#FutureReady starts with Metanoia: doing life together in the journey to change one’s mind

Metanoia: What it really means to be #futureready

Every morning Anastasis Academy students start with a mile walk. Together. We don’t walk by class, or by age. We walk together in community. Sometimes (when the weather is nicer) whole families join us, dogs included. It is a great way to start off the day. Directly following the walk, our students come together for a morning meeting. We call it “Metanoia” which is an ancient Greek word meaning: the journey to change one’s mind. Again, we do this as a community, not separated by age, grade, or class. They all sit together. Sometimes we bring in guest speakers, sometimes we watch a video together, and sometimes different staff members lead Metanoia. We share stories and take time to do life together. We do a lot of awesome things at Anastasis, but the Metanoia time together in the morning is among the most awesome.

The Metanoia tends to be tied up with the current inquiry block. This block, our students have been intentional about being thankful. Having an attitude of gratitude every day as part of our How We Express Ourselves inquiry block. Early in the week, we had @thewesroberts as our guest speaker. He gave each student a quarter and challenged them to multiply it and then give it away. Wes talked to the kids about the power they have to make an impact on each other’s lives and on our community. Incidentally as Wes was talking to our students, one of my friends lost their house and dogs in a fire. Devastating. I mentioned this to some of the Anastasis staff and before I knew it, our students had determined that they were going to multiply the quarters they were given to help my friend. Wow.

Today during Metanoia, @lancefinkbeiner called up students to the front one at a time and then asked the other students to say something that they appreciated about the student at the front. As a community, our kids told each other why they matter. This was a neat exercise, but what made it extra special was the way that kids of all ages gave input. They know each other. It matters not if they are the same age, or if they are in the same class. They know each other well enough that they can speak to what they appreciate about in each other. The love and grace that they offered each other through their comments was outstanding. “I like the way that you are friends with everyone.” “You are so creative!” “You include people.” “You have a great heart.” “You are really funny.” It was seriously so much awesome. Every student got to hear what others appreciated about them. Happiness.

So much of the time when we talk about education we focus on policy, politics, technology integration, curriculum. I’m learning that the most important thing is often the one that no one talks about. Community. Doing life together. Our kids are really good at thinking deeply, they are creative and innovative, they are incredibly articulate, they are confident, they are smart. I’m convinced that none of this would look the way that it does if we hadn’t been so intentional about building up our community. When kids feel supported by others; when they know that kids who are older and younger than they are care about them; when they can be vulnerable together, this is what leads to all of the rest being possible.

Many of my friends have been having discussions about #FutureReady. I think #FutureReady starts with Metanoia, doing life together in the journey to change one’s mind.

 

Want to see first hand what makes Anastasis such an awesome place to learn? Join us for 5 Sigma in February!

Our Little Earth: Global News for World Citizens

iLearn Technology- Our Little Earth international newspaper for kids

What it is: Our Little Earth is a great international online newspaper for kids.  It is delivered every two weeks directly to email and best of all, it is free!  Past editions of Our Little Earth can be found on the site for students to read and explore.  Each issue helps students stay informed about what current events are happening in the world around them.  Every edition has a map showing students where the news came from for the issue.  The articles are easy for students to read and do a great job of offering enough background information so that students can make connections to the text and better understand it.

How to integrate Our Little Earth into your classroom: I really like Our Little Earth kids news, it is simple in its delivery, but packs a substantial punch of great information.  This is a fantastic source for students to read just-in-time, non-fiction text, at a level that is accessible to them.  Subscribe to Our Little Earth and read through a story-a-day for the weeks following.  Make sure to model for kids how to explore the themes, politics, geography and history that is related in each article.  This is also a great starting point for kids to fact check, make connections, and confirm the reliability of a source.  The news is current, so there is always something fresh!

I love using current news with students, it keeps the classroom relevant and touches enough transdisciplinary themes that students can make connections to other reading and learning they are doing.  Combine Our Little Earth with @angelamaiers What Breaks Your Heart project.  As students are more informed, they will be able to better articulate things about the world they would like to be a part of changing.

Use Google Earth to help students learn geography at the same time.  Create a pin on the map for each story read.  Ask students to come up with a title for each story (or use the title provided) to help them remember what they read about that location. Add to the same Google Earth map all year-long so that students can begin to see common themes by geography.

