.

Surveys and teacher feedback repeatedly reveal that students are not engaging or investing in their school "work." Yet the multimedia, hyper speed world of our young people continually leaps ahead of us adults in the implementation of technology in the classroom.

Will's post and additional comments are found here.

Scary!

Here is a scary one.

Some research out of UW reports that 40% of babies watch TV!

It's just a vast wasteland. Read your baby a book!

WMS - State Academic Super Bowl Champions!

Congratulations to Wawasee Middle School Academic Super Bowl students and their academic coaches for their fine showing in the Indiana State Academic Super Bowl competitions.

Out of approximately 80 teams, our WMS English team was 1st in the state!

The Social Studies and Interdisciplinary teams finished 4th!

Thank you for all the hard work!

Indiana Assembly passes budget bill

Over the weekend the Indiana General Assembly finished its annual Chinese Fire Drill called passing the budget bill.

Know one really knows who is sitting where or what actually got passed, but something did.

According to a report I received this weekend, here are the budget highlights affecting education.

§ The tax credit provision is not a part of the budget.
§ There will be no state funding of virtual charter schools in the next two years. Other types of charter schools can be approved; however, the funding available is specified.
§ Funding for the principals’ leadership academy goes forward at $462,832 annually.
§ Education service centers are to be funded at $2,321,287 annually.
§ The House indicates that tuition support has been increased at 3.7% in 2008 and 3.6% in 2009. I believe the Senate states that the increase is 3.8% and 3.8%.
§ Summer school distribution remains at $18,360,000 annually.
§ The early intervention program including reading recovery and the Waterford method and a voluntary reading assessment program in grades one and two is funded at $4,720,000 annually.
§ Free textbook funding has been increased to $39,000,000 annually with the intent being full funding.
§ Full-day kindergarten is funded by expanding the current grant program to $33,500,000 in 2008 and $58,500,000 in 2009. Participation is voluntary with the dollar amount per pupil dependent on the number of corporations and students participating.
§ The funding for testing and remediation is increased to $41,000,000 annually. The Democrats believe they have increased remediation funding by $19,000,000 annually.
§ Non-English speaking funding is increased to $6,929,246 annually with the intent of increasing the per pupil grant from $20 per student to $200 per student.
§ The educational technology program is funded at $5,000,000 for the biennium with the intent of continuing the buddy system and K-12 programs carried out by the department while supporting the office of special assistant to the superintendent of public instruction.
§ Funding for a school business officials academy of $150,000 annually is provided.
§ The proposal to have the state assume that part of the general fund expenditures paid from the property tax is not part of the budget.

More later as the smoke settles.

Engaging students with technology

One possible reason kids are so disconnected from school is that their world is changing far faster than our world... at least as far as "school" is concerned.

Here is a thoughtful blog post about how the technological world of the teenager is far more diverse and integrated than the type of assignments we give in schools.

Blog post here.

It's not on the test...

I have appreciated the comments on the previous blog post regarding how to motivate and engage students. With that in mind, I thought you might enjoy this tongue-in-cheek song.

Here is a link to a song and lyrics titled, "It's not on the test!"

Link courtesy of Principal Jeff Neumann

So...what should we do?

A commenter on the last post regarding the Indy Star series on truancy, made the comment that schools should do more to motivate students.

What should we do? I am asking sincerely with no pretenses here. Describe for us a compelling vision of inspiring and motivating teaching within the context of the curricular restraints that teachers currently face.

Describe for us a system of schooling that will motivate most all students to perform well and stay in school till graduation.

Please be professional and tactful.

I believe that if most instructors knew what they could do tomorrow to motivate all their students to care deeply and perform their best, they would do it immediately.

Society has changed a lot in just a few decades, yet schools look pretty much they way they always have. We all have this intuitive feel that societal changes are causing students to feel less and less connected to school. We struggle to know how to respond.

So...what's your vision of a compelling and inspiring education that would motivate almost all of today's students?

