Top Five Wishes for Education in 2011

As the year ends and we move into the second decade of the 21st century, here are some of my wishes for education in the New Year:

1.  The end of black/white boards!!  Smart Boards in every classroom!
2.   No more desks in 21st century classrooms.  Desks are rigid and confining...not what education is    about today!
3.  Access to 1:1 computing for all students....the power to consume, create, collaborate and share can only help student learning soar!
4. Fewer books and paper.....digital content is here folks!!
5. The prohibition of cell phones and other devices in the classroom....let's embrace what the students hold dear!

More to come........the biggie is how to pay for some of the above in these dire times.  Stay tuned and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Can You Sandbag a Tsunami?

           In this case, the tsunami is technology in our lives, especially in the lives of our students.  It is as huge and daunting as a tsunami, and we cannot fight it with continued attempts to ban it or see it as something “added on” to our already full plates as educators.  There needs to be a balance struck.  There’s a word-balance!  It always makes its way into educational discussions.  “Balanced literacy”-where we sort of arrived in terms of literacy instruction after years of reliance on either whole-language or phonics, for example.  It is not a new concept in dally life as many seek a sense of balance in a hectic world.  The Greeks first spoke of balance or moderation in their lives centuries ago.

            And so it goes with technology.  There is no way even the greatest, most vigilant parents are going to take it away from the kids, much less us as educators.  Maybe another 21^st century skill needs to be taught amongst all the other skills we teach and that will be how to balance ourselves.  Research is proving that heavy usage of technology impacts behavior and the brain.  Our brains need downtime to synthesize and make connections…to really learn.  The adolescent brain is still in a critical stage of development and the overuse of technology is not necessarily a positive thing.

            So let’s help our kids think this one through.  Use the research to show kids what is happening and embrace technology as a wonderful, productive tool to be used for learning and entertainment, but in balance in our lives. There is no sandbagging a tsunami!!!

Gender and Education

This past Tuesday night, we had a lively discussion in the graduate class I am teaching about gender issues in the curriculum.  Our reading assignment had centered around girls and the bias against females, especially in the "hidden curriculum".  The next morning I picked up the Charlotte Observer and on the editorial page was a column about the effects of underachieving boys!  We really did not address that last night but it is a very big concern and ties in well to all that we have been talking about in reforming curriculum and making teaching and learning more relevant and engaging for everyone.  Boys are more likely than girls to have poor grades, be learning disabled, be held back a grade, be suspended or expelled, have a negative attitude toward school and ultimately dropout at higher numbers.  We also know that over the past few years, that women outnumber men 4 to 3 in college.  The current generation is the first in which women are more educated than their male counterparts.  This leads to a myriad of other problems that affect our economy and society as a whole.  Again, what are we doing with curriculum and instruction to ensure that EVERYONE gets a  rigorous, relevant engaging education enabling them to excel and be successful in life?

Globalization and Education

Again I am reading Tom Friedman...you know, "The World is Flat" author, NY Times columnist and forward thinker.  In his editorial November 2nd he tells how India is coming up with load of technological innovations most of which are able to be accessed on the cheapest of cell phones.  For instance, apparently a couple of brothers wrote a software program which turned into a virtual bank which can be accessed by the poor migrant workers who are absent from their families and need to send money back home.  And Nepal now has made 3G network service available on the top of Mt. Everest!!  Friedman thinks we need to get "hyped" about all this....that "they" (India, China, et al) have low-cost technological solutions to about every problem...that the cheapest cell phone becomes a "digital bank".
The link to education for us??  Well, we don't even allow students to have cell phones in schools much less use them as learning, productive, innovative tools!!!   I know, I know, I was  principal for a long time and we must have rules and procedures....I get that.  BUT, we need to figure out how to use the technology and have procedures in place to protect students and maintain order in the schools.  There is a way, we just are not accustomed to thinking outside the box and collaborating (maybe even with the students, God forbid), to come up with solutions to make us competitive and keep up in this era of globalization.

About the children

My view of my retirement is that it is a new chapter of my career which I am looking forward to with great excitement.  Whatever the reason for leaving a job, it always causes one to start to reflect and look back on what has been.  As I was packing my things, I carefully took down a small "Scherenschnitte" which is a German scissor-cut much like a silhouette, of some children prancing along in a line.  I was reminded that it was given to me by my colleagues when I left the school where I taught before I went on to be a principal.  I remember them telling me not to forget that it is always "about the children".  Looking back I think that was some great advice and I would like to think that I have always remembered that it IS about the children.  So simple, yet so profoundly important!!

Musings

Why is education "dangerously irrelevant"????  This is worrisome to someone who spent 38 years serving in public education.  There is such an urgency to change and such a resistance to it on our part.  Tom Friedman had a great column in NY Times yesterday.  He speaks of the revolution that has occurred in the rest or the world who want so desperately what we have while "...the U.S. seems sadly unprepared to take advantage of the revolution it has spawned. The country’s worn-out infrastructure, failing education system and lack of political consensus have prevented it from riding a new wave to prosperity.”   Ouch.   (October 31, 2010, New York Times).
This is a new blog for me and I hope to provoke some conversation and thinking about how we can help advance 21st century teaching, learning and thinking.  The video below gives us something to think about:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U