Tips: Use the search feature to help students dig even deeper into events and themes.  What happened a year ago at this time?

What do you think of Our Little Earth?  How do you plan to use it in your classroom?

Soo Meta: Digital Storytelling Tool

What it is: Soo Meta is an awesome new site that lets students build mixed media stories.  Students can use this storytelling tool to collect, sort, edit and publish web content easily.

There are two options for login, with name/email/password or through Facebook.  For students who don’t have their own email accounts, you can have them login using a temporary inbox like Tempinbox (just type in a word or words followed by @tempinbox.com and you are in business!).

After students have logged in, they will be asked to enter a title for their new story.  Then, they can search for videos, pictures, sounds and text or copy and paste their links into a new story.  Videos can be trimmed and edited, pictures resized and text edited.

Soo Meta is incredibly simple to use.  Just search the web, choose content to remix and off you go!  You can also simply drag and drop content from your computers desktop to create something new.

When finished, just publish the story and you can share it via link on Facebook or Twitter or you can embed the story like I did above.  (I literally spent a grand total of 2 min creating this story!)

How to integrate Soo Meta into the classroom: Soo Meta is a fantastic online tool for digital storytelling. It makes the process incredibly easy and the possibilities are limited only to your student’s imagination.

With Soo Meta, students can compile research on any topic or subject and create their own digital “textbook” of the learning to share with other classmates or students around the world.  I love that Soo Meta combines the research component with the creation piece.  So often students want to skip right to creation…with Soo Meta the two are so interdependent, it would be impossible to do one without the other!

Teachers can use Soo Meta to create learning stories for their students.  Pull together various videos, pictures and articles and mash them up for your students.  Embed finished video stories on a classroom website or blog.

Older students can create interactive video stories for younger “buddy” students.  They can solidify their own learning of history, math, science, geography, etc. by putting together learning opportunities for younger students.

The storytelling aspect of Soo Meta is fantastic!  Students can do story re-tells, current event mashups, historical documentaries, political commentary, science discoveries, etc.

Tips: Don’t be discouraged if your students are too young to create their own Soo Meta stories, create your own mashups for them to enjoy!

I’ve been nominated for a Bammy Award for Educational Blogger.  I’d appreciate your vote to help spread the word about iLearn Technology.  Vote here.  Thank you for your continued support!!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using  Soo Meta in your classroom.

512 Paths to the White House Interactive Infographic for the Election #election2012

What it is: Tomorrow is Election day!  I couldn’t be more excited to see an end to the obnoxious political ads. Living in a swing state means that EVERY commercial I see is a political ad. At this point, all I have been convinced of is that the world may in fact be ending…the choices here are dire. One thing I am now passionate about: campaign reform. I digress.

512 Paths to the White House is a super cool interactive feature on the New York Times website.  Students can test out selecting a winner for the swing states and see the paths to victory available to either candidate.  Students can also mouse over the infographic and see what happens in the breakdown of each option.  According to the infographic, there are 5 paths to a tie.

How to integrate 512 Paths to the White House into the classroom: This really is a cool infographic to explore before the election.  Students can explore this infographic on classroom computers as an Election Day discovery center, as a class on an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer, or individually on computers.

This site makes a wonderful opening to discussion about the electoral college, the election process for the US, and why the swing states determine the outcome of the election.  At the bottom of the page, there are some specific scenarios for students to explore.  These scenarios also open up great conversations about economies in different states, beliefs of each party, political advertising, liberal vs. conservative states, etc.

In the secondary math class, students can explore probability, statistics and unpack the data offered here.  It is pretty interesting to see the paths each candidate has to winning based on who wins each battleground state.

Tips: Follow up on Wednesday, November 7th with how accurate the 512 Paths to the White House was.  Students can use this tool as they watch the election to predict who the winner will be.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using  512 Paths to the White House in your classroom.