Truancy

The Indianapolis Star began an 4-part series today on truancy in schools.

Editorial here.

Technology revolution continues

No more keyboards
Voice recognition software is common place
Everything is wireless
Students finally give up books for wireless Internet connected tablets
and more....

Bill gates says here that the tech revolution will not plateau.

Freedom's costs are rising

So... we fly our flags again at half-staff in honor of another senseless mass murder. This time touching our raw nerves because it took away our young people on a college campus, a place that perhaps represents a place of natural idealism and youthful hope.

The costs of freedom and liberty are not always paid by soldiers fighting for our country.

The costs of liberty are often paid by the innocent bystanders and students caught in the deadly crossfire of another free person gone haywire.

Gun control won't fix it.
More campus police won't fix it.
A locked down, prison style security system won't fix it.

Watch everyone scream out now for their favorite solution.

The only real solutions lie within each individual and their personal responsibility and their responsibility to birth and to properly raise other healthy individuals. And there are still no guarantees in a land of liberty.

Sigh....

Indiana Senate OK's shift away from property tax

The Indiana Senate has approved a bill that would shift taxes away from property and over to income.

There are positives and negatives to such a switch - but in recent years the state legislature has pushed more and more funding responsibilities to local governments making the property tax increasingly unpopular.

Fort Wayne Journal Gazette article here.

The only world they've known...

Just to give their faculty some concept of the world their college students have always known, Beloit College has for many years provided a list of facts about their students.

Here is the only world the College Class of 2010 has known.

Beloit College's Mindset List for the Class of 2010

The Soviet Union has never existed and therefore is about as scary as the student union.
They have known only two presidents.
They have grown up getting lost in "big boxes." (Walmart)
There has always been only one Germany.
They have never heard anyone actually "ring it up" on a cash register.
They are wireless, yet always connected.
Thanks to pervasive headphones in the back seat, parents have always been able to speak freely in the front.
A coffee has always taken longer to make than a milkshake.
DNA fingerprinting has always been admissible evidence in court.
They grew up pushing their own miniature shopping carts in the supermarket.
They grew up with and have outgrown faxing as a means of communication.
"Google" has always been a verb.
Text messaging is their email.
Mr. Rogers, not Walter Cronkite, has always been the most trusted man in America.
Bar codes have always been on everything, from library cards and snail mail to retail items.
Madden has always been a game, not a Superbowl-winning coach.
There has never been a "skyhook" in the NBA.
Carbon copies are oddities found in their grandparents' attics.
Computerized player pianos have always been tinkling in the lobby.
Non-denominational mega-churches have always been the fastest growing religious organizations in the U.S.
They grew up in mini-vans.
Reality shows have always been on television.
Young women's fashions have never been concerned with where the waist is.
They have rarely mailed anything using a stamp.
Brides have always worn white for a first, second, or third wedding.
Being techno-savvy has always been inversely proportional to age.
"So" as in "Sooooo New York," has always been a drawn-out adjective modifying a proper noun, which in turn modifies something else
Affluent troubled teens in Southern California have always been the subjects of television series.
They have always been able to watch wars and revolutions live on television.
Green tea has always been marketed for health purposes.
Small white holiday lights have always been in style.
Most of them never had the chance to eat bad airline food.
They have always been searching for "Waldo."
The really rich have regularly expressed exuberance with outlandish birthday parties.
Michael Moore has always been showing up uninvited.
They never played the game of state license plates in the car.
They have always preferred going out in groups as opposed to dating.
There have always been live organ donors.
They have always had access to their own credit cards.
They have never put their money in a "Savings & Loan."
Bad behavior has always been getting captured on amateur videos.
Beach volleyball has always been a recognized sport.
Acura, Lexus, and Infiniti have always been luxury cars of choice.
Television stations have never concluded the broadcast day with the national anthem.
LoJack transmitters have always been finding lost cars.
Diane Sawyer has always been live in Prime Time.
Dolphin-free canned tuna has always been on sale.
Disposable contact lenses have always been available.
They have always "dissed" what they don't like.
The U.S. has always been studying global warming to confirm its existence.
They grew up with virtual pets to feed, water, and play games with, lest they die.
Professional athletes have always competed in the Olympics.