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Virsona

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What it is: Have you ever wondered what it would be like to sit down and talk to Albert Einstein, George Washington, or Susan B. Anthony?  Wonder no more, with Virsona, your students have the opportunity to do just that!   Virsona is an interesting tool that lets students create a virtual character of themselves (or a virtual literary character).  Students answer a variety of questions about themselves (or another character).  They can create automatically generated responses, greetings, and choose a personality for their virtual selves.  After they have created their virtual persona, they can share the link to their virtual self.  Anyone can ask their virtual self questions (via chat) and responses are automatically generated based on the answers that were given.  Virsona has some excellent built in historical, political, and literary characters that students can interact with..  Students can chat with a virtual George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Henry Ford, Pocahontas, Babe Ruth, Susan B. Anthony, and more.  Students choose the persona to chat with, asking them questions about their stance on politics, entertainment, beliefs, and more.  It is very cool!  Try chatting with Abraham Lincoln here.

How to integrate Virsona into the classroom: Virsona can be used to connect students to historical characters.  Students can “chat” with the historical character asking questions about their life, beliefs, politics, and more.   Put your students on assignment as news reporters.  Ask them to “sit down” with the historical character and interview them, taking notes about the answers they are given.  Students can then fact check the interview, using primary sources, text books, and encyclopedia articles.  Students can then write a newspaper article, a character sketch, or create a fake video interview using a tool like Xtranormal. Virsona is a tool that will connect your students to historical figures and learning in a way that wasn’t before possible.  I have yet to meet  a student who doesn’t love to chat.  Put those chatting skills to good use by having them chat with historical figures.

If you teach in the elementary classroom, use Virsona as a whole class.  Have students brainstorm questions they would like to ask the historical figure.  As a class, chat with the VIP using an interactive whiteboard or projector.

For students over 13, Virsona can be used as a way to create an in-depth character sketch on a historical or literary figure.  Students will have to really research the character in order to create a Virsona virtual persona.  Students can answer questions as the literary or historical figure would have.  As a culminating activity, students can visit each other’s Virsona’s to learn about other historical or literary figures.

Can’t find a character that you want your students to chat with?  Why not create the character yourself?  In one of our fifth grade classrooms, we have an invisible ninja who can see everything the kids do.  The invisible ninja is an enigma that the students often want to know more about.  It would be fun to take these fictional characters and let students chat with them virtually.  Sometimes younger classrooms have “desk fairies” that leave treats randomly for clean desks.  Enter into a spirit of play with your students and create a virtual version of these classroom characters.

Tips: To sign up to create a virtual character, student have to supply an email address, first and last name.  To create a virtual character, students must be 13 or older.  Students under 13 can still use Virsona to chat with pre-created characters without signing into the website.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Virsona in your classroom.

Big Ideas for Education

What it is:   Big Ideas for Education is part of the Landmark Project created by David Warlick.  The purpose of the site is to collect “priority actions that might be taken by a new Department of Education that would promote shifts in education that are relevant to today’s students and their future.”  After ideas have been collected, the submitted statements will be linked according to topic to pare down all ideas into no more than 20 basic action statements.  The final action statements will be posted on Big Ideas for Education for educators to share insights about their favorite statements.  You will be able to order the action statements in order of importance to you.  

Head over to Big Ideas for Education and share your big idea.  It only takes a minute; but if we educators come together and start discussing some of these great ideas, we will start seeing a shift in education.

My big idea is to:  Shift teaching away from teacher as lecturer toward constructivism where students are constructing their own knowledge. (id 158)  Technology and 21st century learning skills naturally flow into the constructivist approach to teaching and learning.  Using technology within the context of the traditional classroom is always going to feel like you are trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, it doesn’t flow naturally.  Make sure to copy and paste your big idea into the comment section here…we want to know what your big ideas are!

EdWeek Maps Website

 

 

What it is: I heard about EdWeek Maps Website just after writing my post “Up On My Soap Box”.  The Editorial Projects in Education Research Center (that is a mouth full!) launched a feature of its EdWeeek Maps Website that allows you to access and download a detailed report and map on high school graduation rates for every school district in the United States.  You can look at individual districts, their graduation rates and trends, and compare it with state and national figures.  It is VERY interesting to browse.

 

How to integrate EdWeeks Maps Website into the classroom: This may be a good site to share with students starting in middle school.  Open up for discussion why students think the graduation rates are what they are.  Take the opportunity to show your students how important education is and more importantly how critical it is that they learn to learn.  If our students can be life long learners we have reached our goal!  

 

Tips: Share this site with fellow teachers, administrators, community members.  Lets come up with a way, together that we can change education so that we live in a community where education is valued.  

 

Leave a comment and share how you are using EdWeek Maps in your classroom.

Up On My Soapbox

I don’t know if it is because the Democratic National Convention is in Denver, or the candidates demand more attention, or there is more media coverage than usual, or just because I am getting to an age where I am more interested; but this election year I am following everything more closely and digging a little deeper into the different issues.  One of the hot topic issues for me is education.  I have to say, I’m not really compelled by either candidates “plan.”  On the surface the plans sound really good.  Higher pay for teachers= Good.   Merit pay for educators who are going above and beyond= Good.  Education that makes our students global competitors= Good.  Education with a focus on 21st century skills= Good.  High quality education for all= Good.   More money toward education= Good.   My problem comes in how this is actually going to play out.  Simply throwing more money at the education system is not EVER going to solve the problem.  I work in one of the wealthiest counties in the United States.  Our schools have money, technology, great teachers, etc.  And yet, only about 80% of students are graduating high school.  Granted this is significantly higher than the country’s average, but even with all of the advantages that money brings, it still isn’t 100%.

Paying teachers more is a FABULOUS idea and one that I hope moves forward, but just because a teacher is paid more does not mean that education will get better.  Merit pay is a wonderful idea in theory, but HOW do we decide who deserves merit pay, a test, a popularity contest?  Does the government know what a good teacher I am or how invested I am in my students success (I know that this will be delegated to people who may know but really, my own colleagues don’t know what a good teacher I am.  They have no idea that I attend online conferences, conversations, and research.  They have no idea that I update a blog daily giving teachers ideas for integrating technology in their classroom.  They have no idea that I interact with teachers all over the world on a daily basis to learn how to be a better teacher.)  And again, just because I am making more money does not necessarily mean that I am educating students better than I did last week. I am obviously a HUGE fan of 21st century learning and teaching and believe that it is a necessity, but I am not naive enough to think that just because I am teaching 21st century skills that it is going to change the education of America’s children.  There are a host of reasons that kids come to school not ready to learn.  Just because we are teaching the latest and greatest doesn’t mean that our students are ready to soak it all in.

A few weeks ago I was hit with an overwhelming sense that education is so much more than what happens inside the classroom and school.  Kids aren’t coming to school prepared to learn.  They have needs that have to be met before they can take in anything we have to give them (no matter how shiny, new, and expensive it is).  If a child isn’t getting a good breakfast before school they aren’t focused on learning, they are focused on a hungry tummy.  I have had students in my classroom who were being abused.  A child with a cigarette burn on their arm is not concerned about the phonics lesson of the day, no matter how compelling it is.  Kids who are made the “parent” in their home and are put in charge of all their brothers and sisters are thinking about that, not your wonderful math lesson.  When a family member is dying of cancer students aren’t focused on the science lesson.  There are a lot of factors outside the school that put a stress on education.  None of them can be addressed by the school system alone.  Then their are kids growing up in families and communities where education isn’t valued.  This isn’t just happening in inner city schools where kids are practically raising themselves.  I have students who tell me on a daily basis that no one in their family reads…not even a newspaper.  I believe them.  Kids who grow up in a community where education isn’t valued have no reason to succeed and continue their education.  They don’t connect success in life with education and the ability to be a life long learner.   I realized that whenever we hear a success story of a kid who beat all the odds, was the first to graduate high school; made it out of the slums, they always say the same thing…”my mom (grandma, aunt, uncle, dad, grandpa) told me that education was the most important thing.”  Someone in their lives instilled in them the value of education.  We have a large portion of the population who doesn’t value education.  In the wealthier communities it may be because they place more value on the sports and activities that kids are involved in.  In the poorer communities it may be because the parents didn’t get an education that they felt was of value in their lives.