Is anyone surprised by this?

Here's an online article saying that good quality daycare results in higher vocabulary skills for students than lower quality daycare.

It also goes on to say that students who were in daycare were reported to have a higher percentage of reported behavior problems than those who were not in daycare.

I guess its good to know that parents are not obsolete!

Kill Bills, Shill for Bills, or maybe you've had your Fill of Bills

Some people hate legislative gridlock when political parties are split in the state and federal legislatures. Their complaint is that nothing gets done. Others breathe a huge sigh of relief and say, "Whew - at least if there is gridlock they will kill each other's bills. At least then they can't screw it up any worse than it is!"

No matter what your position is on political gridlock, this is your monthly reminder to keep track of what your Indiana General Assembly is up to. Here is the complete list of bills still alive in the Indiana General Assembly. The bills listed in gray have already been dropped. (Gridlock at its finest.)

The bolder type lists bills that are still alive.

Remember to put your zip code in the little red, white and blue box on the Wawascene sidebar and click "GO." You will be prompted for your address and then your personal legislator's email address will pop up. You will be able to give your representative your personal opinion on one of those bills. (Tip #1: Once you fill out the address form, you shouldn't have to fill it out again the next time you want to send them an email. Tip #2: After you send them a message, you will be given an option of providing 6 friend's email addresses so you can let them know what you sent to your legislator.)

Doc Stock's rule for the day is, "If you haven't sent your legislator an email about something this session, then you are hereby forbidden to complain about a political issue until you do!" So there! :-)

I have made it as easy as click click click.

Doc Stock's short list of education related bills of interest:

SB 0567: Full Day Kindergarten
HB 1304: Requires state to tell teachers what standards are to be tested (imagine that!)
SB 0262: Public School Choice
HB 1581: Allows schools to use 3 full days for professional training instead of only 6 half days

NCLB losing steam?

Are conservative Republicans starting to abandon the president in his support for NCLB? Some seem to think so.

Remember when conservatives used to be the party advocating for a limited federal government? I know - it's been awhile - but in the not so distant past - that is what conservatives supposedly stood for. But when Teddy Kennedy and George Bush found themselves mysteriously aligned behind NCLB, you knew we were about to see the biggest federal intrusion into education seen to date.

Are conservatives heading back to their roots - at least on educational issues?

Article here.

NCLB target out of reach?

The Washington Post discusses the federal debates over NCLB targets.

"There is a zero percent chance that we will ever reach a 100 percent target," said Robert L. Linn, co-director of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing at UCLA. "But because the title of the law is so rhetorically brilliant, politicians are afraid to change this completely unrealistic standard. They don't want to be accused of leaving some children behind."

Editorials for Today

Here is the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette's editorial on charter schools and charter school funding.

Meanwhile the Star's voice on public education, RiShawn Biddle, teed off on ISTA and all the other educational lobbying groups again. (Note: this is a re post from 2006)

More interesting than RiShawn's daily rant are a few of the comments that explain the figures tossed around in his blog.

School Funding Dilemma

The Indy Star yesterday posted this editorial regarding the Democrats' plan for education funding.

The solutions are not simple. Even with increases in the last few years, growing suburban schools are hurting because their student populations are growing faster than their revenue is growing. On the other hand, declining enrollment schools struggle with declining revenue under the school funding plan the Republicans put through in recent years.

Hence, you see in the Star article that rural districts could receive $500 extra per student in the proposed plan. This is because economies of scale work against small districts.

Here are the comments from readers at the Star.

As you can see, there are also a variety of opinions on charter schools.