A test is never going to improve education on its own.  Students don’t need to learn to memorize random facts and regurgitate them on a state mandated test.  All that a test shows is superior short term memory.  We live in an age where any information you could ever need to know is at your finger tips all the time.  Any child will tell you “I can just Google it”.  They are right.  Memorization is not necessarily a prized skill any more.  Kids need to learn how to search out information, how to evaluate, how to communicate, how to solve problems, how to think critically, how to work creatively.   Teaching has to be relevant to students or they aren’t going pay attention.  What good is education that doesn’t involve?  Technology opens many of these doors to students but what good is all the technology in the world if we don’t have educators who know how to use it?    Technology is changing daily at an ever increasing rate.  How can we expect educators to teach with technology if we aren’t offering continuous training, state of the art tech support, and the infrastructure to allow it all to happen? Kids need education that is relevant to the world they are living in.  A test, by the way, is NOT relevant.  Kids have enough factors pulling them away from learning, we don’t need to help the situation by making education irrelevant.  The problem is that schools are run by tests.

No Child Left Behind makes me absolutely crazy.  When you listen to the concept it is great, the problem is that it doesn’t play out realistically in schools.  So, all this to say that no matter how good the words sound, education is not going to be an easy fix.  Ever.  I’m not sure that the government can really change the education system.  Communities need to get involved, let kids know how important education is. Families need to come together and support each other in all of their struggles.  Schools need to decide that teachers are going to be provided ongoing education that is relevant to the current global climate.  Teachers need to create lessons that are engaging and teach kids how to learn.   Education is something that everyone has to be “in” on.  Schools can’t do it alone.  Teachers can’t do it alone.  The government can’t do it alone.  It is going to take everyone working together with a common goal to fix this problem.

I recently heard of a local program that I LOVE and must learn more about.  The idea behind the program is to take kids who don’t have wonderful educations, because of all the reasons listed above, and to house them, commune with them, teach them how valuable education is, provide them with a state of the art education, and mentor them.  The students in this program go back to be leaders in their communities.  They take what they have learned and bring it back to their community.  I love the idea of making kids leaders in their communities.  It is programs like this one that are going to change education.  (I will post more about this program for those who are interested).

One last thought:  I was recently getting my hair cut (on the cheap because I’m a teacher).  The gal that was cutting my hair was about 25-30 and carried on a very lively conversation with me while she chopped away.  I was stunned at the lack of grammar, vocabulary, and common sense.  She was telling me about her cheating on-again-off-again boyfriend.  He sounded like a miserable person to have in her life and she seemed to know that he was poison in her life.  But two sentences later she said “I want to have his baby.”  What?  Wait, I just sat through 30 min. of this woman telling me what scum this guy was and she wanted to have his baby.  I asked her why.  I thought maybe she would tell me something like “well maybe if I have his baby he will settle down and want to marry me.”  I couldn’t have been more wrong.  What she told me was, “I really, really want a baby.  My friend just had one and it is so cute.”  Absolutely no thought to how difficult it would be to raise a child making minimum wage, without a father, without a support system, etc.  To me this is common sense.  As I was listening to this woman I couldn’t help but think that if she did have a child, it would most likely end up in the same cycle she was in.  She complained to me while I sat there, about how she was always going to be poor, how she hated school, and how bad her current situation is.  She has no idea that she could change the whole course of her life if she would continue in education.  Heck, I am pretty convinced that if she could learn to speak using proper grammar and better vocabulary she could get anywhere she wanted in life. (Please understand, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this woman wanting to cut hair forever, that is a nobel goal if it is her goal…but she is always going to be frustrated with men, feeling like there is nothing she can do to better herself.)  I think that 90% of my success in life has come in the ability to speak intelligently…I could fool a lot of people into thinking that I am more intelligent than I actually am.  (You may disagree as I write this at 11:30 pm after a full day of teaching AND back to school night *smile*).  My point is, no one told this girl that she didn’t have to stay with this course of life.  She has the ability to do whatever she wants in life but she has to be willing to learn.  I think we live in an age where a degree isn’t as important as the ability to think critically and a willingness to learn.  I don’t have a degree in educational technology, instructional technology, or technology at all.  My degree is in elementary education.  I found my passion and make an effort to learn all I can each day.  Somehow we need to get the word out to kids and families everywhere, education is important and does make a difference.

Hopping down off of my soap box to get 7 hours of sleep so I can teach again tomorrow 🙂  What are your thoughts?